South Carolina CEO Named CFC Board President

David Felkel began his electric cooperative career in the summer of 1981 when he took a part-time job at Edisto Electric Cooperative in Bamberg, South Carolina. It was an opportunity to earn some gas money and search for his calling. While he was working part-time, an apprentice lineman position opened, and he soon realized that becoming an apprentice lineman was a great way to learn, add an apprenticeship to his resume and get healthcare insurance. 

This was the beginning of Felkel’s 42-year career. After 10 years as a lineman, he was asked to consider becoming the cooperative’s accounts payable clerk. While in this new role, and later as Edisto’s bookkeeper, computer technology advanced quickly, providing him the opportunity to learn new systems and software.  

“I’ve never let something get the best of me,” Felkel said when discussing how the first computer network was installed at the cooperative. “The challenge is when I come in every day, I learn something new. When you quit learning, you quit working. So I got heavily involved with the co-op’s operation.”

His job responsibilities grew along with his new computer capabilities as the co-op added billing and payroll services. He soon became the vice president of finance and office administration. He served in that role for almost five years before becoming the cooperative’s president and CEO in April 1997 following the retirement of the previous CEO, who served for 32 years. 

Felkel is now the cooperative’s current longest-serving employee and resident historian. He regularly shares his perspective and history with staff, telling how the cooperative arrived in its current situation. Felkel believes, “It’s important to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going.”

He attributes his long tenure at Edisto to its culture that feels more like a family. He’s been fortunate that employee retirements provided him the opportunity to take on new roles and responsibilities. Employees tend to stay until they retire at the cooperative. 

While Edisto’s staff has not changed much over the years, the pace of change within the electric industry over the last five to 10 years has provided opportunities for rural electric cooperatives to take advantage of technologies only larger utilities could afford years earlier.

“There’s more change now than in the last 30 years,” Felkel said. “While we may have been one of the last electric cooperatives to install SCADA at all of our substations, it now provides us more information and insight, helping us provide reliable and affordable electricity to our members.” 

While Felkel was the youngest CEO in South Carolina at the time, he was nominated and served on The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina (statewide) and Cooperative Electric Energy Utility Supply boards of trustees, including as past chair of both. He has also served on the boards for the Line Equipment Sales Company and South Carolina Electric Cooperatives Managers Association. He currently is a member of the board of trustees for Central Electric Power Cooperative, a generation and transmission cooperative.

“I was very fortunate, at a young age, to be nominated to these boards, along with a local credit union and school boards,” Felkel said. “Serving on these boards prepared me for when the opportunity arose to run for the CFC board.”  

Since joining the CFC board, he found the executive search for CFC’s new CEO a very rewarding experience, especially since the selection of Andrew Don has worked out so well. 

“While it’s an uneasy time in an organization with a change in leadership, CFC has had tremendous amounts of loan volume, got the leasing and private placement programs off the ground, and is working on the consolidation of NCSC and RTFC,” he said. “CFC is also doing a wonderful job with its education and training programs as well as its conferences. It’s a credit to CFC staff and how well they do their jobs.” 

When not learning and overcoming new challenges, Felkel enjoys spending time with his grandchildren, being on the water at a nearby lake as well as being involved with his local church. 

While he has started to think about retirement so he can spend more time with his family and also travel, he shared some advice he received from a fellow retired CEO. “Never say when you’ll retire,” Felkel said. “Wait until you feel it’s time. I still have a lot more to accomplish over the next year serving CFC and its members, and a few things to finish at our cooperative.”