Doug Johnson, chief executive officer of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, in January received national recognition for his communication leadership. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) awarded him the 2015 J.C. Brown CEO Communication Leadership Award for a CEO who advances communication in the electric cooperative industry.

Presenting the award, NRECA’s CEO Jo Ann Emerson noted that Johnson has turned Blue Ridge Electric into one of the top co-ops in the country with strong member satisfaction through a well-planned and executed communication plan. “I commend Doug for his commitment to communication,” she said, “and his energy and willingness to take risks in the service of accountability to the co-op members.”

Emerson added that, “We can gauge the health of democratically governed co-ops by how many member-owners vote in board elections, and by this measure Blue Ridge Electric, under Doug’s leadership, is very, very healthy,” she added. Under Johnson’s leadership, the co-op saw an increase in member participation from 800 to 7,000 when it changed the election process to include mail-in and online ballots.

Blue Ridge Electric serves some 74,000 members in the northwest North Carolina counties of Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Avery, Wilkes and Alexander.