Dennis Chastain

Dennis Chastain
President & CEO
Georgia Electric Membership Corporation

2019 Chairman, Rural Prosperity Council
Georgia Chamber of Commerce

Dennis Chastain serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Georgia Electric Membership Corporation (Georgia EMC).  Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association that represents Georgia’s 41 electric membership cooperatives (EMCs), Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Georgia Transmission Corporation and Georgia Systems Operations Corporation in the areas of, government relations, community and economic development, public relations, communications and media relations, and training and safety education.  Georgia EMC also publishes Georgia Magazine, the largest circulation monthly magazine in Georgia.

Dennis began his electric cooperative career in 1987 when he joined Oglethorpe Power.  During his tenure with Oglethorpe Power, he held various positions within the organization including Director of Economic Development from 1996 to 2001.  In 2002, he moved to Georgia EMC where he served as Vice President and later Senior Vice President before becoming CEO in January 2016.

Dennis currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Board of Governors of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia 4-H Foundation Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors of the Georgia Corporation for Economic Development and as Chairman of the Georgia Chamber’s Rural Prosperity Council.  He is a Past President of the Georgia Economic Developers Association and a Past President of the National Rural Economic Developers Association.

A native Georgian, Dennis holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia.  He is also a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma, a graduate of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) Management Internship Program at the University of Wisconsin, and is a 1999 graduate of Leadership Georgia.

Georgia’s 41 EMCs collectively operate the state’s largest electric distribution network with more than 190,000 miles of power lines in a system that covers 73 percent of Georgia’s land area in 157 of Georgia’s 159 counties.