The Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) appointed John Twitty, who has been in the industry for nearly four decades, as its next general manager and chief executive officer.
The MPUA’s board of directors announced the appointment on Thursday although he will not take over the position until Aug. 1. Duncan Kincheloe will retire in August after serving as MPUA’s president and CEO for 21 years.
“It’s a great privilege to be chosen to lead the Missouri Public Utility Alliance, which for 20 years now has advocated for consumer-owned municipal utilities and the 1.4 million citizen-owners they serve,” Twitty said.
A former senior vice president of solar development for Gardner Capital, Twitty is the executive director of the Transmission Access Study Group, a national advocacy group of transmission-dependent electric utilities across the country. He is also the former general manager and CEO of City Utilities of Springfield.
In an interview with The Missouri Times, Twitty said he plans to build upon the work the alliance has already done — from continuing the training it offers to providing essential services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a really vital organization,” Twitty, the former chair of the Missouri State Lottery Commission, said.
He also predicted a smooth transition and praised Kincheloe for having “done a marvelous job leading the organization for a couple of decades.”
“John Twitty will be a top-notch leader for MPUA,” Kincheloe said in a statement. “Our member communities are getting wisdom, perfect experience, and sterling credentials from a longtime friend right here in Missouri.”
“I believe you would be hard-pressed to find two people who exemplify excellence, leadership, and advocacy for public power both within the state of Missouri and on a national level more than Duncan Kincheloe and John Twitty,” Chuck Bryant, the MPUA search committee chair and general manager of Carthage Water and Electric Plant. “For MPUA to follow up Duncan Kincheloe’s 20-plus years of leadership with another proven leader in John Twitty presents an unbelievable opportunity for continued success and advancement for the public power needs of every municipal system in the state of Missouri.”
In addition to his other work, Twitty serves on the boards of directors for the Central Bank of the Ozarks and Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield.
MPUA represents more than 120 community-owned electric, natural gas, wastewater, drinking water, and broadband utilities in Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, and Nebraska. The alliance also advocates on behalf of its members in the Capitol.
Kaitlyn Schallhorn was the editor in chief of The Missouri Times from 2020-2022. She joined the newspaper in early 2019 after working as a reporter for Fox News in New York City.
Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has covered political campaigns across the U.S., including the 2016 presidential election, and humanitarian aid efforts in Africa and the Middle East.
She is a native of Missouri who studied journalism at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She is also an alumna of the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
Contact Kaitlyn at kaitlyn@themissouritimes.com.
