John C. Lee, Jr., president and CEO of Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative (MEC), has been elected to serve as Vice President of the board of directors of the National Cooperative Services Corporation (NCSC). NCSC held its annual meeting on June 12, 2018, in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Lee was elected by his fellow directors to serve as a board officer in the position of Vice President in the board’s organizational meeting that followed the finance cooperative’s annual meeting. Lee previously served as a board officer in the position of Secretary-Treasurer.
Lee is serving his third three-year term on the Board of the Dulles, Virginia-based utility finance corporation and was re-elected to the Board last year by a vote of the membership of 430 electric cooperatives across the nation to represent District 1. District 1 encompasses the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia and includes the District of Columbia.
“I am honored to have been elected to this position and am pleased my fellow directors have confidence in my leadership skills. NCSC is a highly effective lending institution that brings considerable value to electric cooperatives across the nation. We have maintained a very sturdy fiscal position that will allow NCSC to continue offering competitive financing opportunities to those it serves, now and into the future,” stated Lee.
He added, “Our loan portfolio has grown by over $120 million this past year with sound transactions…secured and executed only after rigorous review to identify and mitigate risk. Accordingly, NCSC is financially strong, well-grounded but appropriately agile and, I believe, properly suited and well-equipped for future success.”
NCSC is a privately funded, member-owned cooperative that began operation in 1981 to provide specialized financing services to utilities. Its portfolio includes in excess of $791 million in outstanding loans to cooperatives, cooperative subsidiaries, and investor-owned utilities. The organization has assisted cooperatives in expanding their reach through loans for telecommunications, non-electric products, and economic development by providing competitive financing.
Providing loans for economic and business development through its associate loan program is another way NCSC helps its members become more competitive. These loans provide the means for electric cooperatives, through their subsidiary organizations, to offer non-electric services to their members and invest in local community projects.
NCSC has funded many types of projects through the associate loan program, including community development, water/wastewater projects, and propane services. The organization is governed by a 10-member board of directors, democratically elected and representing five geographic districts that span and cover the nation.