The Power of Connections

families and businesses,” Brown explains. Known as “Ramsey’s Raiders” in utility circles, they worked to acquire new electric load for the benefit of the cooperative, a practice that set CREC apart from its peer cooperatives across the state. From the time he was named as general manager in 1991, Brown initiated a host of innovative programs and practices to maintain service reliability, financial stability, and competitive energy rates and services. He counts landmark territorial legislation passed by the Missouri legislature in 1993 among the cooperative’s greatest achievements during his tenure. Subsequent territorial agreements in 1992 and 2002 helped assure Cuivre River Electric would be able to continue to grow. Brown is remembered as a tireless servant of CREC members and his community over an impressive career that spanned nearly half a century. His dedication to the highest standards of member service also helped Cuivre River Electric achieve some of the highest member satisfaction scores of any electric utility in the nation. “Our scores were always in the low 90s or the high 80s, which told us that we were doing a decent job because most utilities, including co-ops, don’t earn scores that high,” he recalls. “And I’m proud that we were able to maintain that high level of satisfaction while growing and adding many more meters per year than other co-ops.” A nationwide search for Brown’s successor led to the selection of Doug Tracy as the co-op’s next CEO. Chosen from a nationwide pool of fifty candidates, Tracy is the seventh person to hold the position since the cooperative began in 1941. “We had a lot of great candidates from across the nation and we were glad to choose our next leader from the Cuivre River [Electric] family,” says Walter Gregory, CREC Board

Since becoming president and CEO at CREC, Doug Tracy’s achievements have included the construction of a new headquarters building in Troy.

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