Charles Byrd

Bio

At-Large Trustee

Deatsville

Charles Byrd, Deatsville, has served in the position of At-Large Trustee since 2004, was elected to serve as Vice Chairman in August 2015 and was elected as Chairman in August, 2018, serving until August 2021. He earned his Credentialed Cooperative Director and Board Leadership certificates as well as the Director Gold certificate awarded from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Byrd, along with the other CAEC Trustees, serves on the only Board in the nation to be 100 percent Board member commitment at the Leadership Circle level and spouse at the President’s Club level to the nonpartisan political action committee, Action Committee for Rural Electrification (ACRE).

Byrd represents CAEC on the Board of Trustees of AREA, the statewide association for the 22 Alabama electric cooperatives.

Byrd is a graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Textile Technology. He formerly served as Plant Manager at the Frontier Yarns and Coosa River Spinning Plants, a division of Fruit of the Loom/Russell Corporation, in Wetumpka prior to the plant’s closure. Additionally, he was employed as a Stafford Act Employee (SAE) with FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security; Flowers Baking Company from 2010 through 2017 as Production Supervisor. Byrd worked as the Assembly Department Manager with KUMI Manufacturing of Alabama until his retirement in October 2020.

Byrd was a charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Wetumpka and has served as club president. He also served on the Board of Directors at River Region United Way as one of the representatives from Elmore County. Byrd is former President of Manufacture Alabama’s Textile Council and served as an appointee to the Governor’s Commission on Manufacturing Economic Stimulus and Free and Fair Trade.

He and his wife, Emma, have six children and 14 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. They are members of Fresh Rain Family Worship Center in Deatsville.