KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Valley Authority is dropping the interim tag from its chief executive and dividing the top job in two, a leadership shift at the federal power provider that supplies electricity across Tennessee.
The TVA board announced Thursday that Mike Skaggs, who has run the utility on an interim basis since April 2026, will stay on permanently as CEO. Skaggs then tapped Chief Financial Officer Tom Rice to become president, a post Rice takes on Monday, Nov. 16, while keeping his finance duties.
Under the new setup, the two roles do different work. The CEO sets strategy and advises the board on major financial moves and other decisions that need board sign-off. The president runs daily operations, carries out the strategy the board approves and reports regularly to both Skaggs and the board.
Skaggs had retired from TVA in 2022 before returning this spring to steady the agency. He brings more than four decades in the utility business, over 25 years of it at TVA, where his past jobs included chief operating officer. TVA board leader Mitch Graves credited him with calming the agency and repairing relationships with the local utilities that resell TVA power, with lawmakers, with big industrial customers and with the TVA work force.
Rice became CFO in January 2025 and has held a series of leadership posts at TVA since 2018. Skaggs said Rice will keep the utility focused on its core priorities of energy, economic development and environmental stewardship.
The announcement did not change the board itself, and TVA did not say whether other senior posts will shift under the new two-person structure.
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