After months of conducting a nationwide search to fill the top post of Chief Executive Officer for Peñasco Valley Telephone Cooperative, Inc., the board of directors has unanimously named James (Jim) D. Meyers of Scottsdale, AZ, to fill the post. Meyers replaces retiring CEO, Glenn Lovelace, who has served PVT for the last 16 years. Meyers will assume his duties as Chief Executive Officer on September 5, 2022.
Meyers is currently Chief Executive Officer and General Manager for Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI), in Chandler, AZ. He has successfully managed the business development and strategic initiatives for a group of six companies at GRTI and he has significantly grown the non-regulated revenue each year. Part of the successful revenue growth is due to his creation and leadership in the buildout of a large fiber optic networking company in the Phoenix and Tucson market.
Jim is an accomplished executive leader respected for 30+ years of experience in the telecommunications industry guiding business strategy and operations across multiple business sectors. He is known as a motivational and influential leader who fosters effective camaraderie and extreme production while successfully managing change and driving growth.
He and his wife, Tana, have 4 grown children and are raising their niece, Cali who will be attending Park Junior High in Artesia this fall.
Meyers earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business with a minor in Communications from Boise State University. He also earned his Master’s in Business Administration degree from Boise State University.
“We are extremely pleased with the field of well-qualified candidates that we interviewed. As the representatives of our consumer members, we have the extremely critical and important fiduciary responsibility to select the best-qualified chief executive officer for PVT; and we take that responsibility quite seriously. Jim possesses the attributes we were looking for in dedication to the cooperative principles and sound business and management practices. His strong and deep background in telecom technology will guide PVT in providing the best possible telecommunications services available to our customers and consumer members in the future,” said Dwight Menefee, Board President.
Meyers said, “I am truly humbled by the trust the board members have placed in me and honored to be given the opportunity to serve as PVT’s next CEO. I am very excited about coming to PVT and getting to know the board members, employees, and the local community. The PVT business model is something I am very familiar with and extremely comfortable working within. Working effectively in a regulated and non-regulated world simultaneously requires a lot of experience and this is what I have been doing for 30 years. It is my goal that together, we will work hard to carry on the important and critical legacy that retiring CEO, Glenn Lovelace, has devoted his career to building”. Lovelace has faithfully served PVT and PVT Networks for 16 dedicated years, and he has taken PVT into unparalleled and successful non-regulated growth while providing expanded services to the consumer members.
“I believe that telephone cooperatives such as PVT play a critical role in both economic development and improved quality of life in rural America by providing vital communications services. My family and I are extremely proud to become new members of the Artesia community and we look forward to making Artesia our home,” stated Meyers.
