COVINGTON, Ga. — Snapping Shoals EMC's board of directors has promoted Shaun Mock to president and chief executive officer to replace Brad Thomas after he retires in January.

Mock has served as chief financial officer of Covington-based Snapping Shoals Electric Membership Corp. since 2013. 

"I am honored to be named the next president/CEO of Snapping Shoals EMC," Mock said in a news release. "SSEMC has been blessed with exemplary leadership since its inception in 1937 and I am humbled to be even a small part of that proud history."

Thomas said, "I know firsthand and from working alongside Shaun for nearly 12 years that he is well positioned to assume this leadership role guiding the cooperative for many years to come. 

"Shaun has been an integral part of the SSEMC executive team during my 10-year tenure as CEO and is highly respected by the employees, the board and his EMC peers. The board is equally confident in Shaun's abilities to lead Snapping Shoals EMC and feels privileged to have an existing member of the management team assuming the CEO role," Thomas said.

Mock began his Snapping Shoals career in 2009 as the vice president of finance and administration. Before joining SSEMC, he served as the manager of accounting at The Satilla REMC in Alma, Georgia, and worked with the accounting firm McNair, McLemore, Middlebrooks in Macon.

Following the completion of his undergraduate studies at Mercer University in 2003, Mock graduated from the University of Georgia in 2004 with a Master of Accountancy degree in taxation. 

A native of Waycross, Mock has been a certified public accountant in the state of Georgia since 2005 and is a 2011 graduate of the Robert I. Kabat Management Internship Program of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. 

He and his wife live in McDonough with their two daughters. Mock served on the boards of the Henry County Chamber of Commerce and Go Energy Financial Credit Union. He and his family are members of Bethany Baptist Church where he has coached Upward Basketball since 2014.

Thomas is retiring after a 33-year career with Snapping Shoals. He began with the EMC in September 1987 as an engineer assistant while finishing his final semester at Georgia Tech. He graduated from Georgia Tech in December 1987. 

Thomas has served as planning engineer, distribution engineer, system engineer, manager of engineering, vice president of engineering and senior vice president of Engineering and Operations. 

He was named president/CEO after Randall Meadows retired in 2010.