Board of Directors

Matt Faulkner serves as the Director of Labor Relations for the Tennessee Valley Authority. In his role, Mr. Faulkner’s primary responsibilities include all labor relations functions for TVA, including negotiations, contract administration, and Labor-Management partnerships across the 7 state TVA service territory. Matt’s TVA career began in 2009 as a Labor Relations Consultant.  Through his years in Labor Relations, Matt has been responsible for a multitude of fleet-wide strategic initiatives and currently serves on multiple labor-management boards, ensuring TVA and its union continue their 9-decade productive labor-management relationships.  

Matt has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky, a Master of Science in Human Resources Management from Marshall University, is Project Management Professional (PMP) certified, and is a Rule 31 List Mediator in the state of Tennessee.   He and his wife Jordan have two children, three dogs, and reside in Knoxville, TN. 

 Jerry Grissom is the External Labor  Relations director for Southern Company.  In this role, he develops local, regional and  national partnerships, along with providing  support for APC Internal Labor Relations  and Workforce Development efforts. He  also serves as the Safety and Health director  for Alabama Power, where he manages the  company’s Safety and Health  organization, provides strategic  leadership on safety plans and  implementation, and  represents the company on  systemwide safety initiatives.  Grissom has more than  24 years of experience with  Southern Company. He  began his career in 1999  as an engineer at Alabama  Power’s Miller Steam Plant  before holding numerous  leadership positions within  both Alabama Power and  Georgia Power’s generating  f  leet. Grissom held  various Technical Services  functional manager roles  for the fossil and hydro  generation assets in the areas  of Fleet Strategy, Plant Operations  Excellence initiatives and Plant  Engineering support areas.  national levels. Additionally, he provided  leadership for the Technical Training  organization and the Continuous  Improvement and Learning team.  Prior to joining Southern Company,  Grissom worked in lead roles in the  steel tubing production and fabrication  industry.  Jerry Grissom  External Labor  Relations Director  Southern Company,  Safety and  Health Director  Alabama Power  Grissom holds a bachelor’s  degree in Mathematics  from Birmingham-Southern  College, and a master’s  degree in Mechanical  Engineering from the  University of Alabama at  Birmingham.  He is active in community  and workforce affairs,  currently as chairman of  the Alabama Construction  Recruiting Institute Board  of Directors, a member of  the Alabama Craft Training  Board and serving on the  Alabama Apprenticeship  Council. Previously he has  served on the Make-A-Wish  Board of Directors for Alabama and as  chairman of the Advisory Board for the  Georgia Southern University College of  Engineering and Information Technology.  Most recently, he was director for SCS  Operations Services, where he provided  leadership and strategic direction  for external craft labor relations,  specifically work agreements, alliances  and relationships at the local, state and  Grissom and his wife,  Cheryl, reside in Hoover. 

Senior Vice President of Human Resources Georgia Power and Southern Company

Sloane Drake is senior vice president of Human Resources for Georgia Power and Southern Company. She leads the HR East Region Organization, which includes talent management, diversity and inclusion, volunteer services, labor relations, health and well-being services, and HR delivery for Georgia Power; oversight of HR for Southern Company Gas; and talent acquisition, talent management and the development of diversity & inclusion strategies for Southern Company. 

Drake joined Southern Company in 2001 as a participant in Georgia Power’s Professional Development Program, and has held several positions in Southern Company’s HR organization, including the dual role as assistant to the vice president of Human Resources and talent manager. In these roles, she supported strategic initiatives across all areas of human resources and led the development of solutions to enhance leadership and employee development, as well as diversity and inclusion. She also led the HR team responsible for HR delivery and staffing for Southern Company’s two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle, located outside of Augusta. Prior to her current position, Drake served as director of Human Resources at Southern Company, where she was responsible for providing HR consulting services for accounting, finance and treasury, marketing services, human resources, system air, general counsel, external affairs, internal auditing and information technology.

Drake graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

Active in her community, Drake serves on the board of directors for the Anti-Defamation League Southeast,  Atlanta Children’s 

Shelter,  Atlanta  Symphony, 

Center  of  Energy  Work force  Development

, Georgia  Public  Telecommunications Commission Technical  College  System  of Georgia and Southeast  Labor  and  Management  Public  Affairs  Committee,  and Georgia  Public Telecommunications Commission