There were no caps and gowns at this graduation, but there sure were a lot of happy faces. Greenville Utilities' iLead program had a successful wrap-up for the class of 25 graduates with a recognition ceremony during the December Board of Commissioners meeting. iLead is an internal leadership, education, and development program designed for employees to prepare themselves to compete for leadership positions at GUC.

"iLead provides an opportunity for motivated, capable employees to enhance their upward mobility and compete with the outside market," said Director of Human Resources Richie Shreves.

The 2017 iLead graduates are: Bryan Bland, Dail Booth, Jonathan Britt, Ron Cullipher, George Darden, Mickey Dawson, Chad Flannagan, JoEllen Gay, Keith Godbey, Jason Harmon, Chris Hill, Blake Horton, Kristen Jarman, Kevin Jones, Nick Klapp, Cynthia Langley, Alex Li, Jay Little, Julius Patrick, Jay Pigford, Carl Smith, Will Spencer, Vann Stephenson, Antwyne Tyson, and Brandie Whitehurst.

Earlier this year, employees applied to the program by completing an application and multi-step screening process; this included an assessment and an interview. Applicants had to demonstrate or show potential for leadership abilities, community interest and involvement, and the desire for a bigger leadership role here at GUC. Forty employees applied for the program and 25 were accepted.

Over the last nine months, participants received more than 80 hours of general "core curriculum" training that included topics such as project management and leadership essentials, communication essentials, and business writing, as well as assignments like attending certain meetings.

For a final project, the group broke into five teams that each developed projects that could potentially be implemented by GUC. Each team presented their ideas to the Management Team in November.

HR will begin taking applications for the 2017 iLead class in January, so be on the lookout for more information.