Mainda to Lead Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance

Hodgen Mainda has been appointed commissioner of Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance by Governor Bill Lee, effective Oct. 1, 2019.

“Hodgen joins my cabinet after an outstanding career as a community leader in Chattanooga,” said Lee in a press release Sept. 5. “He is respected for his ability to build partnerships across multiple sectors, and we welcome his leadership to such a multifaceted department like Commerce & Insurance.”

Mainda currently serves as the vice president for community development at the Electric Power Board (EPB) in Chattanooga, which is the first provider of Gigabit internet in the country. In his role with the EPB, Mainda built partnerships across the state and federal level and increased EPB’s role in regional economic development, Lee’s office said.

Prior to joining EPB, Hodgen was vice president for real estate development and acquisition firm Noon Development and management consultant River Branch Strategies.

In addition to his work with EPB, Mainda serves on several non-profit boards including the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Chattanooga Rotary Club, the United Way of Greater Chattanooga, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chancellor’s Roundtable and the College of Business Advisory Board. Mainda is also a member of the Leadership Tennessee Class of 2019 and a 2018 graduate of the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program.

A native of Nairobi, Kenya, Mainda moved to Tennessee in 1997 to study at Middle Tennessee State University. He is a graduate of the University of Eastern Africa.

Carter Lawrence, who has served as interim insurance commissioner since Julie Mix McPeak stepped down in June, congratulated Mainda on Twitter, saying: “It was a pleasure serving in the interim role and I’ll look forward to supporting you.”

McPeak announced in May she would leave her commissioner post on June 14 to head into the private sector. McPeak was first appointed commissioner by Gov. Bill Haslam in 2011. The law firm Greenberg Traurig, P.A., announced shortly after that McPeak would join the firm’s Insurance Regulatory and Transactions Practice as a founder of its new Nashville office.