David Leathers

The New York Association of Public Power members elected David Leathers to succeed Paul Pallas as president of NYAPP.

Pallas served as president since the inception of the Association in 2005. Leathers has served as third vice president/secretary of the association.

NYAPP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan state association of eight municipal and four rural electric cooperative utilities that represent public power consumers and communities in areas of New York State. YAPP utilities are diverse in size and type and include the only municipal electric generating utilities in New York State.

NYAPP works to advance the interests of its members and their customers and communities in the changing and complex energy market to support and ensure clean, adequate and reliable electric service at a reasonable price.

Leathers has served as general manager of the BPU since March 2008. Prior to his current position, he served as interim general manager and deputy general manager for the Electric Division and has been with the utility since December 2005.

The new NYAPP president also serves as a director of the American Public Power Association national board and participates on the APPA CEO Climate Change & Generation Policy Committee.

In 2020, the APPA named Leathers as a recipient of its national Mark Crisson Leadership and Managerial Excellence Award, which honors two managers annually out of 2,000 American public power electric companies.

In Jamestown, Leathers is co-president of the Jamestown Center City Development Corporation (Northwest Arena) Board of Directors. He was honored as JCC Alumnus of the Year in 2017 and as the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Person of the Year in 2009. A Chautauqua Leadership Network graduate, Leathers is a former board member of the Manufacturers’ Association of the Southern Tier. He and his wife Shelly reside in Jamestown and are the parents of two grown children.