Several with close ties to Gville on Ga. Power's list of state's most influential leaders

This year’s GaPower50 is out, and it includes several people with close ties to Gainesville. This is the second year for the listing.

And it includes:

*9th District Congressman Andrew Clyde

*Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins’

*Mike Giles, President, Georgia Poultry Federation

*Chris Riley, Republican strategist and former Chief of Staff for Nathan Deal when he was governor

Click here to see the entire list and read what the ranking says about each entry:

2025 Georgia Power 50: The state’s most influential leaders

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.