Riggins elected as president pro tempore of Auburn University board of trustees

Auburn University congratulated Quentin Riggins on his election as president pro tempore of the board of trustees Friday, June 9.

Riggins, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Auburn University in marketing and distributive education, is the first Black to serve in the role. The president pro tempore serves as president in the absence of the board’s official president, Gov. Kay Ivey. Riggins succeeds Bob Dumas, chairman of the board of directors at AuburnBank, who was president tempore for two years.

Riggins has been a member of Auburn’s board of trustees since 2017, providing leadership and governance to the university’s academic, administrative and athletic enterprises. He chairs the capital campaign of the University’s Office of Inclusion and Diversity.

Riggins, senior vice president of Governmental and Corporate Affairs at Alabama Power, leads the company’s governmental relations efforts at the state and federal levels. He is responsible for Alabama Power’s grassroots and corporate relations programs, which seek to interact and engage with key stakeholders statewide and nationally. Zeke Smith, executive vice president at Alabama Power, has served as an Auburn University trustee since February 2022.

Before joining the company in 2011, Riggins served nearly a quarter-century in Alabama state government. This included serving in the administration of one governor, in the cabinet of another governor and as a senior staff member for a long-serving speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives.

As senior vice president of the Business Council of Alabama, Riggins led governmental affairs efforts for the council’s 5,000 corporate members before the Alabama Legislature and the U.S. Congress.

A standout football player at Auburn University, he helped lead the Tigers to three consecutive SEC championships from 1987 to 1989.

Riggins is deeply committed to service in Alabama and its communities, serving on the boards of the Children’s Aid Society of Alabama, Grandview Medical Center, the Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. Institute and the Women’s Foundation of Alabama. He previously served on the boards of the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, Leadership Alabama, the Baptist Foundation of Alabama, the Energy Institute of Alabama and the Business Council of Alabama.