Jackson entrepreneur, attorney and former Innovate Mississippi board member Toni D. Cooley has added another distinction to her portfolio. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has appointed her to the board of directors of its New Orleans branch.
As a branch director, she provides economic information to the district bank’s president and head-office directors, who use that information in determining monetary policy options and recommending discount rates.
Cooley, CEO of Systems Electro Coating, Systems Automotive Interiors, Systems Consultants Associates and Systems Information Technology, has more than 30 years of experience in management, marketing, government relations, and law. She oversees strategic direction and marketing for SEC, a Madison-based company that helps automotive and industrial companies preserve metal parts with a rust-proof coating. The company works extensively with the Nissan plant in Canton.
Though born in Chicopee, Mass., and raised as an Air Force brat in four states, Cooley once told the Jackson Free Press she considers herself a Mississippian. “I have lived in some great places—Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Minn., Atlanta, St. Louis—but I have the greatest ties to Mississippi. It’s the nation’s best-kept secret.”
Cooley graduated from St. Joseph High School, then located in Jackson. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Stephens College and a law degree from the University of Minnesota. Before returning to Mississippi to co-found the Systems businesses with her father, she worked in the international contracts division of Turner International in Atlanta.
She is also a member of the boards of directors of Sanderson Farms and Trustmark Bank, and a former board member of Innovate Mississippi, the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, Mississippi Home Corporation, Mississippi Today, and MS State Board for Community and Junior Colleges.
The Fed’s board of directors appointed Cooley to serve a three-year term after completing an unexpired term. The Board of Governors appoints three of the directors of the New Orleans Branch, and the Atlanta head office directors appoint four.
Cooley’s term runs July 25 through Dec. 31, 2022.
