Lesley Chandler Reynolds
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp has removed veteran Republican political operative Nick Ayers from the state Board of Natural Resources, citing an oversupply of board members from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.
In an executive order Kemp issued late last week, he pointed to a provision in Georgia’s Constitution that no more than two members of the board can come from the same congressional district. Including Ayers, three of the 19 board members were from the 5th District, which includes the heart of metro Atlanta.
In a second executive order, the governor named Lesley Chandler Reynolds of Greene County to replace Ayers. Reynolds is the wife of Harold Reynolds, chairman of the University System of Georgia Board of Regents and founding partner of the company that developed Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee.
Ayers served as chief of staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence between 2017 and 2019. Before that, he was executive director of the Republican Governors Association. He got his start in politics with the College Republicans at the University of Georgia and later served as an adviser to then-Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Kemp named Ayers, who lives in Atlanta, to the Board of Natural Resources in 2020. Lesley Chandler Reynolds’ term on the board will expire in August 2027.