Lindy Savelle is a native Georgia Mitchell Countian. She grew up in Sale City and currently resides in Mitchell & Thomas Counties. Lindy retired in 2015 from a federal law enforcement career spanning 30 years. She began her career in 1985 as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and ultimately worked for two other agencies, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Lindy was assigned to stateside offices from Albuquerque, NM to Washington, DC and Buffalo, NY to Pensacola, FL. During the last 7 years of her career, Lindy specialized in corruption cases. She worked overseas in Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Turkey, Dubai and Afghanistan, spending the bulk of her time serving as the Regional Director of Investigations/Special Agent in Charge of Investigations over the International Contract Corruption Task Force in Southwest Asia. Prior to her retirement, Lindy and her husband, Perry, decided they would ultimately return to their roots in Mitchell and Thomas counties, where they own two small farms. Part of their plan was to bring their farms back to life, so to speak, and give back to their communities through the development of alternative niche, yet sustainable agricultural commodities. After researching everything from pomegranates to persimmons and lychee to crawfish, they decided citrus was the best fit for them and a commodity that would stimulate growth in Georgia’s agricultural economy. Lindy and her husband have a commercial citrus grove in Thomas County and a test plot in Mitchell County of Satsuma oranges, seedless tangerines, lemons, grapefruit, navels, mandarins, blood oranges, thornless limes and kumquats. In addition, Lindy is a managing partner in Georgia’s first citrus-only greenhouse/indoor nursery, where they are propagating citrus trees for sale to commercial growers and homeowners. Their nursery is under contract with the University of Georgia to grow the university’s first patented seedless, cold hardy citrus varieties released publicly in November of 2016, as well as UGA’s “Cowboy” perennial peanut ground cover. This spring, Lindy and her family will be opening “Georgia Grown Citrus, LLC”, a Thomas County citrus hub located on Jonina Farm in Ochlocknee. Lindy received her Bachelor of Business Administration from Valdosta State University, her Masters of Business Administration from the University of West Florida and her Masters of Public Policy from Georgetown University. Lindy serves as the President of the Georgia Citrus Association. She is also a current participant of the University of Georgia’s Advancing Georgia Leaders in Agriculture program for the 2017-2019 year group. One thing on her bucket list is to write a book chronicling a South Georgia native’s law enforcements adventures around the world back to her agricultural roots and citrus ventures in Georgia. Lindy is married to Perry Savelle and is the proud mother of two sons, William and Colby Billings.
Rotary Club of Thomasville
217 South Broad Street
Thomasville, GA 31792