Peoples to head Alabama Power

Jeff Peoples has been named chairman of the board of directors, CEO and president of Alabama Power, the Southern Company announced today.

Chris Womack (Southern Company/Contributed)

Peoples succeeds recently retired Mark Crosswhite.

“Alabama Power has been committed to serving our state for more than a century,” said Peoples. “It is an honor to lead this team and build upon its legacy of powering Alabama.”

Greenville native Chris Womack has been named CEO of Southern Company and, effective March 31, he will be the company’s president and a member of the board of directors.

Thomas A. Fanning, 65, the current chairman of the board, CEO and president of Southern Company, will relinquish the role of president in March and assume the role of executive chairman of the board of directors upon Womack’s assumption of the role of CEO.

The moves were part of several leadership and succession changes announced by Southern.

Peoples, 63, served as Alabama Power’s executive vice president of customer and employee services where he oversaw customer services, marketing and economic development strategy and operations, as well as the company’s six geographic business divisions.

He began his career with Southern Company in 1984 as a chemical technician at Alabama Power’s Plant Miller. Peoples holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biological science from Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn.

Womack, 64, has served as president of Georgia Power since 2020 and chairman, president and CEO since 2021. He joined Southern Company in 1988 and has held several leadership positions within the company and its subsidiaries.

“The Board has been actively engaged in succession planning for the past several years, and after consideration of a number of candidates, we unanimously selected Chris as our new chief executive officer and president,” said David J. Grain, Southern Company’s lead independent director. “Chris’ proven leadership, alignment with our values and ability to deliver strong results makes him a terrific choice to lead Southern Company.”

Womack said he is excited for his new role with the company.

“It is an important time in our industry as the energy landscape continues to rapidly evolve and customers’ needs continue to change, and Southern Company is at the forefront of that evolution,” he said. “We’re building the future of energy, and I’m excited to continue playing a role in this new capacity. It is an honor to lead teams working in states across the country that are wholeheartedly dedicated to innovating and delivering both world class customer service and reliability to our customers. We’ve got a lot of important work ahead of us.”

Also, UAB and Samford alum Kim Greene has been named chair of the board of directors, CEO and president of Georgia Power, effective March 31.

Greene currently has all three positions with Southern Company Gas. She began her career at Southern Company in 1991 and has progressed through various areas of engineering, operations, finance, structuring, trading and asset management.

Greene spent five years at Tennessee Valley Authority serving in executive roles, including chief financial officer and chief generation officer, before returning to Southern Company in 2013. She earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering science and mechanics from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master’s degree in business administration from Samford University. She also completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.