ATLANTA -- Southern Company announced today that it has named Anthony J. Topazi vice president of fuel services for Southern Company Generation, the business unit responsible for developing and operating all non-nuclear Southern Company generating plants in the Southeast.

Topazi is currently vice president of Birmingham division for Alabama Power, Southern Company’s electric operating company in the state. In his new position, he will be responsible for managing the company’s non-nuclear fuel business, including planning, procurement and delivery of the system’s coal, oil and gas requirements. Topazi will report to John F. Young, executive vice president of Southern Company Generation.

Topazi, 49, was hired by Alabama Power in 1969 as an engineer in the Birmingham division. In 1991, he was promoted to vice president of Alabama Power’s Western Division in Tuscaloosa. In that position, Topazi was instrumental in the recruitment of the Mercedes-Benz M-Class facility to Alabama. He was named vice president of the company’s Birmingham Division in 1995.

Topazi is one of Birmingham’s most active community leaders, holding board of director positions with the Metropolitan Development Board, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Region 2020, the Birmingham International Festival and the Birmingham Better Business Bureau. He is chairman of Operation New Birmingham and the United Way of Central Alabama’s 1999 Corporate Campaign.

Topazi holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University. He is a 1992 graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. He and his wife, Patricia, have two sons, Michael and Chris. They attend Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in Birmingham.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an international energy company that operates more than 48,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity worldwide. It is the largest producer of electricity in the United States and one of the world’s largest independent power producers. Southern Company subsidiaries and their affiliates serve 12 million retail customers worldwide and millions more through the wholesale market. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.

Through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, Southern Company has operations in 12 countries on five continents and has a growing presence in North America with assets in the Northeast, the Midwest, California and Texas. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services in the United States and Europe and offers Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.