Southern Energy Inc., a unit of Southern Company, has named Elizabeth B. Chandler to the newly created post of vice president in Southern Energy’s Corporate Legal Group.

“Southern Energy’s continued growth and expansion across the United States and around the world makes the need for coordination and direction of legal issues increasingly important to our successful operations,” said Senior Vice President and General Counsel Douglas L. Miller. “We are fortunate to have an attorney of Beth Chandler’s calibre on our team.”

Chandler, 36, is a partner with the Atlanta law firm Troutman Sanders LLP, specializing in project development and finance, banking, and international areas of the firm’s corporate practice. She has been involved in a number of projects for Southern Company and Southern Energy. She received a law degree and a bachelor’s degree in international business from the University of Georgia. She also has studied at the University of Oslo in Norway and the Nijenrode Business School of the Netherlands.

Southern Energy Inc. -- with operations in 12 countries on five continents -- develops, builds, owns and operates power production and delivery facilities and provides a broad range of services to utilities and industrial companies around the world. Its Southern Company Energy Marketing unit provides energy trading, marketing and financial services and other energy-related commodities, products and services to customers in North America.

Southern Energy’s subsidiaries and affiliates include Freeport Power Co. in the Bahamas; Western Power Distribution in England; Bewag, the electric utility serving Berlin, Germany; EDELNOR, the power producer serving northern Chile; CEMIG, an electric utility in Brazil; the Power Generation Company of Trinidad and Tobago, the Alicura power station in Argentina; the Southern Energy Europe energy trading operation, based in the Netherlands; Consolidated Electric Power Asia, with operations in the Philippines, China and Australia; and U.S. power stations in Massachusetts, New York, Texas, California, Virginia and Indiana.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is also the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric.