Southern Company announced today that Bruce Jones, a vice president within its Alabama Power subsidiary, has been elected to serve on the Board of Management of Berlin’s electric utility, Berliner Kraft und Licht AG. Barney Rush, a vice president within Southern Company’s Southern Energy Inc. unit, has been elected chairman of the German utility’s Supervisory Board.

Southern Company is part of a consortium with two leading German utilities, PreussenElektra and VIAG/Bayernwerk, that acquired 75 percent of the Berlin utility, known commonly as Bewag. In September, Southern Company purchased a 26 percent stake in the utility, which serves 2.1 million customers in Berlin.

The Supervisory Board of Bewag unanimously elected Jones to serve on the Board of Management of the utility for a five-year term beginning Feb. 1. Jones will be responsible for the departments of transmission, distribution, and customer billing and services. In this position, he will oversee more than 3,000 Bewag employees. Jones is currently vice president of the Mobile, Ala., division of Alabama Power. He joined Alabama Power in 1967 and has been in his current position since 1989. Before that, he served in several roles, including manager of the Mobile division and engineering manager of the Mobile division. Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in business administration from Samford University.

“Changes in our shareholder structure and the new Board of Management of Bewag will promote our growing competitiveness,” said Dietmar Winje, Bewag’s chief executive officer. “Southern Energy has a great deal of experience with regard to competition in international markets. We hope to gain from this know-how and from the company’s international orientation.”

Bewag’s Supervisory Board also elected Barney Rush, Southern Energy’s vice president of development in Europe, as its chairman. The Supervisory Board is comprised of four Southern Company representatives, including the chairman; three representatives from PreussenElektra; three representatives from Bayernwerk; and 10 labor union representatives.

“Our team is excited about having the opportunity to support Bewag’s transformation to a company able to compete successfully in Europe’s increasingly competitive electricity industry,” said Tom Boren, president and CEO of Southern Energy.

Rush joined Southern Energy in 1996 and has been based in London since August of that year. Before joining Southern Energy, he was executive vice president at Oxbow Power Corporation in West Palm Beach, Fla. He also has been a senior vice president at Lehman Brothers. Rush holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.

Bewag and Southern Company are finalizing plans to place several additional Southern Company executives on Bewag’s management team. These individuals are expected to begin working at Bewag in February.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the largest producer of electricity in the United States, is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company supplies electricity in nine countries on four continents and provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and wireless telecommunications. Southern Company’s common stock is one of the 20 most widely held corporate stocks in America.

Southern Energy Inc., a unit of Southern Company, 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.

PreussenElektra is owned by Veba, and Bayernwerk is owned by Viag. Both parent companies have numerous non-electric holdings, such as chemicals, real estate and telecommunications.