The Savannah Electric board of directors today named Anthony James chairman of the board and Craig Barrs president and CEO of Savannah Electric. James, previously Savannah Electric president and CEO, will remain chairman until February 1, at which time he will become executive vice president of Southern Company Services and president of the shared services group, which includes those centralized corporate functions that are providing services to Southern’s operating companies and other businesses.

Barrs will be named vice president of Georgia Power`s new coastal region when the merger of Georgia Power and Savannah Electric is completed.

"Craig Barrs has strong leadership and managerial skills, and I`m confident he`s the right person to represent our new coastal region in the future," Garrett said. "Craig has experience in our region operations organization; he`s worked in our external affairs group and has experience in community and economic development.

"Community involvement has been a tradition at Savannah Electric and Georgia Power will continue that tradition," Garrett said.

Barrs most recently served as vice president of community and economic development for Georgia Power. In that capacity, he worked closely with the state to help attract business and industry and promote tourism.

As vice president of community and economic development for Georgia Power, Barrs is responsible for the company’s efforts to recruit new industry to Georgia and assisting with existing industry expansion, as well as supporting local and statewide initiatives to improve the marketability of communities in the state. The department has been internationally recognized as one of the top economic development organizations in the world, helping to bring more than $5 billion in capital investment and 100,000 new jobs to Georgia over the past decade.

Since beginning his career at Georgia Power in 1981, Mr. Barrs has served as assistant to the president and chief executive officer, manager of regulatory affairs, manager of marketing regulatory affairs, Gainesville area manager, and Athens customer service manager.

Barrs serves on several boards, including the Georgia Cities Foundation, Georgians for Better Transportation, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors’ Bureau, the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Advisory Board, the Georgia Tech Economic Development Institute’s Advisory Board, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee and the Quality Growth Task Force.

He is a graduate of Leadership Georgia, Leadership Athens, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute, and the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

Barrs received a business degree from the University of Georgia in 1980, and now serves on the Alumni Board for the university. A native of Cochran, Georgia, Craig and his wife, the former Annie Ford, live in Lawrenceville, where he is a youth football coach. They have two children, Lauren and Jordan, and are members of the Prince of Peace Catholic Church.