ATLANTA, May 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southern Company Chairman, President and CEO David M. Ratcliffe today announced the election of Larry Thompson to the Southern Company board of directors. Thompson is currently senior vice president of government affairs, general counsel and secretary for PepsiCo.

"With extensive service in the public and private sectors, Larry Thompson brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this role," said Ratcliffe.  "His wide-ranging expertise and keen insights will be valuable assets to Southern Company and its board of directors."

Thompson assumed his PepsiCo position in October 2004.  Immediately prior, he was a senior fellow with The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Thompson also served in the U.S. Department of Justice, where his role as deputy attorney general included supervision of overall operations.  In 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft named him to lead the National Security Coordination Council.  Also in 2002, President Bush named Thompson to head the Corporate Fraud Task Force where he led the Justice Department's investigation into Enron.

Previously, Thompson was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of King & Spaulding.  From 1982-1986, he was U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, where he directed the Southern Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and served on the attorney general's Economic Crime Council.  From 1995-1999, Thompson was an independent counsel for the Department of Housing and Urban Development investigation, a post he was named to by a special panel of U.S. Circuit Court Judges appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2000, he was selected by Congress to chair the Judicial Review Commission on Foreign Asset Control.

Thompson serves on the boards of directors of various Franklin, Templeton and Mutual Series Funds, the United Negro College Fund, Cbeyond and the National Center for State Courts.  He also serves on the Board of Trustees of The Arch Foundation for the University of Georgia and is an elected Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.  He is the recipient of the Edmund Jennings Randolph Award for outstanding contributions to the accomplishment of the Department of Justice's mission, the Outstanding Litigator Award by the Federal Bar Association and the A. T. Walden Award for outstanding accomplishments to the legal profession by the Gate City Bar Association, Atlanta.

Thompson holds a B.A. from Culver-Stockton College, an M.A. from Michigan State University and a law degree from the University of Michigan.  He also has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Georgia Law School.

With 4.4 million customers and more than 42,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and retail electric prices that are below the national average. Southern Company is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Visit our Web site at www.southerncompany.com.

SOURCE Southern Company