ATLANTA – DiversityInc Magazine has named Southern Company a “Top Company for Diversity” in the category of management progress for 2011.

Susan N. Story, executive vice president for Southern Company and president and CEO of Southern Company Services, said the company, “strives to create an environment where all employees can meet their fullest potential.  People are our priority, our most valuable resource.  We must have a workplace where people from varying perspectives and backgrounds can contribute to the best of their ability."

Southern Company was one of eight companies singled out by DiversityInc in a special event in Washington D.C.  Along with recognizing management progress in diversity, other categories included community development, executive development, talent pipeline, global cultural competence, working families and employee-resource groups.

Enhancements made in company benefits in 2010 – including the introduction of parental and maternity leave, adoption reimbursement and domestic partner coverage – as well as Southern Company’s continued efforts around recruiting military veterans and its initiatives for people with disabilities led to the company’s selection for the DiversityInc recognition.

In 2010, Southern Company was recognized as one of 15 recipients of the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award, and is on the 2011 G.I. Jobs Top 100 Military Friendly Employers List.   The company is also a participant in the recently launched Troops to Energy Program designed to accelerate the process of linking veterans leaving military service to job openings in the energy industry.

The company hosted five visually impaired interns this year for 3-month rotations in its partnership with the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta, as well as hosted a community forum to develop a stronger collaboration for recruiting and retaining people with disabilities.

For the past three years, DiversityInc has been recognizing companies with exceptional diversity-management achievements in specific areas. The evaluation goes beyond a numerical assessment of the DiversityInc Top 50 and includes a deep analytic look at each company’s programs based on metrics and results. DiversityInc chooses companies for this award based on their exclusive knowledge of each company’s diversity initiatives after a decade of collecting and analyzing in-depth diversity-management data.

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 was named the World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility by Fortune magazine in 2011, and is consistently listed among the top U.S. electric service providers in customer satisfaction by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.