ATLANTA – Southern Company today named Barbara Hingst vice president of strategic market planning. Hingst was named director of strategic market planning last October and is responsible for planning and implementing consistent marketing strategies worldwide across Southern Company. As vice president, Hingst will oversee Southern Company’s market research and intelligence divisions in addition to strategic market planning to better align the company’s marketing activities with its marketing strategy.

“Southern Company’s marketing strategy is centered on meeting our customers’ needs in all the countries where we do business. That requires our market research, market intelligence and strategic market planning divisions to work together. No one is better suited than Barbara to coordinate these efforts,” said C. Alan Martin, Southern Company’s chief marketing officer.

Before assuming her new role last October, Hingst was general manager of marketing services at Georgia Power, Southern Company’s largest subsidiary. She also has served as assistant to the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Georgia Power and has held various analyst and supervisory roles in financial planning and corporate finance at Southern Company. She started her career with the company in 1984.

Hingst received a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in management science from the University of Georgia and has a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from Georgia State University.

Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is an international energy company with $36 billion in assets through regional utilities and operations around the world. It is the largest producer of electricity in the United States and one of the world’s leading independent power producers. Based in Atlanta, Southern Company is the parent firm of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, Southern Company supplies electricity in 10 countries on four continents and has a growing presence in North America with assets in the Northeast, the Midwest, California and Texas. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and offers Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.