One of America’s largest and best-known electric utilities, Atlanta-based Southern Company, today continued a series of new executive appointments, naming Michael M. Wilson as vice president for government relations and head of Southern Company’s Washington office. Wilson has served since February 1994 as vice president and head of Florida Power & Light Company’s Washington activities. He begins with Southern Company immediately.

The announcement was made by Southern Company Senior Vice President Steve Spencer, who called the appointment “further demonstration of Southern Company’s commitment to effective, constructive, positive leadership in the national policy arena.”

“It’s not enough for us just to be one of the largest,” Spencer said. “We’ve also got to be one of the best. And that means not only being the best-run company, but the company best at finding, creating and implementing the best solutions to America’s energy and environmental issues. That takes leadership. We reached out to find someone who enjoyed both the perspective on and the respect of all the players in the game: consumers, legislators, regulators and the media. In Michael Wilson, we have a great new asset for Southern Company.”

Before going to Florida Power & Light, Wilson was chairman of the Florida Public Service Commission. Wilson initially was appointed to the Florida Public Service Commission by Democratic Gov. Bob Graham, now a U.S. senator. He was reappointed by Graham’s Republican successor, Gov. Bob Martinez. Before serving on the commission, Wilson spent seven years with the Office of Public Counsel in Florida.

Wilson is a member of the Keystone Energy Trustees Board and the Business-Government relations Council. He served on the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board and the board of the Public Affairs Council.

“Southern’s leadership role requires providing accurate, complete, useful information, analysis and issue support to Southern’s companies, to public officials and their staffs and to the constituents they serve,” Wilson said. “I look forward to bringing my experience – as a consumer advocate, a regulator, an industry executive and a public official – to this challenge.”

A native of De Funiak Springs, Fla., Wilson is an attorney, a graduate of Florida Presbyterian College and Florida State University College of Law. He and his wife, Lynne Forthman, have two daughters.

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, through its Southern Energy Inc. subsidiary, supplies electricity in 10 countries on four continents. Southern Company also provides energy-related marketing, trading and technical services and Southern LINC wireless telecommunications.