Tom Fanning: Jim Kerr

Deck: 

Southern Company Gas

Fortnightly Magazine - June 2023
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Who is Tom Fanning? For those of us at Public Utilities Fortnightly, the question is like asking, who was Owen Young? For as was Young in his time, Fanning in our time has set the pace for the utilities industry and then reached beyond to lead on national policies. 

PUF traveled to Atlanta, to get the take of Fanning's colleagues at Southern Company, CEO Chris Womack, Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene, and Southern Company Gas CEO Jim Kerr, about the mark Fanning made. We interviewed Fanning too, to learn further, who is this man who had a Young-size impact for us all?
 

PUF's Steve Mitnick: Talk about when you first met and started working with Tom.

Jim Kerr: In 2010, I was practicing law in Raleigh North Carolina, and Southern Company was a client. Tom had just been named CEO of Southern Company, and while I had known his predecessor David Ratcliffe, I didn't really know Tom. 

There was a NARUC annual meeting in Atlanta that year and Tom had been asked to be a keynote speaker. I was asked to accompany Tom to the opening reception and introduce him to the assembled Commissioners and staff from around the country.

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