Owen Young Award
Chris Womack is the CEO of Southern Company.
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 Tom Fanning.
Chris Womack: We met years ago, so from the early days of this company, we did Southern Company College and worked together in all the companies. I was at Alabama Power. Tom was at Southern Energy.
We got to know each other during some of those early collaborations. Then when I came to Atlanta to be Chief People Officer at 270 Peach Street, Tom became Chief Strategy Officer, and our offices were down the hall from each other.