COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- A.
Wade Smith has been named senior
vice president - Transmission Grid Development for American
Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), effective Aug.
3. He will report to Lisa M.
Barton, AEP's executive vice president - Transmission, and
will oversee transmission planning, engineering, project services
and reliability compliance. Smith currently serves as president and
chief operating officer of AEP Texas.
The move is part of a realignment of AEP's transmission business
to manage growth and streamline operations. Scott N. Smith, currently senior vice president
- Transmission Grid Development and Portfolio Services, will assume
a new role as senior vice president - Transmission Controls and
Field Services. He will continue to report to Barton, will provide
support for the transmission projects in AEP's operating companies
and will have responsibility for financial controls and
transmission operations across the company's 11-state
footprint.
"Wade and Scott's expertise and leadership experience, along
with their focus on safety and operational excellence, will
strengthen our efforts as we continue to grow the transmission
business," Barton said. "These organizational changes will allow
AEP to successfully manage more than 2,000 local and regional
transmission projects that we have in progress, as we work to
enhance the reliability of the electric grid to better serve
customers and build new infrastructure that will support the
country's changing generation mix and enable more integration of
renewables."
Bruce Evans will succeed
Wade Smith as president and chief
operating officer of AEP Texas, a transmission and distribution
utility serving nearly one million customers in south and west
Texas. He will be responsible for
operations, safety and a wide range of customer and regulatory
relationships and will report to Venita
McCellon-Allen, president and chief operating officer of
Southwestern Electric Power Co. Evans is currently vice president -
Distribution Operations for AEP Texas.
"Bruce should hit the ground running as AEP Texas president as
he has served in many executive leadership positions throughout his
career in the electric utility industry," McCellon-Allen said. "His
customer focus and engaging leadership style will serve the company
well going forward."
Wade Smith, 50, became president
and chief operating officer of AEP Texas in 2010. Previously, he
was vice president - Transmission Engineering & Project
Services for AEP from 2008 to 2010. He served as director -
Generation Gas Turbine & Joint Venture from 2004 to 2008 and
executive director - Independent Power Projects & Wind from
2000 to 2004. Smith began his career with the former Central and
South West Corp. (CSW) in 1989 and worked in engineering and
management roles at several power plants prior to CSW's merger with
AEP in 2000. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering from Texas Tech University
in Lubbock, Texas, and a master's
of business administration from Abilene
Christian University in Abilene,
Texas. He is a graduate of The Executive Program-Darden
School of Business at the University of
Virginia.
Scott Smith, 51, has served as
senior vice president - Transmission Grid Development and Portfolio
Services since 2011. Previously, he was vice president and
assistant to the president of the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation
(OVEC) from 2010 to 2011. From 2005 to 2010, Smith was vice
president - Generation Business Services for AEP. He joined AEP in
2001 as chief risk officer. Prior to that, he served as vice
president of risk management for Global Consumer Bank, a division
of Citigroup, and for First Fidelity/First Union. Earlier, he was a
national bank examiner for the U.S. Treasury Department. He served
as a captain in the U.S. Army and worked as an engineer during his
military service. Smith received a bachelor's degree in finance
from Drexel University in Philadelphia and an associate's degree in
business administration from Valley Forge
Military College in Wayne,
Pennsylvania.
Evans, 59, was named vice president - Distribution Operations
for AEP Texas in 2012. Previously, he served as vice president of
demand management for Nexant Inc. and held a number of leadership
positions with major energy consulting firms, as well as Cirro
Energy and CPS Energy. From 1979 to 2000, Evans served in a number
of roles for AEP, the former CSW and its utility operating
companies. Evans holds a bachelor's degree in finance from
Hardin Simmons University in
Abilene, Texas, and a master's
degree in finance from Dallas Baptist
University in Dallas. He
also attended the advanced management program at Harvard University.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities
in the United States, delivering
electricity to nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks
among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly
32,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns
the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a more than
40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high
voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems
combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly serves
about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern
Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers
38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the
electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers
much of Texas. AEP's utility units
operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West
Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky
Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power
Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.
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SOURCE American Electric Power