Former CEOs to speak at Founders Day

_{Published December 12, 2011}

Southern Company's four living former CEOs will gather to address employees at next month's Founders Day event.

Ed Addison, Bill Dahlberg, Allen Franklin and David Ratcliffe will each speak as part of a special systemwide webcast beginning at 2 p.m. on Jan. 5. The event, which will be hosted by CEO Tom Fanning, will kick off a year-long celebration of Southern Company's first 100 years.

On Jan. 5, 1912, the first of Southern Company's three predecessor holding companies – Alabama Traction, Light & Power – was founded by James Mitchell, assisted by his legal counsel, Tom Martin. Mitchell saw the holding company structure as key to the planned development of a network of generating stations and power lines that would one day stretch across the Southeast.

In 1924, Alabama Traction, Light & Power, now ready to spread into other states, reincorporated itself and became Southeastern Power & Light.

Five years later, in 1929, Southeastern Power & Light was the victim of a hostile takeover and was merged into a new conglomerate called Commonwealth & Southern, which had operations stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

The final step in the company's evolution came in 1947, when the southern operations of Commonwealth & Southern were consolidated as Southern Company as a result of the Public Utility Holding Company Act.