Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280072
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The appointment was announced Thursday by E. Linn Draper Jr., chairman, president and chief executive officer of AEP, the Columbus, Ohio parent of Apco.
The reorganization will see all of AEP's subsidiary power companies, including Apco, incorporated into a new AEP structure based on operating functions rather than geographic regions.
"Dan Carson and the other new state-level AEP presidents are part of a broader functional realignment designed to give our seven operating subsidiaries a new, single-company identity under the AEP brand," Draper said.
AEP's power generation, transmission and distribution will be managed on a systemwide basis. Apco and other operating companies - which serve portions of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia - will continue to exist primarily as owners of AEP's property and other assets rather than as power distribution companies.
Carson said the public will see an increasing emphasis on the AEP name in the future and less on the names of the current operating companies. AEP expects the power generation business to become more competitive, and name recognition will become more important, he said.
The electric power industry, which has been a monopoly business for most of this century, faces increasing competition for both wholesale and retail sales of power as government moves to deregulate the industry. One scenario predicts homeowners will be able to pick their power companies in the future, just as they now can pick a long-distance telephone service.
Draper announced last month that Joseph Vipperman, Appalachian's current president, would take over leadership of AEP's new Energy Transmission and Distribution Group on Jan. 1. As president and chief operating officer of Apco, Vipperman has been responsible for the company's service area in Virginia and West Virginia.
As part of the reorganization, Dana E. Waldo, like Carson an Apco vice president, will become AEP's new president for West Virginia. Marsha P. Ryan, Apco's director of customer and marketing services, will become AEP's Ohio president.
Carson, Waldo, Ryan and other AEP state presidents will be responsible for customer relations and public policy concerns, while the responsibility for power generation, transmission and distribution will be centralized under new corporate groups in Columbus.
"This will allow Dan and our other state presidents to become even more accessible to customer groups, regulators, legislators and community leaders who play a large role in our ultimate success," Draper said.
The AEP board of directors voted on Carson's appointment Wednesday, and he had known that it was under consideration for just a short time, Carson said. "It's going to be interesting," he said of the new job.
Carson, 47, is a native of Pulaski. He joined Apco in 1970 as a civil engineer in the transmission and distribution operations in Roanoke. He has been a company vice president since 1992 and has worked in the company's government affairs, rates and accounting areas since 1986.
His community involvement includes service as first vice president of the Council of Community Services of the Roanoke Valley and on the boards of the Western Virginia Foundation for Arts & Sciences and the Roanoke-area chapter of the American Heart Association.
He and his wife, Sandy, have three children.
by CNB