Kim Greene leaves TVA to return to Southern Co.

photo Kim Greene is leaving her TVA position as group president of strategy and external relations to work for Southern Co.
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TVA Chief Generation Officer Kim Greene will return to the Southern Co. in April to one of the top executive posts with the Atlanta-based utility.

Greene was among those competing to succeed TVA retiring CEO Tom Kilgore last year. But the TVA board picked an outside executive, former Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson, to head TVA instead.

In her new post, Greene will serve as president and CEO of Southern Co. Services Inc., a subsidiary of the Southern Co. She will head up support services for Southern's power and telecommunication companies and will have a seat on Southern's management council.

"Kim is one of us," Southern CEO Thomas Fanning said Wednesday. "We are so fortunate to have her returning to Southern Co."

Greene, a University of Tennessee graduate, left the Southern Co. in 2007 to return to Knoxville as the chief financial officer for the Tennessee Valley Authority. For the past three years, she has headed TVA's coal, river and other generation operations. Last year, she was the second highest-paid executive at TVA, earning nearly $3.6 million in salary and benefits, behind only Kilgore.

In a statement Wednesday, Johnson praised Greene's service and said TVA has begun a search for her replacement.

"An internal and external search for a successor will begin immediately," TVA spokesman Gail Rymer said.

At Southern, Greene is replacing Susan N. Story, who is leaving Atlanta to join the New Jersey-based American Water Co., as its chief financial officer. American Water is the parent company of Tennessee American Water Co. in Chattanooga.

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