The board of Southern Co. has announced the appointment of Dr. Ernest Moniz, renowned physicist and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as an independent director, effective March 1.
According to Southern Co., Moniz will stand for election to the board of directors by stockholders at the 2018 annual meeting. He will serve on the Operations, Environmental and Safety Committee and the Nominating, Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee of the board, as well as the Business Security Subcommittee, which focuses on cyber and physical risks across the Southern Co. system.
“Ernie Moniz enhances our board by bringing a strong energy science and technology background together with broad expertise in energy and environmental policy, which will be invaluable as we continue to develop innovative solutions to shape America’s energy future,” says Thomas A. Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Co.
“I have long admired Southern Co. for its innovative approach to research and development within the clean energy space and look forward to joining the board,” says Moniz. “[Fanning] is an industry leader, and I’m eager to work with him and the entire board in helping Southern advance at a time of great change in the energy world.”
Moniz served as DOE secretary from 2013 to early 2017 under the Obama administration. He was a member of the president’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology from 2009 to 2013 and received the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award in 2016.
Moniz currently is the CEO and co-chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological, radiological and chemical weapons, and CEO of Energy Futures Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to driving innovation in energy technology, policy and business models.
Prior to his appointment at the DOE, Moniz was a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for over four decades. He was the founding director of the MIT Energy Initiative and director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, where he was a leader of multidisciplinary technology and policy studies on the future of nuclear power, coal, nuclear fuel cycles, natural gas and solar energy in a low-carbon world. Moniz is currently the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems emeritus at MIT. Dr. Moniz also is a non-resident senior fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center.
