FirstEnergy Utilities Announces Leadership Changes in Akron, Pennsylvania, Met-Ed and Toledo Edison

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AKRON, Ohio, Jan. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. FE announced today a series of leadership changes in its utility business, effective on February 1, 2015. 

David J. Karafa, formerly president of FirstEnergy's Pennsylvania utility operations, has been named vice president, Distribution Support for FirstEnergy Utilities.  He will assume responsibility for functions including operations services and support, outage management and emergency preparedness.  Karafa will report to Steven E. Strah, who was recently named senior vice president and president of FirstEnergy Utilities. 

Linda L. Moss, formerly regional president, Toledo Edison, will replace Karafa as president of Pennsylvania operations, which includes the Met-Ed, Penelec and West Penn Power electric utility operating companies.  She will report to Mark Julian, vice president of Utility Operations.

Richard S. Sweeney will replace Moss as regional president, Toledo Edison. He previously served as Toledo Edison's director of Operations Services and now will report to Dennis Chack, president of FirstEnergy's Ohio operations.

Edward L. Shuttleworth has been named regional president of Met-Ed, reporting to Moss.  He was previously director of Operations Services for The Illuminating Company.

"FirstEnergy is dedicated to continually enhancing service to our utility customers," said Strah. "These individuals have compiled strong records of implementing processes and programs that enhance reliability and support safe and efficient operations.  In their new roles, they will have an opportunity to make an even greater impact for our customers and our business."

Karafa, 52, joined the company in 1981 as a surveyor.  Following a series of promotions, he was named director of Operations Services in 2002, then director of Energy Delivery Performance & Process Improvement in 2005, and led a Work Management Improvement Initiative in 2008.  He was promoted to regional president of Met-Ed in 2011, regional president of Ohio Edison in 2012 and president of Pennsylvania Operations in 2013.

Moss, 49, began her career with Potomac Edison in 1987, and served in numerous distribution engineering, operations management and project management roles.  In 2011, following the merger of Allegheny Energy and FirstEnergy, she was named director, Operations Support, at Potomac Edison.  She was promoted to regional president of Toledo Edison in 2013. 

Sweeney, 44, joined FirstEnergy in 1999 as a programmer analyst in Information Technology (IT). He held numerous roles within IT and Supply Chain before being promoted to director of Operations Support for Ohio Edison in 2008.  He became director of Operations Services for Toledo Edison in 2013.

Shuttleworth, 46, began his career at Penn Power in 1989.  He held a number of supervisory and management positions at FirstEnergy's utility companies before being named director of Operations Support for The Illuminating Company in 2010.  He was named director of Operations Services for Potomac Edison in 2012 and returned to his former position at The Illuminating Company in 2014.

Photos of these executives are available on Flickr.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence.  Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York.  Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements based on information currently available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management's intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "forecast," "will," "intend," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Forward-looking statements involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, which may include the following: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, in general, and the retail sales market in particular; the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution and Regulated Transmission segments and to successfully implement our revised sales strategy in the Competitive Energy Services segment; the accomplishment of our regulatory and operational goals in connection with our transmission plan and pending distribution rate cases and the effectiveness of our repositioning strategy; the impact of the regulatory process on pending matters in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates and pending rate cases, and the Electric Security Plan IV in Ohio; the impact of the federal regulatory process on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulated entities and transactions, in particular FERC regulation of wholesale energy and capacity markets, including the PJM markets and also FERC-jurisdictional wholesale transactions, FERC regulation of cost-of-service rates, including FERC Opinion No. 531's revised Return on Equity methodology for FERC-jurisdictional wholesale generation and transmission utility service and FERC's compliance and enforcement activity, including compliance and enforcement activity related to NERC's mandatory reliability standards; the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from American Transmission Systems, Incorporated's realignment into PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.; economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins such as a polar vortex or other significant weather events, and all associated regulatory events or actions; regulatory outcomes associated with storm restoration costs, including but not limited to, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Irene and the October snowstorm of 2011; changing energy, capacity and commodity market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil, and their availability and impact on margins; the continued ability of our regulated utilities to recover their costs; costs being higher than anticipated and the success of our policies to control costs and to mitigate low energy, capacity and market prices; other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including, but not limited to, possible greenhouse gases emission, water discharge, and coal combustion residuals regulations, the potential impacts of Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, and the effects of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rules including our estimated costs of compliance; the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures that may arise in connection with any litigation, including New Source Review litigation, or potential regulatory initiatives or rulemakings (including that such expenditures could result in our decision to deactivate or idle certain generating units); the uncertainties associated with the deactivation of certain older regulated and competitive fossil units, including the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing thereof as they relate to, among other things, Reliability Must Run arrangements and the reliability of the transmission grid; the impact of other future changes to the operational status or availability of our generating units; adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes with respect to our nuclear operations (including, but not limited to the revocation or non-renewal of necessary licenses, approvals or operating permits by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant); issues arising from the indications of cracking in the shield building at Davis-Besse; the risks and uncertainties associated with litigation, arbitration, mediation and like proceedings, including, but not limited to, any such proceedings related to vendor commitments; replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or not fully hedged; the ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards and energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; changes in customers' demand for power, including, but not limited to, changes resulting from the implementation of state and federal energy efficiency and peak demand reduction mandates; the ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic and financial goals, including, but not limited to, the ability to continue to reduce costs and successfully execute our announced financial plans designed to improve our credit metrics and strengthen our balance sheet through, among other actions, our previously-implemented dividend reduction and our other proposed capital raising initiatives; our ability to improve electric commodity margins and the impact of, among other factors, the increased cost of fuel and fuel transportation on such margins; changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of certain liabilities and the value of assets held in our Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and/or our subsidiaries to make additional contributions sooner, or in amounts that are larger than currently anticipated; the impact of changes to material accounting policies; the ability to access the public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with our announced financial plans, the cost of such capital and overall condition of the capital and credit markets affecting us and our subsidiaries; actions that may be taken by credit rating agencies that could negatively affect us and/or our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, letters of credit and other financial guarantees; changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and/or our major industrial and commercial customers and other counterparties with which we do business, including fuel suppliers; the impact of any changes in tax laws or regulations or adverse tax audit results or rulings; issues concerning the stability of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business; and the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and other similar factors. The foregoing review of factors should not be construed as exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of any such factor on FirstEnergy's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. FirstEnergy expressly disclaims any current intention to update, except as required by law, any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  

www.firstenergycorp.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/firstenergy-utilities-announces-leadership-changes-in-akron-pennsylvania-met-ed-and-toledo-edison-300024888.html

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

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