Georgia Power chairman, president and CEO Paul Bowers announced that Pedro Cherry has been elected executive vice president of the company's Customer Service & Operations organization by the company's board of directors, effective March 31. Cherry succeeds Craig Barrs who recently announced his retirement from the company.

Since March 2015, Cherry has served as senior vice president of the Metro Atlanta Region for Georgia Power. In this role, he was responsible for the company's operations, sales, customer service, economic and community development, and external affairs activities for 1.2 million customers across metro Atlanta.

"Pedro's proven leadership and depth of experience, which spans multiple business units and system companies, will further strengthen the CSO organization and ensure we continue our excellent performance in reliability, responsiveness and customer service," said Bowers.

Cherry began his career with Southern Company in 1997 at Southern Energy Inc., the subsidiary that later became Mirant Corp., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, including chief financial officer for South America and the Caribbean Region, vice president of international finance and vice president of planning and performance management. He returned to Southern Company in 2006, serving as finance manager for Southern Generation/Southern Power and then as assistant to the chief financial officer of Southern Company.

In 2010, Cherry became Metro West Region manager for Georgia Power and in 2012 was named vice president of community and economic development. Prior to joining Southern Company, Cherry worked as an engineering and business analyst for Carolina Power and Light Corp.

Cherry earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering and an MBA in operations management and finance from Auburn University. He serves on the boards of the Atlanta Police Foundation, the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership and Zoo Atlanta, among others. He is chair of the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance and is also a member of the CFA Institute, 100 Black Men of Atlanta and Auburn's Alumni Engineering Council.