One Man’s Opinion
by Jesse J. Lewis, Sr.
It’s not every year that one of our city’s and state’s most influential corporations gets a new leader. It’s not even every decade.
But last week, it happened. Alabama Power Company announced that Charles McCrary was retiring after more than 12 years as the company’s president and CEO.
Charles has been a friend of our community. But more than that, he has helped move this city forward in more ways than I can list.
It was McCrary who, in 2006, threw down the gauntlet and publicly warned his fellow Birmingham business leaders that the city was losing ground to smaller Alabama cities to the north and south: Huntsville, Montgomery and Mobile. It was a desperately needed, clarion call that helped shake the city out of its doldrums.
Since then, many positive things have taken place in Birmingham. We have more enlightened leadership at City Hall. Downtown is undergoing a renaissance, and the city just completed a very successful commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the civil rights struggle that changed this community and the world. Yes, there are still many problems facing the city and our neighborhoods, but we are clearly making progress.
I’m sad to see Charles go. But I am heartened to learn who will be his successor.
The Alabama Power board of directors chose wisely when they elected Mark Crosswhite to succeed McCrary as the company’s chief executive.
Crosswhite knows Alabama Power, and its parent company, Southern Company. He has served both in multiple capacities since joining Southern in 2004 as senior vice president and general counsel. His postings have included serving as Alabama Power’s top lawyer; head of its external affairs operations; chief executive officer of Alabama Power’s Florida-based sister company, Gulf Power; and chief operating officer over all of Southern Company.
Crosswhite also has had a distinguished career as a partner in the Birmingham law firm of Balch and Bingham, where he worked for 17 years, mainly on utility and energy related cases.
Crosswhite is the first person who will tell you that he has big shoes to fill in following McCrary. But he will also tell you that he is thrilled to be back at Alabama Power, and thrilled to be in Birmingham, which he considers home.
Crosswhite’s family goes back a long way in Alabama, to the early 19th century. Raised in Decatur, he has spent most of his adult life in our city. His breadth of experience, inside Alabama Power and out, his knowledge of the issues facing the company, his knowledge of our community and its challenges, his commitment to continue Alabama Power’s close involvement in making our community better – they make Crosswhite a solid choice as the company’s new leader.
