AKRON, Ohio, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. today announced that Richard J. Horak, previously director, Integrated Business Planning, has been named to the position of Assistant Controller. John W. Judge has been named director, Integrated Business Planning for FirstEnergy. Mr. Judge was previously director of Commodity Supply Planning for FirstEnergy Solutions, FirstEnergy's competitive subsidiary. The changes are effective September 2, 2007.
In his new role, Mr. Horak will report to Harvey L. Wagner, vice president, controller, and chief accounting officer. Mr. Judge will report to Tony C. Banks, vice president, Business Development, Performance and Management.
"These changes are part of our efforts to broaden the roles, responsibilities and professional experience of our talented leaders within the company," said Mark T. Clark, senior vice president, Strategic Planning and Operations. "We are building upon the experience of John and Rick, while taking advantage of their strengths, skills and background," he said.
Mr. Horak joined the company in 1973. He became an audit supervisor in 1988, was named manager, Internal Auditing, in 1989, and in 1998 he became manager, Business Planning. Mr. Horak was promoted to director of Performance Planning in 2001, and was named to his most recent position in 2004. He earned a bachelor of science degree in Business Economics from Purdue University, and he is a Certified Public Accountant. He is also treasurer of Mature Services, a Summit County United Way Agency serving older adults.
Mr. Judge joined FirstEnergy in 1998 as a senior staff business analyst. Later that year he was named manager of Cross Business Initiatives. In 2001, he was promoted to director of Business Solutions, and he was named director of Gas Product Line in 2003. He was named to his most recent position in 2004. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Judge held positions in corporate development and product portfolio management at Bell Atlantic. He received a bachelor of arts degree in Economics from the University of Miami, and earned a master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University. Mr. Judge is a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Akron where he teaches in the Finance department. He is also a member of the United Way's Community Investment Review Team.
FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its seven electric utility operating companies comprise the nation's fifth largest investor-owned electric system, based on 4.5 million customers served within a 36,100-square-mile area of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and its generation subsidiaries control more than 14,000 megawatts of capacity.
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 typically contain, but are not limited to, the terms "anticipate," "potential," "expect," "believe," "estimate" and similar words. Actual results may differ materially due to the speed and nature of increased competition and deregulation in the electric utility industry, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices, replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged, the continued ability of FirstEnergy's regulated utilities to collect transition and other charges or to recover increased transmission costs, maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, legislative and regulatory changes (including revised environmental requirements), and the legal and regulatory changes resulting from the implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (including, but not limited to, the repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935), the uncertainty of the timing and amounts of the capital expenditures needed to, among other things, implement the Air Quality Compliance Plan (including that such amounts could be higher than anticipated) or levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving the New Source Review litigation, adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes (including, but not limited to, the revocation of necessary licenses or operating permits and oversight) by the NRC (including, but not limited to, the Demand For Information issued to FENOC on May 14, 2007) and the various state public utility commissions as disclosed in our SEC filings, the timing and outcome of various proceedings before the PUCO (including, but not limited to, the Distribution Rate Cases and the generation supply plan filing for the Ohio Companies and the successful resolution of the issues remanded to the PUCO by the Ohio Supreme Court regarding the Rate Stabilization Plan) and the PPUC (including the Pennsylvania Power Company Default Service Plan filing), the resolution of the Petition for Review filed with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania with respect to the transition rate plan for Met-Ed and Penelec, the continuing availability and operation of generating units, the ability of generating units to continue to operate at, or near full capacity, the inability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals (including employee workforce initiatives), the anticipated benefits from voluntary pension plan contributions, the ability to improve electric commodity margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, the ability to access the public securities and other capital markets and the cost of such capital, the outcome, cost and other effects of present and potential legal and administrative proceedings and claims related to the August 14, 2003 regional power outage, any final adjustment in the purchase price per share under the accelerated share repurchase program announced March 2, 2007, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC filings, and other similar factors. We expressly disclaim any current intention to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
