Southern Company Services President and CEO Mark S. Lantrip today announced that Tami M. Barronhas been elected president and CEO of SouthernLINC Wireless, an Atlanta-based regional wireless communications network, effective Feb. 1, 2015. She most recently served as vice president of Southern Company's supply chain management organization. 

In her new role, Barron will be responsible for providing reliable wireless communications service, including mobile phones, to a wide range of businesses and consumers within a 127,000-square-mile coverage area that includes Alabama, Georgia, southeastern Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.

"Technology and communication are ever-changing but vital parts of every phase of our business," said Lantrip. "Tami's understanding of our core business will be a tremendous asset as SouthernLINC Wireless partners with and supports Southern Company's operating companies, as well as our other individual and business customers across the Southeast."

Barron replaces Don Horsley, who will serve as chairman of the board of SouthernLINC Wireless until his retirement later this spring.

Barron, 53, joined Southern Company in 1984 and held a number of positions at subsidiary Georgia Power in the areas of marketing, area management and distribution operations before serving as general manager for distribution engineering, construction and maintenance. She spent three years at subsidiary Mississippi Power in engineering operations, where she served as division engineering and operations manager of the Pine Belt division in Hattiesburg.

Barron graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering. She earned a master's of business administration from Columbus College and is a graduate of the Goizueta Business School's Executive Program at Emory University.