FirstEnergy Announces Leadership Changes at Its Jersey Central Power & Light Subsidiary

AKRON, Ohio, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced that James V. Fakult, formerly president, Maryland Operations, has been named president, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L).  He succeeds Don Lynch, who has elected to retire after more than 37 years with JCP&L.  The change will be effective June 3, 2013.

In related organizational moves, Anthony Hurley, currently director, Operations Services, Toledo Edison, has been promoted to vice president of Operations, JCP&L, effective May 13, 2013.  Ralph Hillmer, currently director, Operations Support, JCP&L, has been named director, Operations Services, JCP&L.  He succeeds Craig Hotchkiss, who was named director, Operations Services, Ohio Edison.  In addition, Patricia Mullin, currently general manager, Regional Operations Services – East, JCP&L, has been named director, Operations Support, JCP&L.  These moves will be effective April 29, 2013.

Fakult joined the company in 1987 as an associate marketing representative with Ohio Edison, another FirstEnergy subsidiary.  Following a series of marketing-related promotions, he was named director, Sales, in 1999.  In 2001, he was named director, Large Commercial & Industrial Segments and was later promoted to director, Customer Support.  He was named general manager, Regional Operations Support, for Ohio Edison in 2008.  Following the FirstEnergy merger with Allegheny Energy in February 2011, Fakult was promoted to president, Maryland Operations.  He earned a bachelor's degree in marketing from Cleveland State University and a master's degree in business administration from Ashland University.

"Jim has been an important member of our utility management team for years and was responsible for the smooth integration process we experienced in Maryland as a result of the merger," said Senior Vice President and President, FirstEnergy Utilities Charles E. Jones.  "He has a proven track record of enhancing customer satisfaction and service reliability."

Lynch joined JCP&L in 1976 as a power station engineer and was promoted to various management positions throughout the company's generation operations.  In the mid-1990s, Lynch began working on the utility side of the company, ultimately being named regional president of Central New Jersey for GPU in 2000.  After the merger of FirstEnergy and GPU in 2001, Lynch was named president of the Central Region for JCP&L, and became regional president for Northern and Central regions in 2005.  He was promoted to president, JCP&L in 2009.

"Don has been a valued member of JCP&L's management team and I will miss his knowledge, dedication, and the commitment to safe operations he instilled throughout the company," said Jones. 

Hurley joined the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company in 1980 and was named manager, Regional Engineering Services in 2003.  In 2005, he was named director, Operations Support, Toledo Edison, and in 2011 promoted to director, Operations Services. 

Hillmer joined JCP&L in 2008 as director, Regional Operations Support – East, and was named director, Operations Support, the following year.  Prior to joining JCP&L, he worked for Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc., as general line supervisor.

Mullin joined JCP&L in 1985 in an administrative capacity and worked in a variety of positions prior to being named manager, Remittance Center, in 1994.  The following year, she was named manager, Lakewood Line Shop, and in 1997, was promoted to manager, Customer Operations at Metropolitan Edison.  In 2002, she was named manager Regional Operations Services for JCP&L and was promoted to general manager, Regional Operations Services – East, in 2008.

JCP&L serves 1.1 million New Jersey customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren.  Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L and Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL.

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," "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.  Actual results may differ materially due to: the speed and nature of increased competition in the electric utility industry, in general, and the retail sales market in particular, the impact of the regulatory process on the pending matters before FERC and in the various states in which we do business including, but not limited to, matters related to rates and pending rate cases, the uncertainties of various cost recovery and cost allocation issues resulting from ATSI's realignment into PJM, economic or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, regulatory outcomes associated with Hurricane Sandy, changing energy, capacity and commodity (including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil) market prices and availability and their impact on retail margins, financial derivative reforms that could increase our liquidity needs and collateral costs, the continued ability of our regulated utilities to collect transition and other costs, operation and maintenance costs being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, and revised environmental requirements, including possible GHG emission, water discharge, water intake and coal combustion residual regulations, the potential impacts of CAIR, and any laws, rules or regulations that ultimately replace CAIR, and the effects of the EPA's MATS 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 NSR 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 unscrubbed regulated and competitive fossil units, including the impact on vendor commitments, and the timing thereof as they relate to, among other things, the RMR arrangements and the reliability of the transmission grid, 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 NRC or as a result of the incident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant), adverse legal decisions and outcomes related to ME's and PN's ability to recover certain transmission costs through their TSC riders, the impact of future changes to the operational status or availability of our generating units, 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 inadequately 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 successfully complete the proposed West Virginia asset transfer and to improve our credit metrics, 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, the ability to experience growth in the Regulated Distribution segment and to continue to successfully implement our direct retail sales strategy in the Competitive Energy Services segment, changing market conditions that could affect the measurement of liabilities and the value of assets held in our NDTs, pension trusts and other trust funds, and cause us and 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 financing 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 our subsidiaries' access to financing, increase the costs thereof, and increase requirements to post additional collateral to support outstanding commodity positions, LOCs and other financial guarantees, changes in national and regional economic conditions affecting us, our subsidiaries and our major industrial and commercial customers, and other counterparties including fuel suppliers, with which we do business, issues concerning the stability of domestic and foreign financial institutions and counterparties with which we do business, the risks and other factors discussed from time to time in our SEC 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 the business of FirstEnergy or the Companies 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 and the Companies expressly disclaim 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.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.