American Electric Power issued the following announcement on Oct. 16.

American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has named Julius Cox senior vice president and chief human resources officer effective Oct. 21. Cox will succeed Tracy A. Elich, vice president, Human Resources, who is retiring Dec. 31 after more than 43 years with the company.

Cox will have responsibility for strategically aligning human resources functions and processes in support of AEP's overall business strategy including oversight of employee relations, leadership and organization development, culture and diversity, benefits and compensation, operations, wellness and productivity for AEP's 18,000 employees. He will report to Lana Hillebrand, executive vice president and chief administrative officer.

"Julius has extensive experience in our industry, particularly related to organizational transitions in times of significant change. He helped to lead a successful culture transformation at Dynegy that positioned the organization for success following restructuring. His leadership also enabled Dynegy to successfully manage significant business challenges within the volatile competitive energy space," Hillebrand said.

"Tracy has built a very strategic, high-performing team during her time leading our human resources organization. We will greatly miss her contributions and wish her all the best in her retirement," Hillebrand said.

Cox, 47, comes to AEP with more than 20 years of human resources experience in the energy industry. He was most recently executive vice president and chief transformation officer for Dynegy where he led a strategic transformation initiative designed to make the company more competitive. Previously, Cox was Dynegy's chief administrative officer with responsibility for human resources, information technology, business services, investor relations, regulatory and governmental affairs and communications. Cox joined Dynegy in 2001 as a human resources director and held progressive leadership roles in human resources.

Before joining Dynegy, Cox was a consultant at Arthur Andersen and worked in human resources roles at Shell Oil and Neiman Marcus.

A native of Houston, Cox earned a bachelor's degree in business management and a master's degree in human resource management from Texas A&M University. He also completed the Wharton Advanced Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania and previously served as an Independent Director for the Midwest Reliability Organization.

American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is focused on building a smarter energy infrastructure and delivering new technologies and custom energy solutions to our customers. AEP's approximately 18,000 employees operate and maintain the nation's largest electricity transmission system and more than 219,000 miles of distribution lines to efficiently deliver safe, reliable power to nearly 5.4 million regulated customers in 11 states. AEP also is one of the nation's largest electricity producers with approximately 32,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including nearly 5,300 megawatts of renewable energy. AEP's family of companies includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas and the Texas Panhandle). AEP also owns AEP Energy, AEP Energy Partners, AEP OnSite Partners, and AEP Renewables, which provide innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide. For more information, visit aep.com.

Original source can be found here.