James Y. Kerr, II

Jim Kerr is the chairman, president, and chief executive officer at Southern Company Gas. He ensures the delivery of clean, safe, reliable, and affordable natural gas to nearly 4.4 million utility customers in Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia, and 600,000 retail customers. Additionally, Kerr oversees other non-utility businesses, including investments in interstate pipelines, a natural gas storage facility, and a renewable natural gas facility.

His Southern Company career began in 2014 as the executive vice president, chief legal officer, and chief compliance officer. Kerr is a respected voice in the energy industry and has extensive knowledge of federal and state energy policy regulations and has worked as a utility executive, an attorney in private practice, and a public servant. Currently, he serves on the board of directors for the American Gas Association, the Georgia Aquarium, the civic group Buckhead Coalition, and the mental health treatment organization Skyland Trail, and has served as president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Southern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. He is an active supporter of community legal organizations such as the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, and the Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta.

Kerr earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Washington and Lee University and a juris doctorate degree, with honors, from the University of North Carolina School of Law.