COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 14, 2015 – American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has named Natalie J. McCord vice president, Safety & Health, effective Dec. 19. McCord will report to Lisa Barton, AEP’s executive vice president, Transmission, who oversees AEP’s Safety & Health program. McCord is replacing Ken Frazier who retired from the company at the end of October.

“The health and safety of our employees are paramount at AEP. I am delighted that Natalie has agreed to contribute her diverse work experience, her exemplary leadership track record and her long-term commitment to the safety and welfare of our employees to this critically important position. I’m confident that under her leadership, our safety performance will only continue to improve as we focus on making sure that every AEP employee knows and believes that zero harm is achievable and that all injuries are preventable. We will not be satisfied until every person who works at AEP goes home safely every single day,” Barton said.

McCord, 55, has been director, Transmission Construction – West Region, for AEP since March 2012. In that role, she had oversight for all transmission construction in four states, including responsibility for enhancing safety performance. Previously, she was manager, Distribution, for AEP Ohio’s Columbus Region, a position she held from June 2006 through March 2012. As distribution manager, McCord was responsible for construction, service, and design for approximately 600,000 customers in the Columbus area, including developing strategies for enhancing customer service, oversight for distribution outage management, and restoration and procedure planning for routine and emergency conditions.

McCord has worked at AEP since 1992 and has held a variety of management positions for the company in distribution, engineering design and distribution dispatch in Oklahoma, Ohio and Louisiana. She joined AEP from Oklahoma Gas & Electric where she worked as an electrical engineer technician. McCord has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma City University. She is a registered professional engineer in Oklahoma. 

McCord is a member of the board of directors for The Tulsa Casa and the United Way Women’s Leadership Council Steering Committee. She also is a founding member of the Tulsa chapter of WELD (Women for Economic Leadership and Development).

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to nearly 5.4 million customers through 223,000 miles of distribution lines in 11 states. AEP owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a more than 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP also ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning approximately 32,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP’s utility units operate as 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 and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio