AKRON, Ohio, March 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) today announced that Kevin R. Burgess, executive director, FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) Finance, has been named executive director, Internal Auditing, effective March 1.  Burgess replaces James D. Jenkins, who has elected to retire after 28 years with the company.  Nicholas P.  Fernandez, director of Portfolio Management for FES, replaces Burgess as director of FES Finance.

Burgess, who reports to James F. Pearson, senior vice president and chief financial officer, joined FirstEnergy in 1999 as manager, Business Services, for the W.H. Sammis and R.E. Burger plants.  He has held numerous financial accounting positions, including assistant controller, Corporate; assistant controller, FirstEnergy Utilities; and controller, FES.  He was named executive director, FES Finance, in November 2012.  Prior to joining FirstEnergy, Burgess was plant controller for a major office furniture manufacturer.

"Kevin brings a wealth of experience and integrity to this role, and I am confident that he will help ensure FirstEnergy's internal controls remain strong," Pearson said. "Under Jim's leadership, our Internal Auditing group helped to ensure that our company met the highest levels of governance standards.  He is a true professional and I wish him all the best in his retirement."

Burgess graduated from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and business, with an emphasis in accounting.  He also earned a Master of Business Administration degree from The Ohio State University.

Fernandez joined FirstEnergy in 1999 as an assistant business analyst in Fossil Operations. In 2002, he became a trading services specialist for FES. Fernandez served as manager, Supply Planning, and director, Provider of Last Resort (POLR), before being named director of portfolio management in 2012.

Fernandez holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting degree from Kent State University and a Masters of Business Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Jenkins joined FirstEnergy as supervisor of Internal Auditing in 1985.  He held management positions in the company's Material Management & Investment Recovery and Process & System Integrity groups before being promoted to director, Internal Auditing, in 2004.

Jenkins is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Internal Auditor.  He is a past president of the Canton/Akron chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors and a board member of the northeast Ohio chapter.  He is also a past member of the Lake, Ohio, school board and a current board member and treasurer of Pegasus Farm, a therapeutic equestrian center for individuals with disabilities, in Hartville, Ohio.

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.  Its generation subsidiaries control more than 20,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro, pumped-storage hydro and other renewables.  Follow FirstEnergy on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.

Editor's Note:

Photos of Burgess, Fernandez and Jenkins are available on Flickr.

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 market prices including, but not limited to, coal, natural gas and oil, 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. Dividends declared from time to time on FE's common stock during any annual period may in the aggregate vary from the indicated amount due to circumstances considered by FE's Board of Directors at the time of the actual declarations. A security rating is not a recommendation to buy or hold securities and is subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating agency. Each rating should be evaluated independently of any other rating. 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 FirstEnergy's business 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 expressly disclaims 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.