COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandra Beach Lin, former president and chief executive officer of Calisolar Inc., has been elected to the American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) Board of Directors.
Lin, 54, was president and chief executive officer at Calisolar (now Silicor Materials) from August 2010 to December 2011. She previously served as a corporate executive vice president at Celanese Corp., a global hybrid chemical company, from July 2007 to July 2010 and was group vice president of Specialty Metals and Converting Worldwide, a business unit of Avery Dennison Corp., from 2005 to 2007. Lin was president of Alcoa Closure Systems International from 2002 to 2005 and also held leadership positions at several divisions of AlliedSignal Inc. (now Honeywell International Inc.), including service as president of Bendix Commercial Vehicle systems. Lin also has served in leadership roles at Smith & Nephew Perry, Crest Ultrasonics Corp. and American Cyanamid Co. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of WESCO International, an electrical products distribution company, since 2002.
"Sandra brings extensive global leadership experience from a variety of industries to our board at an important time of transition for AEP. We welcome and will benefit from her insights as we expand our focus into more competitive ventures, including the move to competition in Ohio, growing our retail energy business, and expanding our transmission investments both within and outside of our traditional footprint," said Nicholas K. Akins, AEP president and chief executive officer.
A native of Toledo, Ohio, Lin earned a bachelor's degree in general management from the University of Toledo. She earned a master's of Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Lin is a director of Junior Achievement USA and a member of the Committee of 200. She currently lives in Flower Mound, Texas.
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. 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.
SOURCE American Electric Power