At a Glance

  • Southern Company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, announced in a press release on Friday the appointment of David Poroch, Chief Accounting Officer and Comptroller, as its next Chief Financial Officer, effective July 31, succeeding Daniel Tucker. The company stated this in apress release.
  • Tucker, who has served as the company's CFO since September 2021, will remain as a senior advisor until his retirement on October 1, after which he plans to enter into a two-year consulting agreement with Southern Company Services. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tucker will receive $300,000 annually during this period.
  • Poroch's appointment is "another example of the strong and deep leadership bench at Southern Company and our robust long-term succession planning," Chief Executive Officer Chris Womack said in a statement in Friday's press release. "We know that building the right leadership pipeline is essential to continuing to serve our customers with excellence for decades to come."

Deep Dive

According to the press release, both Poroch and Tucker are expected to participate in the company's second-quarter earnings call scheduled for July 31.

Poroch, 56, has spent 12 years at Southern Company, holding various executive positions. He joined the company in 2012 as Chief Audit Executive. According to his LinkedIn profile, he served as Executive Vice President and CFO at Southern Company Gas and as Executive Vice President, CFO, and Treasurer at subsidiary Georgia Power. Since March 2023, he has served as Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer, and Comptroller.

Poroch's compensation package as CFO has not yet been determined, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday. According to the company's latest proxy statement, Tucker received total compensation of approximately $5.2 million as CFO for the full year 2024, including an annual base salary of $829,267, approximately $2.4 million in stock awards, and $1.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation.

The CFO appointment comes as the utility company continues to focus on growing demand in the data center sector. Tucker said on the May 1 earnings call that the company's first-quarter 2025 data center salesgrew 11%. Southern Company noted that higher utility revenues were a driver of its first-quarter adjusted earnings, with the company reportingnet income of $1.3 billion, compared with $1.1 billion in the same period last year. The company's operating revenue also rose 17% to $7.8 billion, up from $6.6 billion in the first quarter of 2024, partly due to higher utility costs.

The company is also closely monitoring tariff issues. "There is clearly policy uncertainty, and our assessments of tariff impacts vary," CEO Womack said on the first-quarter 2025 earnings call. On the May 1 call, the company estimated "potential cost increases ranging from 1% to 3%, with the upper end of the range representing the higher tariff levels that lasted only a few days last month."

Over the past few months, the U.S. tariff landscape has continued to shift rapidly, with the Trump administration repeatedly wavering on agreements with major trading partners such as Canada. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social announcing plans to impose a 50% tariff on copper imports—which could lead to higher prices for various goods such as electronics and automobiles, and could potentiallydrive up household energy costs, CNBC reported.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump also announced plans to impose a35% tariffon goods imported from Canada, according to a letter posted on Truth Social, as reported by Supply Chain Dive, a sister publication of CFO Dive.

Imports not covered by the USMCA have been subject to a 25% tariff since March, but Thursday's letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not specify whether the 35% tariff would replace the 25% tariff or how it would affect exemptions, Supply Chain Dive reported.

Womack said on the May 1 earnings call that most of the materials Southern Company sources from Canada and Mexico comply with the USMCA trade agreement and are therefore eligible for zero tariffs. However, he said the company is "also actively working to qualify any remaining suppliers or purchases as well."