Mississippi Power announces Gifford Ormes, Melvin Roland as vice presidents
Gulfport, Miss. – Mississippi Power recently announced the appointments of Gifford Ormes as Vice President of External Affairs and Customer Growth and Melvin Roland as Vice President of Power Delivery and Division Operations.
“The addition of Gifford and Melvin to our Management Council will continue the long history of successful leaders in these key roles,” said Mississippi Power President and CEO Anthony Wilson. “Over the course of his career, Gifford has established important win-win relationships with our local, state, and federal elected officials as well as our major customers. Melvin brings broad expertise in Power Delivery, serving as our Transmission General Manager and Distribution General Manager since 2022.”
Ormes was named Marketing and Sales Director in 2020 where he set a new strategy and vision to successfully reach aggressive growth goals and earn some of the company’s highest scores in customer value surveys. He has also guided the expansion of the company’s Lighting Services team.
The Ocean Springs, Miss., native has spent much of his 33-year career at Mississippi Power in External Affairs. Ormes previously served as Government and Community Affairs Manager and Legislative Affairs Manager. He joined the company in 1991 as a student co-op in Distribution Engineering Operations. He also worked in Economic Development and spent four years as Biloxi Area Operations Manager. Ormes will now oversee Mississippi Power’s Governmental and Community Affairs, Customer Solutions and Growth, Economic Development and Public Relations departments.
Roland is a native of Moss Point, Miss., and has directed Mississippi Power’s successful grid investment strategy that is on track to have 95 percent of customers on a self-healing network by the end of 2024 and made the company an industry leader in reliability. He is the past chair of the company’s Leadership Development Council and serves on several Southern Company Power Delivery committees aimed at improving reliability and customer service across the region.
Roland started his career in 2000 as an engineer at Georgia Power in substation design before coming to Mississippi Power to lead substation construction and maintenance, followed by positions of increasing responsibility in transmission and distribution. In this new role, Roland will oversee Mississippi Power’s Coast and Northern divisions, Power Delivery and Supply Chain departments.
Now in its 99th year of operations, Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and affordable energy for nearly 191,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. Mississippi Power was recognized by the Edison Electric Institute with an Emergency Response Award in 2023. The company was also a recent recipient of the Community Partner Impact Award from the Center for Energy Workforce Development for its innovative and ongoing efforts to build a diverse workforce. With nearly 160 megawatts of approved solar energy capacity, Mississippi Power is the largest partner in providing renewable energy in the state of Mississippi. Visit our websites at mississippipower.com and mississippipowernews.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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