Jim Sullivan has been President of the Alabama Public Service Commission since 1983. When he was re-elected to the PSC in November 1996, Alabama voters gave him the largest margin of victory of any statewide candidate. In November 1998, he was elected president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the principal voice of the states on national energy and telecommunications policy.
Commissioner Sullivan holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Mississippi, which he attended on a football scholarship. After graduating from Ole Miss in 1968, he went on to the University of Alabama, earning a Master's Degree in Banking and Finance in 1969 and his law degree in 1973. In addition to his national leadership role through NARUC (of which he is now immediate past president), Commissioner Sullivan is a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He also holds a seat on the board of directors of the Argonne National Laboratory and the Keystone Energy Board, a privately funded think tank addressing a wide variety of energy-related issues, as well as the advisory councils of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and Nuclear Electric Insurance, Ltd. Under Commissioner Sullivan's leadership, Alabama ratepayers have enjoyed 18 reductions in BellSouth telephone rates totaling approximately $275 million. Meanwhile, Alabama Power Co.'s rates have declined approximately 5 percent overall during the past decade and currently are about 15 percent below the national average. Commissioner Sullivan and his wife, Susan, have been married 30 years. They have two grown children and one grandchild.Commissioner Sullivan's Staff:
G. Scott Morris,
Deputy Attorney General
Donna H. Dodd,
Executive Secretary
Carolyn Denham,
Administrative Support Assistant III
Wesley Barton, Laborer