Fort Valley State University Honors President of Atlanta Gas Light Company - Isaac Blythers Receives Platinum Achievement Award

March 8, 2004

ATLANTA, Ga. - (March 8, 2004) - Isaac Blythers, president of Atlanta Gas Light Company (AGLC), was presented Sunday with the prestigious Platinum Achievement Award from the Cooperative Development Energy Program at Fort Valley State University (FVSU).

The Platinum Achievement Award is Cooperative Development Energy Program's (CDEP) highest honor and is given to minorities and women who have achieved high-level positions in the fields of energy or education. Also being honored with Blythers on March 7 were Sandra R. Miller, vice president power generation and senior production officer, Savannah Electric; Dr. Waverly Person, chief geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center; and Dr. John. T. Wolfe Jr., assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

The awards were presented at CDEP's Industry Awards Banquet on March 7. Blythers also served as keynote speaker at the school's 21st annual Energy Career Day Scholarship Awards Luncheon on March 8.

"It is exciting to see African-American students embracing careers in the energy industry, which offers so many opportunities," said Blythers, who in 1973 was the first African-American accountant hired by AGLC, a subsidiary of AGL Resources (NYSE: ATG). He became president of AGLC in 2002. "Fort Valley State is to be commended for its efforts to encourage students to go into technology-oriented fields."

Created to attract minority students to careers in the energy industry, CDEP began in 1982 as a public-private partnership to provide student internships with natural gas and power companies. Today the program has evolved into a dual degree program with 73 students studying for degrees in engineering, health physics and geophysics through Fort Valley State's partnerships with Georgia Tech, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

"Isaac Blythers and the other honorees are stellar examples for our students," said Dr. Isaac J. Crumbly, associate vice president for collaborative programs at FVSU and director of CDEP. "We are delighted to have this opportunity to learn about the paths they took on their way to success."

In addition to overseeing the management of AGLC, Blythers is president of another AGL Resources subsidiary, Chattanooga Gas Company. He has 31 years of professional experience with the company and has held a variety of positions within AGLC including accountant, manager, assistant division manager, assistant vice president and division manager, and vice president of the metro region.

Blythers is active in a number of metro Atlanta organizations including the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (life member), DeKalb Alumni Chapter of Morris Brown College, Leadership Atlanta and the Atlanta Chapter of 100 Black Men. In addition, Blythers serves on the board of directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, Junior Achievement, Communities in Schools, Emory University Board of Visitors, DeKalb County Zoning Board of Appeals, Senior Citizens Services Foundation and the John C. and Dorothy J. Tucker Foundation.

He is a graduate of Morris Brown College with a bachelor's degree in accounting. Blythers and his wife, Melody, live in Stone Mountain.

Past recipients of the CDEP Platinum Achievement Award include Anthony James, president and CEO of Savannah Electric; Corlis Cummings, senior vice chancellor for support services of the University System of Georgia; Robbie Gries, president and CEO of Priority Oil & Gas Company; Enciso Gonzalo, vice president of Ocean Energy; and Teresa Alvillar-Speake, director of the Office of Economic Impact and Diversity of the U.S. Department of Energy.