TULSA – American Electric Power has named Leigh Anne Strahler as president and chief operating officer of Tulsa-based Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. Strahler succeeds Peggy Simmons, who was appointed AEP’s executive vice president of utilities.
Strahler will be responsible for all aspects of PSO’s service, including customer service, distribution operations, safety, communications, external affairs and regulatory functions. She will report to Simmons, who in her new role leads the activities of all AEP utility operating companies and customer support.
“PSO achieved the highest customer satisfaction scores in company history in 2021 for both residential and commercial customers, while also bringing more clean energy to customers through the North Central wind projects,” Strahler said. “I look forward to working with the PSO team to continue this positive momentum and build upon our tradition of engaging in our communities and delivering clean, reliable energy and superior customer service.”
Strahler most recently served as vice president of regulatory and finance for PSO’s sister company, AEP Texas, where she was responsible for directing regulatory and financial activities. She previously was director of business operations support for Appalachian Power, another PSO sister company. Strahler joined AEP in 2006, and prior to that she worked for IBM Global Services.
Simmons was president and chief operating officer of PSO for more than four years. She serves on the Southwest Power Pool Members Committee and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Advisory Council.
PSO, a unit of AEP, is an electric utility company that serves more than 568,000 customer accounts in 232 communities in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. The utility serves at least 37 communities in southwest Oklahoma, including Lawton, Altus, Duncan, Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Porter Hill, Sterling, Hobart, Apache, Temple and Rush Springs.
PSO has approximately 3,800 megawatts of diverse generating capacity that primarily includes wind and natural gas. It maintains and operates more than 24,000 miles of distribution lines and 3,700 miles of transmission lines and is one of the largest distributors of wind energy in the state.