ST. LOUIS, Nov. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ameren Corporation (NYSE: AEE) announced today that effective Jan. 1, 2022, Mark Birk has been promoted to chairman and president of Ameren Missouri, an electric and natural gas delivery utility subsidiary of Ameren Corporation and Missouri's largest utility. He succeeds Marty Lyons, who will become Ameren's chief executive officer on Jan. 1. Birk is a 35-year veteran of the company.
Birk, currently Ameren Missouri's senior vice president for customer and power operations, has held many leadership positions at Ameren, including progressively more responsible roles overseeing energy delivery, power operations, strategic planning, energy trading, enterprise risk management, safety and nuclear corporate oversight. He is responsible for the engineering, construction, operations and maintenance of Ameren Missouri's electric and natural gas distribution systems and non-nuclear generation and energy management, as well as customer experience operations for more than 1 million electric and natural gas customers. He has been a member of Ameren's Executive Leadership Team since 2014.
"Mark is an outstanding leader who is passionate about customer service and operational excellence," Lyons said. "I am excited for him to lead Ameren Missouri. In the course of his career at Ameren, Mark has led numerous operating and corporate functions, always focusing on continuous improvement for the benefit of our customers, communities and shareholders."
Before assuming his current position in 2017, Birk served in a number of roles with Ameren across a variety of functions. He began his career with the company in 1986 supporting the Callaway Energy Center. In 1989, he joined the company's Meramec Energy Center. In 1996, he was promoted to supervisor in transmission operations and subsequently held a series of successively more responsible positions. He was promoted to general manager of energy delivery technical services in 2001; to vice president of energy trading in 2003; to vice president of power operations in 2005; to senior vice president, corporate strategy and enterprise risk management in 2012; and to senior vice president, corporate safety, strategy and nuclear operations oversight in 2014.
Birk has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master of science in electrical engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. In 2009, he earned a master of business administration from Washington University in St. Louis. In addition, he completed the Reactor Technology Course for Utility Executives at MIT.
Birk and his wife, Valerie, are residents of south St. Louis County. He is a cabinet member of United Way of Greater St. Louis, as well as a member of the Downtown St. Louis Advisory Board of Greater St. Louis Inc. He was previously the president and an executive committee member of the STL Community College Foundation.
About Ameren Missouri
Ameren Missouri has been providing electric and gas service for more than 100 years, and the company's electric rates are among the lowest in the nation. Ameren Missouri's mission is to power the quality of life for its 1.2 million electric and 132,000 natural gas customers in central and eastern Missouri. The company's service area covers 64 counties and more than 500 communities, including the greater St. Louis area. For more information, visit Ameren.com/Missouri or follow us on Twitter at @AmerenMissouri or Facebook.com/AmerenMissouri.
About Ameren Corporation
St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000- square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric transmission and distribution service and natural gas distribution service. Ameren Missouri provides electric generation, transmission and distribution services, as well as natural gas distribution service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois operates a rate- regulated electric transmission business in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Inc. For more information, visit Ameren.com, or follow us on Twitter at @AmerenCorp, Facebook.com/AmerenCorp, or LinkedIn.com/company/Ameren.
SOURCE Ameren Corporation
