First Lady Michelle Obama recently recognized companies such as Ameren for pledging support to Joining Forces, which is asking private sector businesses to collectively hire or train 100,000 unemployed veterans and their spouses by 2013.
It is the second time in as many years Washington, D.C. has acknowledged Ameren’s commitment to hiring and supporting military veterans. A year ago, Ameren received the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award for going to extraordinary lengths to support its military employees. Now the company has now accepted the Joined Forces job challenge initiative. Ameren pledges to hire 200 veterans and military spouses over the next five years.
“We are proud of our legacy of hiring veterans,” said Thomas R. Voss, chairman, president and CEO of Ameren, and an Air Force veteran. “We have long supported our employees who are called for active duty by providing security and support through continued benefits to employed reservists and their families.”
Through the first eight months of this year, 10 percent of Ameren’s new hires have been military veterans. Overall, of Ameren’s 9,300 employees working in Illinois and Missouri, more than 600 are veterans.
“Today and long into the future, we believe veterans fill an important need at Ameren,” said Mark Lindgren, vice president, Human Resources, Ameren. “The skills, leadership and work ethic veterans bring to the company are absolutely essential to our mission – meeting our customers’ energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient an environmentally-responsible manner.”
With assets of approximately $23 billion, Ameren serves 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.
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CONTACT: Brian Bretsch, 314.554.4135, bbretsch@ameren.com