For immediate release: Oct. 28, 2004
David M. Ratcliffe, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Southern Co., has been reappointed chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s board of directors. Larkin Martin, managing partner of Martin Farm and vice president of The Albemarle Corp. in Courtland, Ala., has been reappointed deputy chairman. Their one-year terms as chairman and deputy chairman begin Jan. 1, 2005.
Ratcliffe assumed his current responsibilities with Southern Co., one of America’s largest producers of electricity, earlier this year. Previously, he had served as president and chief executive officer of Georgia Power Co. and executive vice president of Southern Co. since 1999. Ratcliffe joined Georgia Power Co. in 1971 as a biologist. He was named vice president of fuel services of Southern Co. Services in Birmingham in 1986. During his career he has served as executive vice president of Southern Co. Services, president and chief executive officer of Mississippi Power Co., senior vice president of external affairs of Southern Co., and executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer of Georgia Power Co.
Ratcliffe is active in the community, serving on the boards of directors of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Georgia Research Alliance and an inactive member of the Georgia Bar Association. He also serves as a trustee of Atlanta’s Woodruff Arts Center. Ratcliffe was named to the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors in 2002.
Martin is the managing partner of Martin Farm and vice president of The Albemarle Corp., both family businesses with interests in agriculture and timberland, row crop farming and cotton ginning. Before taking on these responsibilities in 1990, Martin was an associate as a commercial real estate appraiser with GA/Partners-Arthur Andersen & Co. in Washington, D.C., and a confidential assistant in the office of the secretary at the U.S. Department of Treasury. She is a former member of the board of directors of the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She also serves on the boards of the Business Council of Alabama and Leadership Alabama and is a director and officer of the Cotton Board, the chairman of the Cotton Foundation and a delegate to the National Cotton Council. Martin was named to the Atlanta Fed’s board of directors in 2003.
Each of the nation’s 12 Federal Reserve Banks has a nine-member board of directors. Three Class A directors represent national and state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. Three Class B directors are elected by these banks but represent commerce, industry, agriculture, labor and consumers. Three Class C directors represent the same broad array of public interests but are appointed by the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C.
The board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta oversees the management of the bank’s operations and recommends changes in the discount rate. Board members also contribute to the formulation of U.S. monetary policy through the economic information they provide the bank’s president.
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