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James S. Pignatelli to Retire as Chairman, President and CEO of UniSource Energy

^{Published on 2008-12-10 14:53:26 - Market Wire}
 

TUCSON, Ariz.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--James S. Pignatelli will retire as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of UniSource Energy Corporation (NYSE: UNS) and affiliates Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and UniSource Energy Services (UES) effective December 31, 2008.

UniSource Energy's Board of Directors is reviewing potential successors to Pignatelli and expects to complete that task in the near future.

Pignatelli, 65, has held his current posts since July 1998, when he succeeded outgoing Chairman, President and CEO Charles Bayless. Pignatelli had served as a Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer after coming to TEP in 1994 on the heels of a five-year stint as President and CEO of Mission Energy Company in Irvine, Calif.

"Under Jim Pignatelli's leadership, UniSource Energy has generated value for shareholders while greatly improving its financial stability and providing reliable service to a customer base that has nearly doubled in size during his tenure," said John L. Carter, Lead Director, and a member of UniSource Energy's Board of Directors since 1996.

Pignatelli oversaw a significant expansion of TEP's infrastructure, including the construction of one of the world's most productive solar arrays and an upgrade that increased the output of the company's largest power plant by more than 50 percent while reducing its overall emissions. He also engineered the 2003 acquisition of the gas and electric distribution systems that now serve nearly 240,000 UES customers across Arizona.

Those investments and the ongoing improvements that have helped TEP and UES reliably meet their customers' growing energy needs have coincided with significant debt reductions and a dramatic improvement in UniSource Energy's credit ratings. The company also has increased its dividend each year since the quarterly payments to shareholders were reestablished in 2000.

These accomplishments were remarkable, Carter said, because they came during a period when TEP's rates were capped at a level beneath what the company charged in 1994. Pignatelli helped negotiate a settlement agreement establishing new rates that took effect this month upon a unanimous vote of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).

"The resolution of TEP's long effort to establish new rates leaves UniSource Energy in a very strong position which will continue under Pignatelli's successor," Carter said.

Carter said TEP and UES will maintain the strong community service ethic that has flourished through the award-winning employee volunteer program established under Pignatelli's leadership. Over the past decade, UniSource Energy has leveraged significant resources in support of employees' volunteer efforts to assist hundreds of non-profit groups across Arizona.

"Our employees understand that a company's success is determined in large part by its impact on the communities its serves," Pignatelli said. "By that measure, I believe we have plenty to be proud of."

Pignatelli said he was grateful for the efforts of the company's employees. "Whoever the board chooses as my successor," he said, "our dedicated and talented work force will ensure that the company remains focused on providing reliability, service and value to customers and shareholders alike."

UniSource Energy's primary subsidiaries include Tucson Electric Power Company, which serves nearly 400,000 customers in southern Arizona; UniSource Energy Services, provider of natural gas and electric service for about 236,000 customers in northern and southern Arizona; and Millennium Energy Holdings, parent company of UniSource Energy's unregulated energy businesses. For more information about UniSource Energy and its subsidiaries, visit uns.com.