Kenneth E. Coleman has been named president and CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), the region’s leading economic development organization. Coleman will be responsible for developing collaborative efforts between the BBA and its community partners to lead economic growth and expansion for the seven-county region, in addition to the day-to-day operations of the organization. He will begin his new role in Birmingham on July 20. He is a graduate of the Executive MBA program offered by the Manderson Graduate School of Business at The University of Alabama.
Coleman is currently interim president and CEO for the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce in Metro Atlanta. His 25-year, senior-executive career – mostly with Southern Company and its subsidiaries Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power and Southern Company Gas – has yielded significant accomplishments in stakeholder engagement, regulatory and legislative affairs, public policy, brand identity and economic development.
“I am excited to lead the Birmingham Business Alliance at such a pivotal time,” said Coleman. “The partnerships we strengthen, the jobs we help create and the support we provide to all businesses moving forward will shape Birmingham’s future as a leading metropolitan area. I look forward toworking closely with the public and private sector – old friends and new – to make that happen.”
Coleman’s early career was spent in Birmingham, first playing professional baseball with the Birmingham Barons and later working in business development for the Metropolitan Development Board, a predecessor organization to the BBA. He started with Southern Company in 1999 and held numerous senior executive roles during his time with the company. Among his many accomplishments, Coleman points to positioning Georgia Power as a leader in solar generation; developing a successful Smart Cities partnership between Georgia Power and the City of Atlanta; and serving as chairman of a $1 billion community-wide economic development program in Montgomery, which led to more than 10,000 new jobs and over $2 billion in new capital investment.
He received a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of New Haven, in New Haven, Connecticut in addition to his EMBA degree. He is married to Dr. Prentiss Coleman and they have two sons, Kamden and Kyle.