Atlanta, Georgia-based Southern Company appointed Chief Accounting Officer and Comptroller David Poroch as its next CFO, with Poroch to succeed Daniel Tucker in the role effective July 31, the utility said in a Friday press release.

Tucker, who has served as the company’s CFO since September 2021, will remain with the company as a senior advisor until his retirement on Oct. 1, after which he is poised to entering into a two-year consulting agreement with Southern Company Services, according a securities filing. Tucker is expected to receive $300,000 annually for his services during that time, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Poroch’s appointment is “another example of the strong, deep leadership bench we have built here at Southern Company and a testament to our robust, long-term succession planning,” CEO Chris Womack said in a statement included in the Friday release. “We know that to continue serving customers with excellence for decades to come we need to have the right pipeline of leaders in place.”

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Both Poroch and Tucker are expected to join the company’s upcoming Q2 earnings call, which is scheduled to take place July 31, according to the press release.

Poroch, 56, has held multiple executive roles during his 12-year tenure at the energy firm, joining in 2012 as its chief audit executive, according to his LinkedIn profile. Past roles include serving as EVP, CFO for Southern Company Gas and as EVP, CFO and treasurer for subsidiary Georgia Power. He has served as its SVP, CAO and comptroller since March 2023.

The compensation decisions for Poroch in the role of CFO have yet to be determined, according to the Friday SEC filing. For the full-year 2024, Tucker as CFO received total compensation of approximately $5.2 million, comprised of an annual base salary of $829,267, about $2.4 million in stock awards and $1.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, according to the company’s latest proxy.

The CFO appointment comes as the utility continues to keep an eye on growing demand in its data center segment — reporting an 11% jump in data center sales for its Q1 of 2025, Tucker said during the company’s earnings call on May 1. Southern Co. pointed to higher utility revenues as a driver for its Q1 adjusted earnings, reporting $1.3 billion in net income, compared to $1.1 billion in the prior year period, according to its earnings results. The energy firm also saw a 17% jump in operating revenue, driven in part by higher utility costs, reporting $7.8 billion compared to $6.6 billion in Q1 2024.

The company has also kept a careful watch on tariffs, CEO Womack said, noting “there’s clearly policy uncertainty and in turn, our assessment of tariff implications have varied,” during the company’s Q1 2025 earnings call. At the time of the call on May 1, the company estimated “a range of 1% to 3% of potential cost increases with the top of the range representing the higher end of tariffs that existed for only a few days last month.”

The U.S. tariff market has continued to see rapid change over the past few months, as the Trump administration continues to go back and forth on agreements with key trade partners such as Canada. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced in a post on Truth Social a plan to implement a 50% tariff on copper imports — which could lead to price jumps for various goods such as electronics and automobiles, as well as potentially drive up household energy costs, CNBC reported.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump also announced a plan to levy a 35% tariff on goods imported from Canada, according to a letter posted on Truth Social, CFO Dive sister publication Supply Chain Dive reported.

Imports not subject to the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement have been subject to a 25% tariff since March, but the Thursday letter, addressed to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, does not specify if the 35% tariff will replace the 25% duty or how it will impact the exemption, Supply Chain Dive reported.

The majority of materials Southern Co. sources from Canada and Mexico comply with the USMCA trade agreement and therefore qualify for zero tariffs, Womack said during its May 1 earnings call. However, the company is “working proactively to get any remaining vendors or purchases compliant as well,” he said.