Mr. Sterling Ashley Spainhour Jr.

Southern Company

Sterling Spainhour serves as executive vice president and chief legal officer for Atlanta-based Southern Company, one of America’s largest energy providers.

He previously served as senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer for Georgia Power. In that role he oversaw Georgia Power’s corporate services,
legal, compliance, sustainability, land and security functions. He is also past senior vice president and general counsel of Southern Company Services, where he led the legal organization of the shared services company that supports Southern Company’s operating company subsidiaries.

Prior to joining Southern Company, Spainhour was a partner of the law firm Jones Day where his practice focused on a wide range of transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He previously served as counsel for CNN where he was responsible for advising the cable news network’s internet divisions on a full range of legal matters.

He currently serves as a board member of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, Gray Television, Emory Healthcare Network and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Arts & Sciences Foundation.

He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Duke University School of Law and Fuqua School of Business.