Alexia Borden (Alabama News Center)
A top woman executive has left Alabama Power, reportedly over a dispute involving the Matrix LLC consulting firm of Montgomery and its founder/CEO Joe Perkins. Alexia Borden a senior vice president, was considered a possibility to eventually become CEO. But Alabama Power let her walk out the door. Did Borden essentially lose a power struggle? It's hard to answer that question for certain, but her distaste for Perkins and Matrix appears to have led her to look for opportunities elsewhere. The whole scenario indicates Perkins and Matrix remain powerful players in the Alabama Power/Southern Company ecosystem, according to a post at banbalch.com
K.B. Forbes, publisher of the Ban Balch blog and CEO of its parent organization, the CDLU public charity and advocacy group, examines the Borden exit and other developments at scandal-plagued Alabama Power and its parent firm, Atlanta-based Southern Company. Under the headline "A Matrix Win? Alexia Borden Out at Alabama Power; Federal Probes Deepen," Forbes writes:
Did Alabama Power show unwavering loyalty to the diminutive political consultant “Sloppy Joe” Perkins?
With the looming mandatory retirement of Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Jeff Peoples, Alexia Borden, Senior Vice President, has left the embattled utility to become Executive Vice President at Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the largest construction firms in the United States.
Borden joined the construction company in January, but no official announcement has been made. Anonymous sources contacted us [yesterday[ to give us a heads up of the latest developments.
We always thought Alexia was an honorable person and that, as a successful and intelligent woman, she would eventually be promoted to Chairman and CEO of Alabama Power.
Not to be.
What IS to be? That's hard to say when you are talking about a company that seems enmeshed in perpetual turmoil. Sources tell Forbes Borden became fed up with what seemed to be an increasingly hostile work environment. Forbes writes:
Insiders claim she allegedly was overlooked, isolated, and sidelined by Peoples. Supposedly, she'd had enough.
“Sloppy” Joe Perkins, the founder of the obscure political consulting firm Matrix, allegedly still has enormous influence inside the utility and is still pulling in millions in consulting fees.
Demoted from General Counsel to “Customer Engagement” a year ago, Alexia had allegedly sought Matrix and Perkins’ ouster, an end to the decades-long relationship, according to insiders.
The third-party risk of Matrix and Perkins appears to be a huge liability and has cost, and will cost, more Alabama Power careers to come to a crashing end, as happened with Mark A. Crosswhite, the former Alabama Power CEO who resigned in disgrace in November of 2022.
Ignored, Alexia Borden finally left.
That's not all that's shaking at Alabama Power, where the intrigue never seems to stop. Forbes reports:
Others tell us several federal probes are ongoing, looking at the Southern Company Criminal Enterprise. Sources claim to know of a U.S. Department of Justice probe and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
The investigations are centered around the millions wasted carte blanche on covert political, surveillance, and investigative operations against perceived enemies that had no corporate purpose whatsoever.
The avalanche of requests for documents, invoices, financial records, emails, and obscure work orders surrounding her time as General Counsel created a no-win situation for Borden. She simply was overwhelmed with thankless tasks, sources say.
Even King & Spalding couldn’t keep her around the toxic environment of Alabama Power.
With a fresh start, a more relaxing environment, we wish Alexia all the best!
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