COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 2, 2008 – American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) has named Richard E. Munczinski senior vice president – shared services, according to Michael G. Morris, AEP’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.

In his new position, Munczinski, 56, will report to Carl L. English, AEP’s chief operating officer, and have responsibility for information technology, human resources and business logistics. He replaces Stephen P. Smith, who is leaving AEP to become chief financial officer for NiSource Inc. Munczinski is currently AEP’s senior vice president – corporate planning and budgeting.

Lonni L. Dieck, 49, currently vice president - RTO and public policy, will replace Munczinski as senior vice president – corporate planning and budgeting, reporting to Holly K. Koeppel, chief financial officer. Dieck will be responsible for corporate strategy development; oversight of financial planning, budgeting and reporting; fundamental analysis; and integrated resource planning functions for the AEP system.

Munczinski and Dieck will assume their new positions on June 1.

“Rich has developed a wealth of knowledge about all areas of AEP during his years heading our planning and budgeting group,” Morris said. “Planning and budgeting and the shared services functions each touch all of AEP’s operations, so Rich will be able to put that knowledge to work in his new position, ensuring that shared services best meets the needs of its internal customers.

“Lonni has held a number of positions in recent years that aligned closely with the planning and budgeting responsibilities that have prepared her for these new responsibilities,” Morris said.

Munczinski has been senior vice president – corporate planning and budgeting since 1998. He joined AEP in 1978 in the project engineering department and transferred to corporate planning and budgeting in 1982. He became director of rate case management in 1992 and vice president - regulatory services in 1996. During this period, he led the regulatory approval process for AEP’s merger with Central and South West Corp. Munczinski earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in management science from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Dieck has been vice president – RTO and public policy, since 2007. Dieck joined AEP in 1991 as a senior treasury staff accountant and held a number of positions in accounting before being named director – strategic analysis-projects, where she coordinated corporate and business unit-specific strategic initiatives and served as project manager for several integration and divestiture activities. She was then named vice president – commercial business services, followed by vice president – regulatory case management before assuming her current position in 2007. Dieck earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.