Oct. 20, 2003 -- FirstEnergy Corp. announced that Barry Allen has joined its FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC) subsidiary as plant manager at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, effective October 31, 2003.

Reporting to Davis-Besse Vice President Mark Bezilla, Allen will be responsible for the plant's Maintenance, Chemistry, Radiation Protection, Operations and Outage Management and Work Control departments.

"Barry Allen will further strengthen the management of Davis-Besse as we near restart," said Bezilla. "He will bring additional energy, optimism and strong technical expertise at this vitally important time."

Allen has more than 17 years of experience in the nuclear power industry. He held numerous management positions at Entergy Operations Inc., including director of Engineering at the Waterford Nuclear Plant in Louisiana; manager of Maintenance at Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO) Nuclear Plant, where he also held the positions of lead system engineer and plant engineer. Most recently, he was with the River Bend Nuclear Station in Louisiana as manager of Emergency Preparedness.

Allen holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture Structures and a master's degree in Civil Engineering, both from Texas Tech University. He also was certified as a senior reactor operator at ANO.

FirstEnergy is a registered public utility holding company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity; exploration and production of oil and natural gas; transmission and marketing of natural gas; and energy management and other energy-related services.