DATE: Saturday, September 13, 1997          TAG: 9709130363

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

VA. POWER'S PRESIDENT NAMES NEW MANAGERS

Virginia Power president Norman Askew announced Friday his picks for the management team that will guide the electric utility through the great unknown of industry restructuring.

Askew, former president of the United Kingdom utility East Midlands Electricity, plc, took office last month. Dominion Resources, the parent of Virginia Power, acquired East Midlands in February for $3.6 billion.

Askew succeeds James T. Rhodes, who retired after serving with the company since 1971.

Virginia Power's latest lineup features a number of new positions, created to reflect the growing emphasis that upcoming changes in the industry will have on the company.

New executive vice president Thomas F. Farrell II shifts his general counsel duties from Dominion Resources Inc. to Virginia Power and will oversee all matters involving utility deregulation.

Said Ziai, a former Askew lieutenant at East Midlands, rejoins his boss as senior vice president of corporate strategy for Virginia Power.

``That position has not existed previously,'' said Virginia Power spokesman Carl Baab.

Its creation ``really puts an emphasis on planning for the competitive future,'' Baab said.

Eva S. Teig, a former vice president of external affairs who has come to be known as the voice of Virginia Power, rises to senior vice president for external affairs and corporate communications. She is the first female senior vice president in the company's history, Baab said.

Virginia Power's board of directors elected Thomas E. Capps chairman of the board. Capps also serves as chairman, president and CEO of Dominion Resources.

The heads of the company's nuclear, fossil and hydro, energy services and commercial operations business units will remain as they were under Rhodes.

Virginia Power is searching for a chief financial officer to replace finance chief Edgar M. Roach, who leaves for the position of Dominion Resources' executive vice president.

Dominion's board of directors also elected:

Richmond lawyer James F. Stutts as the holding company's vice president.

G. Scott Hetzer as vice president and treasurer.

Dominion Resources filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday to sell up to $950 million of debt securities and/or stock. The company said proceeds would be used in part to repay debt incurred by its purchase of East Midlands. Dominion stock closed at $37.063, up $0.438.

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