Ameren's chairman, CEO to retire at end of the year

ST. LOUIS -- The chairman and chief executive of Ameren Corp. will retire at year's end after 10 years at the helm of the St. Louis-based utility, the company said Friday.

Charles Mueller, who will be 65 when he steps down Dec. 31, will be succeeded in both positions by Gary Rainwater, the company's president and chief operating officer the past two years. Mueller, who joined the company in 1961 and has been CEO since Jan. 1, 1994, will remain on Ameren's board.

Rainwater, 57, has been elected an Ameren board member. Before becoming Ameren's president and COO, the 24-year veteran of the company spent nearly a decade managing and leading its corporate and strategic planning efforts.

Ameren serves 1.7 million electric customers and 500,000 natural gas customers in parts of Missouri and Illinois.

Mueller is credited with helping double Ameren's revenues to roughly $4.5 billion and nearly doubling the company's customer base. Under Mueller's watch, the company's market capitalization has risen 55 percent, to about $7 billion.

Under a management realignment announced Friday, Ameren named its senior vice president of finance, Warner Baxter, to be executive vice president and chief financial officer.

Ameren's board also elected Steven Sullivan, vice president of regulatory policy, to senior vice president, and tapped senior vice president Thomas Voss president of AmerenEnergy Inc. -- the company's short-term energy marketing organization -- and AmerenEnergy Resources Co., the corporate parent of AmerenEnergy Generating Co., the Illinois-based non-regulated generating arm of Ameren Corp.

Ameren shares fell 9 cents, or one-fifth of a percent, to close at $43.41 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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