PINEVILLE, La., - Cleco Corp. (NYSE: CNL) announced today the election of Shelley Stewart Jr. to its board of directors effective April 1, 2010. Stewart, 56, is the senior vice president of operational excellence and chief procurement officer for Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE: TYC), a diversified industrial company with operations around the world.
Stewart has held numerous senior-level supply chain and operational roles with leading industrial companies during his career, including Raytheon Co. and United Technologies Corp. where he spent 18 years. Prior to joining Tyco in 2003, Stewart was senior vice president of supply chain for Invensys PLC, a global technology group.

"Shelley has a wealth of operational leadership and business experience that will be invaluable to our board," said Cleco President and CEO Mike Madison. "We look forward to his contributions as we continue working to implement our growth strategy and look for additional growth opportunities that make our company stronger and better prepared for the future."

Stewart holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of New Haven, Conn., and earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in criminal justice from Northeastern University in Boston, Mass.

Stewart serves as chairman of the Institute for Supply Management, the world's largest supply management association. His other professional and civic affiliations include memberships on the boards of Howard University, Boys and Girls Club, Purchasing Magazine and Northeastern University Corp. Stewart was included in the 2009 Black Enterprise Magazine's "100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America." He also co-authored Straight to the Bottom Line: An Executive's Roadmap to World Class Supply Management.

Stewart will be a Class III director whose term of office will expire at Cleco's 2012 annual meeting of shareholders.