People
California Water Service Group Names Pottenger to Board of Directors
California Water Service Group today announced the election of Carol M. Pottenger to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective September 27, 2017. The first female three-star Admiral in American history to lead in a combat branch, Pottenger served for 36 years in the U.S. Navy. One of the first ..
Nebraska Utility Exec Chosen to Lead National Trade Group
COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska Public Power District executive will lead a national utility trade group for the next year. NPPD’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Kent was recently chosen at the president of RMEL. The group serves the utility industry with education and networking services. The util..
Hired for His Strong Back in 1957, Honored for Brain in 2017
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — When Willie Holsclaw started working for the Elizabethton Water Department, he didn’t really get a lot of respect. It was 1957 and the city did not have any backhoes in its fleet back then. All the water department needed was a man with a strong back to dig ditches in al..
Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management Names Ajay Jain to Board of Directors
The Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management (IAFSM) recently appointed HR Green’s Ajay Jain, PE, CFM, to its Board of Directors. As a member of the Board, Jain will also be chairing the Inter-Organization Committee, charged with assuring regular communication between IAFSM and ..
Colin Sabol Appointed President of Xylem’s Sensus & Analytics Businesses
Xylem Inc. has named Colin Sabol Senior Vice President and President of Sensus & Analytics, effective October 1. Sabol succeeds Randy Bays, who will move into an advisory role with a focus on Xylem’s global manufacturing operations. Both will report to Xylem President and CEO, Patrick Decker. Xylem..
Ukiah Valley Sanitation District Announces New General Manager
The Ukiah Valley Sanitation District has named Joe Tait General Manager. In his new role, Tait will be responsible for navigating the district through its lawsuit against the City of Ukiah, while also restructuring the district and driving innovation and best management practices to provide ratepaye..
Ex-Water Corporation Boss Gets 8 Years for $1 Million Fraud
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — The former head of a not-for-profit corporation formed to oversee the water services for the city was sentenced on Friday to more than eight years in prison for accepting nearly $1 million in kickbacks. Linda Watkins Brashear pleaded guilty in 2015 to fraud for participating in ..
CommScope CFO to Retire
CommScope today announced that Mark Olson, executive vice president and chief financial officer, intends to retire from the company, effective March 31, 2018. CommScope will retain a leading executive search firm to help identify the company’s next chief financial officer and will consider internal..
Miners & Pisani, Inc. Expands Presence In Utility Market
Miners & Pisani, Inc. has hired two industry veterans to lead the company’s utility sales division, representing Honeywell’s HPS – Honeywell Process Solutions line of natural gas measurement, flow correction and flow control products as the Authorized Distributor and Channel Partner for gas utilitie..
Leadership Change Made at Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch has named Joe Lauria Vice President and Director of Planning and Growth for the Americas in the company’s water business. In this new role, Lauria will help clients identify and implement sustainable solutions to evolving water challenges. Based in Irvine, California, his primary focu..
Arizona Utility Regulator to Join Trump Administration
PHOENIX (AP) — A member of the state commission that regulates utilities is resigning to take a job with the Trump Administration in Washington. Commissioner Doug Little announced Wednesday that he has accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Energy and will step down Sept. 29. Little is one of ..
Black & Veatch Makes Leadership Change
Black & Veatch has named Bruce Duff Managing Director of Design-Build within its water business. Duff will be based in the Company’s Toronto metro area office. “As a variety of alternative delivery methods continue to gain traction in the industry, this leadership role was established and integrate..
Trial Scheduled Against Ex-Ohio Water Plant Operator
SEBRING, Ohio (AP) – A trial is still planned for a fired water plant operator charged with misdemeanors for what authorities say was his failure to notify residents of a northeast Ohio village about lead in their drinking water. The Vindicator reports that an attorney for 61-year-old James Bates, ..
Forterra Names New Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Forterra, Inc. today announced the appointment of Charlie Brown as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective Sept. 25, 2017. Brown is an industry veteran with over 25 years of experience driving growth and improvement at manufacturing and construction materials companies. He wi..
Greeley and Hansen Names New Co-Managing Director of Northeast Operating Group
Greeley and Hansen yesterday announced that Glenn R. DiGiovanni, P.E., CCM, has joined the firm as Co-Managing Director of the Northeast Operating Group. DiGiovanni has over 30 years of client and program management experience with the planning, design, and construction of wastewater, water, and..
FERC Names New General Counsel
FERC has named James P. Danly General Counsel, effective Sept. 18, 2017. He will replace David Morenoff, who has served as General Counsel since February 2017 and will assume the position of Deputy General Counsel once the transition is complete. Danly comes to FERC from the energy regulation and l..
Robert P. Powers Named to ALLETE Board of Directors
Robert P. Powers, recently retired vice chairman of American Electric Power (AEP), has been elected to ALLETE Inc.’s board of directors, effective Aug. 23, 2017. Powers’ career in the energy industry spans 41 years through his retirement in August 2017. He most recently served as a senior adviser t..
Xcel Energy Elects New Board Member
Xcel Energy has elected David K. Owens to the company’s board of directors effective immediately. An executive with extensive experience in public policies concerning energy and utility operations, Owens is recognized as an industry expert on business transformation. After 36 years of service, Owen..
New Chief of Staff Named at FERC
Anthony Pugliese has been named Chief of Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Since January 2017, Pugliese has served as Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he helped oversee all aspects of the department, including pipeline safety and regulatory..
Paul Stellato Named Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of Xylem
Xylem Inc. has appointed Paul Stellate to Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, effective immediately. Reporting to the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Rajkowski, Stellato will oversee all aspects of Xylem’s financial reporting, accounting policies..
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn Appointed to Xylem's Board of Directors
Xylem Inc. has announced that Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn has been elected to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Beliveau-Dunn currently serves as Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Technical Services, a global organization that supports Cisco’s customers. In that role, Be..
Fired Engineer Sues Utility
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A fired engineer at a now-aborted Mississippi Power Co. plant sued the utility’s parent company Tuesday, saying an order to reinstate him is being ignored. Brett Wingo of Homewood, Alabama, filed the whistleblower retaliation case in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama. Wingo..
Houston Wire & Cable Company Elects Haley to Board of Directors
Houston Wire & Cable Company has elected Roy Haley to its Board of Directors. Haley will also serve as a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Haley currently serves as a director of Essendant Inc. (formerly United Stationers, Inc.), where he serves as the chair of the Audit Committee. ..
People in Business
Neel-Schaffer Doug Wimberly, P.E., P.S., joined the multi-disciplined engineering and planning firm with offices throughout the South, as a senior project manager in the Hattiesburg, MS, office. Matt Keeney, P.E., structural engineer, has joined the firm’s Tuscaloosa MS, office, overseeing all str..
Three Trenchless Technology Leaders Join SippTech
SippTech has finalized the addition of three of trenchless technology experts, Dr. Tom Iseley, Joe Barsoom, and Robert Affholder, to the company’s leadership team. “I was both honored and humbled when these gentlemen demonstrated such a sincere interest in becoming a part of SippTech’s senior manag..
Former CoBank CEO Joins Alaska Power & Telephone
Bob Engel, former Chief Executive Officer at CoBank, has joined the Board of Directors of Alaska Power & Telephone Company, one of Alaska’s leading independently-owned utility companies. During his tenure at CoBank beginning in 2000, Engel employed his passion for what he considers two of our count..
Portland General Electric Announces CEO Succession Plan
Jim Piro, president and CEO of Portland General Electric (PGE), notified the company’s board of directors on July 26, 2017 of his decision to retire on Dec. 31. As part of the company’s leadership succession plan, the board of directors has appointed Maria Pope, senior vice president of Power Supply..
Lisa Duarte Joins Illinois American Water’s Board of Directors
Illinois American Water today announced Lisa Duarte has joined the company’s Board of Directors. Duarte is currently a partner in the government affairs group of Forde Law Offices and has extensive experience in government affairs in the state of Illinois. As a board member, Duarte will bring an in..
UGI Corporation Elects Theodore A. Dosch to Its Board of Directors
UGI Corporation has elected Theodore A. Dosch to the company’s Board of Directors, effective July 25, 2017. Dosch currently serves as Executive Vice President-Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Anixter International, a leading global distributor of network and security solutions, electrical and ..
American Water’s Dr. Mark LeChevallier Appointed to Water Science & Technology Board
American Water’s Vice President and Chief Science Advisor, Dr. Mark LeChevallier, has been appointed to the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies). The Water Science and Technology Board was established in the Nationa..
- OSHA cites Florida contractors for trench safety violations at sewer and excavation sites
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- Cadiz to reuse steel from terminated Keystone XL pipeline for California groundwater project
- Texas contractor penalized by OSHA for repeated trench safety violations
- West Virginia approves $67 million for water, sewer projects