Company Bios

Laurent Auguste

President and CEO, Veolia Water Americas

Mr. Auguste is president and CEO for Veolia Water Americas, leading Veolia Water's municipal and industrial business activities in both North and South America. He is a member of the Executive Committee for Veolia Water, the world's No. 1 water company.

Based in Chicago, Mr. Auguste has been active in the development of the Water Impact Index, Veolia Water's new tool for measuring the impact of human activity on water resources. He advocated that the Great Lakes serve as the first global implementation site of this new tool, along with the first-ever carbon-water study of a major metropolitan water cycle.

He's also the founder of www.growingblue.com, a data-driven, online water resource about our global water challenges. Mr. Auguste is an active board member of the Clean Water Americas Alliance and the Milwaukee Water Council.

Steven L. Hopper

Executive Vice President, Industrial Business Group

In his role as executive vice president, Industrial Business Group, Mr. Hopper manages business operations, growth activities and technology development for oil and gas industry and chemical industry clients in the Americas.

This includes managing P&L activity for an approximate $95M business unit, consisting of 325 people serving approximately 65 clients through long-term contracts and partnerships.

Mr. Hopper is an experienced business manager with experience in P&L management, operations & maintenance (O&M) management, fixed asset management, investment & risk assessment, service contract negotiations, business development, process engineering and construction management.

Mr. Hopper holds a Bachelors degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from the University of Houston. He is also active in participating in Executive Programs at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Frank Benichou

Executive Vice President and Chief Municipal Officer

Frank Benichou is the executive vice president and chief municipal officer of Veolia Water North America. He oversees all municipal operations in North America and manages P&L activity, in addition to supervising the Technical, IT and Sourcing departments. He is responsible for ensuring the application of group strategy, policies and procedures as well as the development and implementation of methodologies and tools for all municipal activities in North America.

Mr. Benichou joined Veolia Water in 1995, where he worked in different operational management positions for more than 10 years in Europe. From 2005 to 2010, he was the CTO in the Asia Pacific Region, covering the countries from China to Australia/New Zealand. Included in his responsibilities as a CTO, he oversaw IT, customer service, purchasing and health and safety departments for the Asia Pacific region.

His previous experience includes Altran Technologies Company where he was a project manager in Europe, and the French General Consulate in Hong Kong as a civil servant for the scientific department. He holds a Master degree of Science in Engineering from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble, France) and a Master degree of Science in Management from the Boston University in Brussels, Belgium.

John Wood

Executive Vice President, VWNA and President, Central Region

Mr. Wood provides leadership for a company serving municipal customers in a region that encompasses the central and mid-Atlantic United States, as well as all of Canada. He also manages our company's delivery of industrial services for clients throughout North America.

On the municipal side, Mr. Wood directs the work of a team of over 1,000 employees who provide operations, maintenance and management, design-build-operations and related water and wastewater services to a diverse client base. His focus includes expanding our business base with existing clients, building long-term relationships with new clients, and maintaining a focus on the company's quality of service and delivery of value.

In recent years, he has provided leadership for the successful development, procurement and implementation of a public-private partnership with the city of Indianapolis for the management and operation of its water system, as well as a new wastewater partnership with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). The Indianapolis project is the largest water partnership in the United States—a 20-year, $1.5 billion contract, which includes operations, management and maintenance, capital projects and customer service for a water system that serves over 1.1 million people daily. The contract with the MMSD represents the largest wastewater partnership in the county -- a 10-year agreement valued at more than $400 million.

On the industrial side he is responsible for managing a team that serves the needs of more than 90 industrial clients at locations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. At these sites the company provides water treatment and supply for process and potable use, wastewater collection, treatment and disposal, as well as the management of hazardous and-hazardous industrial wastes. These services are delivered using conventional operations and maintenance contract approaches, and innovative design/build/operate approaches with ownership and financing.

Mr. Wood has almost 40 years of industry experience and has worked with Veolia Water for more than 20 years in project development, client relations, sales and marketing, and project management capacities. Prior to joining Veolia Water, he managed numerous municipal utilities and regional water services companies. His project management experience includes water and wastewater treatment facilities, solid waste projects, industrial pretreatment programs, resource recovery facilities and land application programs.

He is a recipient of the Water Environment Federation's William D. Hatfield Award, which is presented annually to operators of wastewater treatment plants for outstanding performance and professionalism.

Keavin L. Nelson, P.E.

Executive Vice President, VWNA and President, East Region

Mr. Nelson provides leadership for a company serving a broad base of municipal clients in the six New England states, as well as in the State of New York. The Northeast business operates and manages water and wastewater facilities for more than 40 customers with a staff of more than 450.

Mr. Nelson's responsibilities include managing an autonomous business operations group that provides operations, maintenance and management, design-build-operations and related water and wastewater services to this diverse client base. His focus includes expanding the company's business base with existing clients, building long-term relationships with new clients and maintaining a focus on service quality and value for the more than 50 communities that Veolia Water serves in the region.

Prior to this, Mr. Nelson was Senior Vice President for Operations and the Capital Programs Management (CPM) group for the Northeast, LLC. In this dual role, he was responsible for directing and supporting design/build, design/build/operate (DBO) and capital project work at Veolia Water operated and managed sites in the region.

Mr. Nelson's other professional experience has involved serving in management and project development roles with Veolia Water predecessor companies. This work included developing Public-Private Partnership project strategies for major municipal projects in the U.S. and Canada, with specific responsibility for developing and managing project teams, design/build and design/build operate projects (from conceptualization to execution), as well as negotiating contracts and labor agreements.

Mr. Nelson holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Structural Design and Construction Management from Pennsylvania State University, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of Pennsylvania and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia.

James "Jim" Good

Executive Vice President, Veolia Water North America - West

As of November 2010, Jim Good leads the company's West Region, which provides water and wastewater services in seven states. In this role, he is responsible for the safe and compliant provision of operations, maintenance and management, design-build-operation and related services to this diverse client base. From 2001 to 2006, he was vice president of Municipal Development for the West Region where he was responsible for securing new municipal business in states from Texas to Hawaii.

Mr. Good's experience in the water industry includes having served as vice president of Corporate Communications and Marketing for California Water Service Company (Cal Water) for seven years and Director of Congressional Relations for the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC) for three years prior to joining Veolia Water North America.

He is a graduate of Cornell University with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and has a Master's degree in Finance from Golden Gate University. He served as vice chair for the National Association of Water Companies in 1991-1994, and is a member of multiple other water associations.

Eric Robben

General Counsel

Eric joined Veolia in January 2008, bringing significant experience working in commercial litigation for an international law firm in The American Lawyer Top 100. As General Counsel, Eric provides legal advice to senior management and supervises the risk, insurance and compliance functions, as well as the legal team, providing support to the municipal and industrial business units. He is also the primary liaison between the VWNA legal department and the Veolia Water and Veolia Environnement legal departments in Paris.

Eric has also provided counsel for labor and employment matters across VWNA and has assisted in development and negotiation of alternative contracting and Peer Performance Solutions projects including Winnipeg, New York City and Pittsburgh.

Eric received a bachelor's degree in English from Notre Dame and his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

Jean-Paul Bonnec

Chief Financial Officer

Jean-Paul Bonnec serves as the company's CFO. In this capacity he is responsible for the company's finance and accounting function. Mr. Bonnec comes to Chicago from Paris, where he served as Finance Director for Veolia Water's global business since 2008.

Mr. Bonnec brings to this position more than 20 years of financial experience at Veolia Environnment. Prior to this position, he has held various financial posts for Veolia Environmental Services, Veolia Transportation and Veolia Water.Since joining the company in 1990, Mr. Bonnec's positions have included four years as CFO for Veolia Transportation - Northern & Eastern Europe in Stockholm and four years as CFO for Veolia Transportation - UK in London. Most recently, he was CFO of Veolia Water Europe, where he oversaw financial activities in 14 different countries.

Prior to his time at Veolia Environnment, Mr. Bonnec spent five years working in the audit sector at Arthur Andersen. Mr. Bonnec has expertise in corporate funding, investment and development, controlling ,company and contractual law, contractual negotiation and privatization of public utilities.

Mr. Bonnec holds an MBA from Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Nantes (Audencia) in France.

Mary Lynn Smedinghoff

Executive Vice President, Human Resources

Mary Lynn Smedinghoff is executive vice president, Human Resources, leading all human resources activities for Veolia Water North America, as well as coordinating human resources initiatives across the Veolia Environnement businesses in North America.

Ms. Smedinghoff joined Veolia Water in 2008 with a wealth of broad and diverse experience spanning more than 20 years in a variety of industries. In addition to her skills as a human resources generalist in areas such as benefits and compensation and labor relations, she has demonstrated expertise in organization development, talent acquisition and management and change management.

Her experience includes tenure with Armco (AK Steel), The NutraSweet Company, Rand McNally & Company and The Millard Group, where she held positions of increasing responsibility. In addition, she owned and managed a Chicago-based human resources consulting practice, providing HR services to small businesses. She has a bachelors degree from the University of Illinois in Management, and Masters of Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State.

Harald Jensen

Executive Vice President, Business Development

Mr. Jensen leads Veolia Water's municipal business development activities in North America. He is responsible for the sales, marketing, proposal and bid development functions, acquisition analysis, and the evaluation of project financing approaches. In particular, Mr. Jensen has led the effort to introduce and grow Veolia's Peer Performance Solutions offering in North America

Mr. Jensen has led many complex business development initiatives in the utility industry internationally over the last twenty years, at Veolia since 2006, and prior to that at American Water, Enron and WBI.

Mr. Jensen holds a European Masters in Management degree and is a Diplomkaufmann graduate.

David L. Gadis

Executive Vice President, VWNA

As executive vice president of sales, marketing and government affairs, David Gadis supports the company's North American municipal growth strategy, helping deliver Veolia's expertise to communities needing help with infrastructure and water issues.

Serving most recently as president of Veolia Water Indianapolis, Gadis directly managed the operations and management of Indianapolis' water treatment, storage and supply system, serving one million people in Indianapolis and central Indiana.

With Veolia Water, which began to manage the system in 2002, Gadis helped Veolia earn the United States Conference of Mayors' 2006 Public/Private Partnership Award, as well as the Mayor of Indianapolis' Celebration of Diversity Award and the Indiana Minority Supplier Development Council's Circle of Excellence Award. Gadis worked with his colleagues at Veolia to increase procurement opportunities for diverse firms by 600%.

Edwin Piñero

Chief Sustainability Officer, Veolia Water North America

Appointed chief sustainability officer for Veolia Water North America in 2010, Mr. Piñero leads Veolia Water's sustainability efforts in North America. He works to support programs at company operations as well as develop and implement sustainable programs and services for Veolia Water's clients.

The company's North American operations serve more than 14 million people in approximately 650 communities.

A graduate of State University of New York and Texas A&M University, Mr. Piñero began his environmental services career in the southern United States working as a geologist with Mobil Oil Corporation in 1980. In 1989, he served as director of environmental services with RETTEW Associates, where he successfully led environmental projects involving both the government and public sector. In 1998, he took the position of Pennsylvania Energy Director, serving the Governor of Pennsylvania. In 2003, he took his work to a federal level, serving as the deputy federal environmental executive at the White House where he focused on industrial ecology, sustainability and federal-state cooperation.

Dan Ryan

Executive Vice President, Management Systems and Health & Safety

Serving as executive vice president, Management Systems and Health & Safety since 2009, Mr. Ryan establishes and implements procedures for enabling continuous improvement towards maintaining high standards of quality, reliability, safety and compliance across the company.

He is responsible for ensuring that company systems, services, standard operating procedures and work practices are efficient and effective, and that they meet both internal and external requirements

Mr. Ryan served as the company's vice president, Environmental, Health and Safety for 10 years where he developed, monitored, implemented and supported all aspects of the EH&S program. Before this, he was responsible for safe and compliant operation, maintenance and management of wastewater treatment facilities since 1979 and water treatment facilities since 1990.

Mr. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Health & Safety from Columbia Southern University. In addition, he has participated in numerous wastewater management programs and workshops. Mr. Ryan is an active member in professional associations such as the Water Environment Federation, Ohio Water Environmental Association and American Society of Safety Engineers.

Scott Edwards

Executive Vice President, Communications

Scott Edwards is executive vice president - Communications of Veolia Water North America and also coordinates communications initiatives for Veolia Environnement North America. With 20 years of experience in marketing communications including 10 years of experience in environmental services, Mr. Edwards provides strategic direction to the company's communications activities.

He is responsible for communications and community relations functions for Veolia Water North America's operations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles in governmental, public works and water industry trade publications.

As a communications consultant, Mr. Edwards has received a number of awards from the Public Relations Society of America. He received a B.A. in Psychology from Louisiana State University.