Executive Search Success Story: Building the Leadership Team to Scale an Investor-Owned Water Utility Through Municipal System Acquisitions

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped an investor-owned water and wastewater utility with the operations, regulatory, engineering, corporate development, and customer leadership required to acquire and integrate 40 municipal and private systems, win rate cases, and double its customer base across five states.

The Challenge

An investor-owned water utility had adopted a growth strategy built on acquiring small municipal and private water and wastewater systems that could not fund compliance and infrastructure renewal on their own, with a target of doubling customer connections in five years. Its leadership had run a stable regulated utility but had never acquired at pace; acquired systems carried deferred maintenance and compliance issues that strained operations; regulatory approvals and rate recovery for acquisition investments varied by state; and customer service had suffered as new systems were absorbed. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the strategy:

• An acquisition target of 40 systems in five years with no corporate development function
• Acquired systems with deferred maintenance and compliance issues straining operations
• Regulatory approval and rate recovery for acquisitions handled inconsistently across five state commissions
• Capital investment prioritization unable to keep pace with acquired system needs
• Customer service deterioration during system transitions
• Investor expectations for growth with maintained regulated returns

Recognizing that the strategy required leadership built for acquisition-driven utility growth, the Chief Executive Officer and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs & Rates, Vice President of Engineering & Capital Investment, Vice President of Corporate Development & Acquisitions, and Vice President of Customer Operations. The company required an executive search partner with deep utility expertise and access to leaders who had scaled regulated water businesses through acquisition.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Water & Wastewater Treatment Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving water and wastewater organizations, including investor-owned utilities, with a clear understanding of regulated utility economics, rate-making, system acquisition, and the leadership profiles that grow utilities while maintaining compliance and returns.

Regulated Utility Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives for investor-owned water and energy utilities, with a clear understanding of commission relationships, rate cases, and capital investment recovery.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated operations, regulatory, engineering, corporate development, and customer searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single growth strategy.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Growth Strategy Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the Chief Executive Officer, board, and general counsel to review the acquisition pipeline, regulatory landscape, acquired system conditions, capital plans, and customer metrics, defining five executive profiles aligned with the growth strategy.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operations, regulatory, engineering, corporate development, and customer executives at investor-owned water and energy utilities, public water systems, regulatory consultancies, and engineering firms who had led documented acquisition programs and rate case successes. Over 410 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of acquiring and integrating municipal systems, winning acquisition approvals and rate recovery before state commissions, prioritizing capital across large system portfolios, operating multi-state utilities, and maintaining customer service through transitions. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented growth plans to the Chief Executive Officer and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified acquisition, regulatory, and operational outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 410+ utility, regulatory, and engineering executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning operations, regulatory, engineering, corporate development, and customer operations within seven months.
• Closed 42 system acquisitions in four years, ahead of target.
• Secured acquisition approvals and rate recovery in all five states and won three rate cases.
• Directed $900M of capital to acquired systems and resolved all inherited compliance issues.
• Doubled customer connections to 2.2 million with returns maintained.