2018 Agenda

Anthony Festa is a Director with Cushman & Wakefield’s Valuation & Advisory practice in New York and New Jersey, specializing in the valuation of machinery and equipment, as well as other tangible fixed assets. With more than 21 years of valuation experience, Festa has performed valuations of tangible fixed assets for multiple financial statement and tax reporting purposes.

Fred is the Enterprise Asset Strategy Manager at WSSC for water related assets. His responsibilities include developing comprehensive AM plans to manage capital investment priorities for over 500,000 water network and communications assets including water transmission and distribution system, facilities, pumping stations, dams, reservoirs, storage tanks, SCADA, microwave and security systems He also plays a major role in developing the enterprise asset management plan that incorporates all assets in four networks including wastewater, communications building and grounds. He is currently implementing a web enterprise asset management system and a comprehensive asset database to manage asset life cycle and prioritize needs. Related efforts include creating a system to monetize asset risk and establish performance standards for assets for use in making renewal decisions. Fred has been in the water and wastewater treatment industry since 1980 working for several industry manufacturers in a variety of technical and management positions.

Jason Bethke joined Global Water in 2007 as the director of engineering after providing water and wastewater consulting services to municipalities for a dozen years. He led the engineering and construction efforts for Global Water through both the boom and bust of the housing market. In 2009 his role was expanded to oversee customer care and billing and in 2010, Bethke assumed the role of vice president for FATHOM, subsequently being appointed president of FATHOM in 2013. Bethke brings more than 19 years of utility management and engineering experience related to water resources to FATHOM.

Andrew has 30 years of experience in utility finance and cost of service & rate design for water, wastewater, stormwater, solid waste and electric utilities. He is a former consulting manager for Black & Veatch and provided multi-year financial planning, cost of service studies, rate design, impact fee studies, and strategic valuation services throughout the United States, as well as the former assistant finance director for the City of Burleson, Texas. He has also taught cost of service and rate design courses for the Government Finance Officers Association of Texas as well as the Texas Section of the AWWA.

Amit Srivastava is part of the WIFIA Underwriting team. Prior to joining WIFIA he worked at the Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau where he played a lead role evaluating loan applications and assisting potential borrowers in the development of their application packages. Prior to the Bureau, Amit worked as a Portfolio Manager at the Export Import Bank of the United States, where he managed a portfolio consisting of wind and solar projects. Amit received his MPA from Columbia University and his B.S. from the University of Michigan.

Amit Srivastava is part of the WIFIA Underwriting team. Prior to joining WIFIA he worked at the Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau where he played a lead role evaluating loan applications and assisting potential borrowers in the development of their application packages. Prior to the Bureau, Amit worked as a Portfolio Manager at the Export Import Bank of the United States, where he managed a portfolio consisting of wind and solar projects. Amit received his MPA from Columbia University and his B.S. from the University of Michigan.

Eric Letsinger is the founder and CEO of Quantified Ventures, a for-profit impact investing firm that helps clients finance specific and measurable environmental, health and educational outcomes. He is a “tri-sector” executive, bringing 25-plus years of leadership experience in government, nonprofit and private sector organizations.

John Covington is a senior financial analyst with the U.S. EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center, where he has worked since May of 2016. Previously, he served for more than seven years as executive director of the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority where he spent more than 20 years in total.

Dan Hartnett is the chief advocacy officer for legislative and regulatory affairs at the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA), an organization of the nation’s largest publicly owned drinking water utilities. Hartnett manages all of AMWA’s relationships with members of Congress and their staffs, and in this capacity, he has worked on the legislation that created EPA’s WIFIA program and the tax reform bill that preserved tax-exempt municipal bond interest. After beginning his career on Capitol Hill, Hartnett has been with AMWA since 2007.

Chris has extensive experience assisting customers in developing strategies and solutions that maximize the effectiveness of their infrastructure. He brings a strong understanding of energy and operational efficiency programs, renewable energy technology, and municipal water and wastewater systems. Chris provides innovative technical, risk transfer and financial solutions to address customer’s unique and evolving needs.

Dr. Rao Chitikela is a Water, Energy, and Environmental Compliance Consultant, with RC-WEE Solutions. He is a registered professional engineer in OH, IN, MI, PA, NY, NJ, DE, and in Alberta-Ca. Rao is a civil and environmental engineer, obtained his Ph.D., in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware DE. Rao’s more than 30-yr professional experience includes working with both government and private entities and, the academia. His work accomplishments included in the specialty areas of: water infrastructure updating, drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, air pollution control, solid waste management, energy efficiency and renewable energy, and municipal and industrial environmental permitting and compliance auditing. Rao has published technical papers on the critical subject areas listed above, and are refereed. In addition, Rao has teaching and training experience. He is an active member of ASCE, NSPE, AWWA, WEF, IWA, ACS, A&WMA, SWANA, and AAEES, and participates on a good number of professional committees.

John Larson is the plant manager for the Norristown Municipal Waste Authority in Norristown, Pa., formed in 1993 for the purpose of operating the municipality’s sewer system. The Authority owns and operates the wastewater treatment plant and the collection sewers of Norristown. The plant serves both the municipality and the Township of West Norriton, Pa.

Kristy Tan Neckowicz is President of InVizion LLC, a project management software division of Pro2Serve. She has an extensive background in project portfolio management, scheduling and earned value analysis. Prior to her current role, she held various executive positions at Primavera Systems and Oracle Corporation, including Vice President of Product Strategy and Vice President of Customer Support.Having been a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 1993, Kristy has been repeatedly invited by PMI to speak at their annual global congresses. She was the Leader of PMI’s Scheduling Community of Practice for several years, and last year PMI invited her to be keynote speaker for their Scheduling Conference. Kristy is passionate about portfolio and project management, as evidenced by her hobby as an instructor of PMI Seminars Worlds and an adjunct professor for Lehigh University’s MBA program.

Michael Curley is a lawyer who has spent the majority of his career in project finance and the last 25 years in energy and environmental finance. He joined the Environmental Law Institute as a visiting scholar in 2013. He is the author of Finance Policy for Renewable Energy and a Sustainable Environment, published by Taylor & Francis in 2014. In 1990, Curley was appointed to the Environmental Financial Advisory Board at the U.S. EPA, where he served for 21 years under four presidents.

Brian Shell, P.E., is a senior technical principal and a licensed professional engineer with a technical background that spans most realms of infrastructure including facility/asset management, drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, alternative energy, transit systems, stormwater management, and transportation projects. Brian’s focus is on providing oversight and technical input to public-private partnerships (P3) and other alternative delivery projects, with an emphasis on the procurement process.

John Covington is a senior financial analyst with the U.S. EPA’s Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center, where he has worked since May of 2016. Previously, he served for more than seven years as executive director of the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority where he spent more than 20 years in total.

Robert Powelson began his new role as CEO of NAWC in August 2018. In August 2017, Powelson was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where he has served in the past year. Prior to his appointment to FERC, he served on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission since 2008, including as Chairman from 2011 to 2015. He is also a past president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

Prior to joining GLWA, Bateson served as CFO of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department, where she led its Financial Services Group through a significant transformation effort engaging cross-functional teams to achieve sustainable change. The result was a professionalized department with an unprecedented demonstration of transparency to all stakeholders. This pivotal effort supported intensive, collaborative discussions that were essential to forming the regional authority.

As chief financial officer of the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Jay Bernas is responsible for financial planning and analysis, capital financing, budget, treasury, accounting, procurement, customer care and business intelligence. He was previously HRSD’s Chief of Planning and Analysis and managed four technical sections: hydraulic modeling, GIS, data analysis and capital planning.

Joe Beach is the chief financial officer and treasurer for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) and has more than 30 years of experience in local government finance. As CFO for WSSC and as the finance director for Montgomery County Government in Maryland, Beach has led the issuance of over $5 billion in general obligation, revenue bond and other tax-exempt debt issuance to finance public infrastructure.

Mr. Kreps has been with Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. (Raftelis) since 2002, managing a variety of projects to assist water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities in addressing economic and financial issues. Key areas of focus include utility rate, cost of service, and financial planning studies; capital financing plan development; bond forecast and feasibility studies; economic impact assessments; and affordability program development. Mr. Kreps has extensive experience in financial forecasting and modeling including the application of advanced techniques in risk management.  Mr. Kreps holds a BBA in finance from James Madison University and a MBA from the University of Tennessee.

Matthew Brown has overall responsibility for DC Water’s financial management and policies, including: accounting operations and financial reporting; budget formulation and execution; program analysis and evaluation; treasury; controller; investment and debt management; and risk management. Brown previously served as the Director of the Office of Budget and Finance of the District of Columbia. Prior to his current position, he served as Director, Department of Transportation and as the Deputy Director for Resource Allocation for the District’s Department of Transportation, in addition to a variety of public sector management and budget positions for several large municipal government entities.

Jeff Hughes is the director of the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the University of North Carolina. The UNC EFC provides applied research, educational programs and advising services to local governments, non-governmental environmental organizations, private environmental service providers, utilities, and state and federal agencies. Hughes has 30 years of environmental finance experience as a researcher, policy analyst, consultant and practitioner.

Andrew Burnham is a vice president and global practice leader of Financial Services at Stantec, where he helps lead operations and business development activities for the group. Burnham has 18 years of experience in personally conducting, as well as overseeing cost of service allocations, long-term financial planning analyses, affordability studies and development of alternative rate structures for a variety of utility systems including water, wastewater, reclaimed water, stormwater, solid waste, recycling, electric and natural gas. He has been recognized as an industry expert as part of providing testimony in utility rate-related regulatory proceedings in multiple states and territories.

Tony Hyde has a vast and extensive public service background. He served as Columbia County Commissioner for more than 21 years in Oregon. In that role, he chaired the Columbia County Board of Commissioners, sat on the state Economic Development Commission and advised the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization across five counties. He also served as the President of the Association of Oregon Counties and as a Board Member for the National Association of Counties (NACo). He is credited for rebuilding the city of Veronica, where he served in roles from Mayor to City Council President. Hyde has been recognized for building effective public private partnerships, leveraging federal funds and dedicating himself to his community. In addition, former Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has recognized Hyde for all that he has done for Oregon.

Adam Krantz is CEO of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). Prior to that, he was managing director of government and public affairs at NACWA, where he worked since 2001. NACWA advocates on behalf of the nation’s public clean water agencies on an array of regulatory, legislative and legal issues geared toward ensuring sustainable clean water agencies and a move toward the Utility of the Future. Prior to his positions at NACWA, Krantz was an associate editor/reporter at Inside Washington Publishers, where his work focused on covering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s and Congress’s national water quality initiatives. Before entering the environmental arena, Krantz worked as an attorney in a Washington, D.C. law firm on litigation matters.

Greg Baird is the president of the Water Finance Research Foundation. He specializes in long-term utility planning, infrastructure asset management and capital funding strategies for municipal utilities in the United States. He has served as a municipal finance officer in California with rate design and implementation experience and as the CFO of Colorado’s third-largest utility. He is widely published and presents on utility infrastructure asset management and integrated water finance issues. He is also a frequent contributor to Water Finance & Management.

Matthew Brown has overall responsibility for DC Water’s financial management and policies, including: accounting operations and financial reporting; budget formulation and execution; program analysis and evaluation; treasury; controller; investment and debt management; and risk management. Brown previously served as the Director of the Office of Budget and Finance of the District of Columbia. Prior to his current position, he served as Director, Department of Transportation and as the Deputy Director for Resource Allocation for the District’s Department of Transportation, in addition to a variety of public sector management and budget positions for several large municipal government entities.

As Director of GFOA’s Federal Liaison Center, Emily leads coalition and advocacy efforts of the Public Finance Network in Washington DC. Her advocacy includes anticipating and responding to federal legislative and regulatory activities that impact the finance functions of state and local governments and public sector entities including tax reform, municipal securities disclosure and public pension and benefit issues. Emily also serves as staff on GFOA’s Debt Committee, working with committee members to develop best practices that promote sound financial practices for local, state and provincial governments. Prior to joining GFOA, Emily was a commercial bank relationship manager at a large national bank, serving as the sole bank liaison for government and university clients.

Ted Chapman is a senior director in the Dallas office of Standard & Poor’s U.S. Public Finance Infrastructure Group, first joining S&P in 2000. He is part of the team that specializes in utilities, including municipal water and sewer systems, public power, rural electric cooperatives, stormwater, natural gas and telecommunications systems. Chapman is also the primary author of S&P’s municipal utility revenue bond criteria, as well as thought leadership commentaries and speeches on infrastructure financing hot topics. Ted has also been the lead credit analyst for U.S. territories and commonwealths, governmental-related entities, and local general governments across the United States.

Doug Hatler is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Fracta. Fracta is a Redwood City, CA-based technology company using artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve the aging infrastructure problem, starting with water distribution mains. For 32 years, Doug has been dedicated to mitigating the impact of humankind on the environment. He has worked in numerous industries in roles such as environmental engineer, management consultant, and regulatory specialist. For the past 20 years, he has been focused on the sales, marketing and delivery of technology to manage environmental risk. Doug earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and an Master of Business Administration from Rutgers University, and an Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Greg Baird is the president of the Water Finance Research Foundation. He specializes in long-term utility planning, infrastructure asset management and capital funding strategies for municipal utilities in the United States. He has served as a municipal finance officer in California with rate design and implementation experience and as the CFO of Colorado’s third-largest utility. He is widely published and presents on utility infrastructure asset management and integrated water finance issues. He is also a frequent contributor to Water Finance & Management.

Jeff Hughes is the director of the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the University of North Carolina. The UNC EFC provides applied research, educational programs and advising services to local governments, non-governmental environmental organizations, private environmental service providers, utilities, and state and federal agencies. Hughes has 30 years of environmental finance experience as a researcher, policy analyst, consultant and practitioner.

Fred is the Enterprise Asset Strategy Manager at WSSC for water related assets. His responsibilities include developing comprehensive AM plans to manage capital investment priorities for over 500,000 water network and communications assets including water transmission and distribution system, facilities, pumping stations, dams, reservoirs, storage tanks, SCADA, microwave and security systems He also plays a major role in developing the enterprise asset management plan that incorporates all assets in four networks including wastewater, communications building and grounds. He is currently implementing a web enterprise asset management system and a comprehensive asset database to manage asset life cycle and prioritize needs. Related efforts include creating a system to monetize asset risk and establish performance standards for assets for use in making renewal decisions. Fred has been in the water and wastewater treatment industry since 1980 working for several industry manufacturers in a variety of technical and management positions.

Ted Chapman is a senior director in the Dallas office of Standard & Poor’s U.S. Public Finance Infrastructure Group, first joining S&P in 2000. He is part of the team that specializes in utilities, including municipal water and sewer systems, public power, rural electric cooperatives, stormwater, natural gas and telecommunications systems. Chapman is also the primary author of S&P’s municipal utility revenue bond criteria, as well as thought leadership commentaries and speeches on infrastructure financing hot topics. Ted has also been the lead credit analyst for U.S. territories and commonwealths, governmental-related entities, and local general governments across the United States.