SJW Group Appoints Douwe Busschops as Chief Information Officer

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SJW Group (NASDAQ: SJW), a leading investor-owned pure-play water and wastewater utility, is pleased to announce the appointment of Douwe Busschops as chief information officer (CIO), effective today. In this role, Busschops will focus on the integration and optimization of technology systems to enhance operational efficiency, customer experience, and long-term business growth.

“Douwe is an accomplished technology leader with a wealth of experience leading digital innovation and customer-focused technology solutions,” said Eric Thornburg, president, chair and CEO of SJW Group. “He will be an invaluable asset as we execute on the company's digital transformation strategy and ensure our technology aligns with our commitment to best-in-class service and growth across our national platform. We are excited to welcome him to our leadership team.”

With extensive experience in driving digital and organizational transformation and leading customer-centric technology strategy, Busschops joins SJW Group from Veolia North America, where he served as vice president and CIO for the Municipal Water division. In this role, Busschops delivered technology modernization and rationalization initiatives, including cloud migrations and the creation of a digital transformation strategy. He also designed and implemented a digital governance model to ensure optimal utilization of resources and compliance with applicable regulations and standards. Prior to this, he held senior roles at SUEZ Water North America, including vice president of customer experience, where he drove significant improvements in self-service adoption and customer satisfaction.

Busschops is a CIO 100 Award recipient and has served as the chairman of the Customer Experience Committee for the National Association of Water Companies. He holds a Master of Science in International Business Studies from Maastricht University School of Business and Economics.

About SJW Group

SJW Group is among the largest investor-owned pure-play water and wastewater utilities in the United States, providing life-sustaining and high-quality water service to nearly 1.6 million people. SJW Group’s locally led and operated water utilities - San Jose Water Company in California, The Connecticut Water Company in Connecticut, The Maine Water Company in Maine, and SJWTX, Inc. (dba The Texas Water Company) in Texas - possess the financial strength, operational expertise, and technological innovation to safeguard the environment, deliver outstanding service to customers, and provide opportunities to employees. SJW Group remains focused on investing in its operations, remaining actively engaged in its local communities, and delivering continued sustainable value to its stockholders. For more information about SJW Group, please visit

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Some of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “believes,” “expects,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “seeks,” “plans,” “projects,” “may,” “should,” “will,” or the negative of those words or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict.

These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, but not limited to, the following factors: (1) the effect of water, utility, environmental and other governmental policies and regulations, including regulatory actions concerning rates, authorized return on equity, authorized capital structures, capital expenditures, PFAS and other decisions; (2) changes in demand for water and other services; (3) unanticipated weather conditions and changes in seasonality including those affecting water supply and customer usage; (4) the effect of the impact of climate change; (5) unexpected costs, charges or expenses; (6) our ability to successfully evaluate investments in new business and growth initiatives; (7) contamination of our water supplies and damage or failure of our water equipment and infrastructure; (8) the risk of work stoppages, strikes and other labor-related actions; (9) catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, terrorist acts, physical attacks, cyber-attacks, epidemic, or similar occurrences; (10) changes in general economic, political, business and financial market conditions; (11) the ability to obtain financing on favorable terms, which can be affected by various factors, including credit ratings, changes in interest rates, compliance with regulatory requirements, compliance with the terms and conditions of our outstanding indebtedness, and general market and economic conditions; and (12) legislative, and general market and economic developments. The risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of SJW Group to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Results for a quarter are not indicative of results for a full year due to seasonality and other factors. In addition, actual results, performance or achievements are subject to other risks and uncertainties that relate more broadly to our overall business, including those more fully described in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent reports on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and speak only as of the date made, and SJW Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

Media Contact:

Nazan Riahei

Vice President, Corporate Communications

(408) 731-0890

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at