Susan Kennedy is Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Cadiz. Ms. Kennedy joined the Board in February 2021 and was elected Chairman in February 2022. In January 2024, Ms. Kennedy was appointed CEO.
Ms. Kennedy has led a distinguished career as a policymaker and entrepreneur, a top advisor to two California Governors, former Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, and founder and chief executive of a distributed energy company. Ms. Kennedy joined the Board of Directors of Cadiz, Inc. in March 2021 and currently serves as Executive Chair of the water solutions company, which is headquartered in LA and has infrastructure assets in San Bernardino, LA and Kern County.
Prior to entering the private sector, Ms. Kennedy served for two decades at the highest levels of California government, including chief of staff to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and cabinet secretary to Governor Gray Davis. From 2003 to 2006, Ms. Kennedy served as Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which regulates the state’s investor-owned utilities. In this role, she oversaw the CPUC’s efforts to ensure water utilities deliver clean, safe, and reliable water to their customers at reasonable rates.
In her leadership role for two California Governors, Ms. Kennedy was responsible for negotiating some of the largest agreements among agricultural interests, environmentalists, rural and urban water users for multi-billion-dollar investments in water supply, storage and conveyance facilities, as well as conservation and environmental restoration projects including the $8 billion,10-year restoration of the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem and the early plans to restore the Salton Sea.