Seattle Public Utilities CEO Andrew Lee on Building an Equitable and Sustainable Water System

Today, Aquasight's Mahesh Lunani welcomes Andrew Lee, CEO of Seattle Public Utilities.   He currently manages about 1,400 employees, and has previously worked in Bellevue, San Franscisco, and various consulting firms.

First and foremost to Andrew is a desire to serve people. Yes, in Seattle they service large corporations like Microsoft and Amazon, but Andrew takes pride in serving the most vulnerable and underserved communities. This means more than infrastructure - it also means wealth building and jobs.   Today's guest works at the intersection of service, faith, and engineering and technical skills.

Overall, SPU provides water to 1.5 million people and drainage/wastewater servivces to abourt 800,000 on an annual budget of $1.4 billion.

While investments in the future are primarily driven by regulatory compliance and asset management, SPU is also looking at improvements for frontline workers, and even AI -which Andrew sees as a tool to be implemented, not feared.  And it can be used to educate customers.

Andrew believes in partnering with residents and customers.  Cutting down on waste can be helped by reducing consumption.  In fact, SPU's vision statement is "community-centered, one water, zero waste."   Public perception often focuses on rates.  But when customers are invited in to see all the work Seattle Public Utilities are doing, the focus often shifts from rates to awe, with regard to everything SPU is tackling.

Andrew wants to battle the "silver tsunami" in our industry by promoting the purpose of jobs in the water sector, as well as reaching out to underserved communities with job opportunities.  In fact, he wants his legacy to be turning the tide of long-held practices and policies that have disavantaged certain communities.

More:

Seattle Publc Utilities website: https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/

Aquasight Website: https://aquasight.io/

Aquasight Website: https://aquasight.io/