Board of Directors

Anne M. Holloway
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Anne Holloway
Retired, Partner Navigant Consulting, Inc.

Ms. Holloway has been the chair of the board of directors since May 21, 2019 and  has served as a director since 1998. She brings valuable expertise to the board in the areas of finance, human resources and corporate governance matters obtained through her experience in the financial services industry and her experiences in providing strategic advice to Fortune 500 companies.

Ms. Holloway is retired. She was a partner at Navigant Consulting, Inc., a provider of financial and strategic consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, governments and governmental agencies from 1999 to 2000. She served as President of Resolution Credit Services Corp., a subsidiary of Xerox Financial Services, from 1992 to 1999 where she was responsible for, among other things, the successful resolution of financial guarantees on troubled tax-exempt bonds, the restructuring of debt and negotiation with the Resolution Trust Corporation. She also served as Chief Operating Officer of International Insurance Company, another company in the Resolution Group, where she was responsible for operations, human resources and technology. Prior to joining the Resolution Group, Ms. Holloway held various management positions with Shawmut National Corporation, a financial services company.

Ms. Holloway holds a BA degree from Newton College of the Sacred Heart and an MBA from Boston University. She has completed the Harvard Business School Executive Management program. In December 2018, she completed the Distinguished Careers Institute at Stanford University.

Ms. Holloway served as the chair of the Board of Trustees of Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, California from 2008 to 2012. After she completed her chair role, she continued to support the school on the site management and development committees until 2013. She currently serves on the board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and is a supporter of the Bing Center for the Arts at Stanford University and Good Tidings, an organization that designs, builds and funds sports and arts facilities for youth in need in Northern California. Until 2018, she had served as co-chair for the nominating and governance committee for City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley, a national organization that works with AmeriCorps volunteers to reduce dropout rates and improve high school proficiency locally in San Jose, California.

Chairman of the Board

Anne Holloway is an ex-officio member of all committees with no voting rights.

Diana M. Bontá
Director
Diana Bonta
President & CEO, The Bontá Group

Dr. Bontá has served as a director since 2007. Because of her extensive experience in public health and public affairs, she brings valuable expertise to the board in the areas of customer and community service and corporate governance.

Dr. Bontá has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Bontá Group since June 2013. The Bontá Group provides consulting services in the healthcare area. Previously, Dr. Bontá served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The California Wellness Foundation, a private independent foundation with a mission to improve the health of the people in California. She has also served as the Vice President of Public Affairs of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Southern California Region, where she was responsible for setting the Region’s public policy agenda and providing leadership and oversight of public affairs programs and support for Kaiser Permanente’s external communications and reputation management. Dr. Bontá also served as the first Latina director of the California Department of Health Services. Prior to this role, she served as director of the Department of Health and Human Services of the City of Long Beach, California.

Dr. Bontá holds doctorate and master’s degrees in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has held an appointment as an adjunct professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health since 1999 and is a registered nurse.

Dr. Bontá has been a trustee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation since 2008 and the Archstone Foundation since 2009. She served as the chair of the Archstone Foundation audit committee and is currently serving as the chair of its board of directors. She is a board member of the New Hope Medical Foundation.  She has been a member of the board of directors and a member of the foundation board of trustees of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles since 2019.

Dr. Bontá has served as a commissioner of the City of Los Angeles Board of Fire Commissioners as an appointee of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and as a director/trustee of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. She has also previously served as a director/trustee on the Department of Health and Human Services Minority Health Committee, as an appointee of both California Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Board of Trustees of the Health Professions Education Foundation.

Steven D. Davis
Director
Steven Davis
Former Corporate Group President, Utilities, of Sempra Energy

Mr. Davis has been a member of the board since his election in May 2021.  He brings expertise, strong leadership and management skills to the board based on over 37 years of executive experience in the California utility industry.  He most recently served as Corporate Group President, Utilities, of Sempra Energy from January 2017 until March 2018.  As Corporate Group President he was responsible for the operations of San Diego Gas & Electric Company (“SDG&E”), Southern California Gas Company (“SoCal Gas”) and electric utilities in Chile and Peru.  Prior to serving as Corporate Group President, he served as Executive Vice President, External Affairs and Corporate Strategy of Sempra Energy from September 2015 until December 2016.  He was President and Chief Operating Officer of SDG&E from 2014 until September 2015 and has also served in various other executive positions at Sempra Energy, SDG&E and SoCal Gas, including serving as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and External Relations at SDG&E and SoCal Gas, and in other executive positions with responsibilities in the areas of investor and community relations, customer service and distribution operations.

Since 2019, Mr. Davis has been a director of Williams Industrial Services Group, Inc.  He previously served as a director of SoCal Gas from November 2015 until March 2018 and as a director of SDG&E from 2011 until March 2018.  He has served on a number of non-profit boards of directors, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Edison Electric Institute from 2015-2018 and the California Chamber of Commerce from 2012-2016.  He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Campanile Foundation from 2008-2014.  Mr. Davis graduated from San Diego State University with a Bachelors of Business Administration (Accounting).

Thomas A. Eichelberger
Director
Eichel
Retired, Audit Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP

Mr. Eichelberger joined the board of directors on February 8, 2023.  He had a distinguished career in public accounting, retiring as an Audit Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP in May 2022.  He worked with complex companies, with a primary focus on serving large utility holding companies with rate-regulated subsidiaries in the electric, gas, and water industries. He also served large non-regulated utility affiliates with significant investments in wind and solar projects.  He acquired deep regulatory skills, given the active rate case profile and frequent regulatory filings of his clients.  Prior to 2002 when he began his career as a partner at Deloitte & Touche, he served at Arthur Andersen LLP between 1985 and 2002 and as a partner starting in 1997. 

Mr. Eichelberger is a Certified Public Accountant in the states of Georgia and Florida, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants.  He is on the Board of Food for Thought Outreach, a local non-profit organization in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and was active in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program in Atlanta for many years.  He is a former United Way Campaign Leader and former member of the Board of Directors of the Ashford Dunwoody YMCA.
  
He received a Master of Science in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology and Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame.

John R. Fielder
Director
John Fielder
Retired, President of Southern California Edison Company

Mr. Fielder was appointed by the board as a director on January 2, 2013. He brings a unique blend of experience in the areas of public utility regulation, strategy, management and information technology matters as a result of over 40 years of experience at Southern California Edison Company.

Mr. Fielder is retired. He was President of Southern California Edison Company from October 2005 until his retirement on December 31, 2010. As President, he was responsible for operations support, customer service, information technology, environmental affairs, state regulatory and public affairs and employee relations. Prior to his position as President, Mr. Fielder held various leadership positions at the Company, including Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for 14 years and Vice President of Information Services.

Mr. Fielder has served on a number of not-for-profit boards during his career. He currently serves on the governing board of Long Beach Memorial Hospital and the Hospital’s Foundation board. He is a member of the Memorial Health Services investment committee. Since 2006, he has also served as a member of the board of the Rancho Los Cerritos Foundation, which supports a historic property and museum in Long Beach, California, and has served on the finance committee of the Foundation since 2012. He also served a two-year term as chair of the board of the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific in 2011 and 2012 and a term as the chair of the audit committee of the Aquarium in 2013 and 2014. In addition, he has served on the board development committee of Long Beach BLAST, a program to connect college students with youth facing adversity. He has also served on various industry association boards during his career.

Mr. Fielder has a BA degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a law degree from Pepperdine School of Law.

Member of the ASUS Committee
Mary Ann Hopkins
Director
Mary Ann Hopkins
Chief Growth Officer, Arcadis NV

Ms. Hopkins became a director in May 2019. She has more than 30 years of progressive experience in engineering and management with an emphasis on infrastructure, water, environmental, defense, security and intelligence markets, including serving the U.S. government. This experience assists the board in its oversight of ASUS’s military privatization activities and the infrastructure and environmental issues facing the water and electric utility industries in California.

Ms. Hopkins has been at Arcadis NV, a global design, engineering and consulting company based in the Netherlands, since 2016, serving in several executive leadership positions. She is currently the Chief Growth Officer and a member of the Arcadis Executive Leadership Team and is responsible globally for Strategy, Sales and Business Development and Marketing and Communications.  From 2012 until 2016, she was a Group President of Parsons Corporation, an international engineering, construction, technical and management services firm whose customers include the U.S. government. As Group President, she was responsible for worldwide operations of the Federal Unit of Parsons serving the primary markets of infrastructure, environmental, defense, security and intelligence. Prior to her promotion to Group President, she has served in various other executive and management capacities at Parsons since 1989.

Ms. Hopkins has been a member of the board of directors and the audit, risk and compliance committee and the finance committee at Blumont since 2016. Blumont delivers shelter, food and non-humanitarian aid to refugees and internally displaced persons impacted by political crisis.

Ms. Hopkins has a BS and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Syracuse University and attended the Advanced Management Program at Duke University. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Virginia.

Chair of the ASUS Committee
C. James Levin
Director
C James Levin
Retired, Partner at Winston & Strawn LLP

Mr. Levin has been a member of the board since his election in May 2020.  He brings expertise to the board on legal and regulatory matters. He has provided legal advice as outside counsel on various corporate matters to American States Water Company and its subsidiaries, first as a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and then as a partner and of counsel at Winston & Strawn LLP. His experience advising public companies and his intimate knowledge of the company makes him well suited to serve on the board of the company.

Mr. Levin has been a corporate lawyer in Los Angeles, California for over 35 years. In June 2019, he retired from Winston & Strawn LLP where he had practiced as a corporate partner and then of counsel since joining the firm in 2010. Prior to joining that firm, Mr. Levin was a corporate partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, having joined the firm in 1981 as an associate. Mr. Levin specialized in corporate law, including securities, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions. He served as the chair or co-chair of the mergers and acquisitions group of O’Melveny & Myers LLP for a number of years.

Mr. Levin currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Descanso Gardens Guild, Inc., a non-profit corporation dedicated to the support and operation of this public garden in Southern California, and as a director of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, a non-profit corporation supporting civic education initiatives.

Mr. Levin has a BA degree from DePauw University, an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a JD from the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

Janice F. Wilkins
Director
Janice Wilkins
Retired, Vice President of Finance and Director of Internal Audit, Intel Corporation

Ms. Wilkins has been a member of the board since her election in May 2011. She brings extensive expertise to the board in accounting and finance, public company reporting, internal auditing and the development and oversight of ethics and compliance programs.

Ms. Wilkins retired as Vice President of Finance and the Director of Internal Audit for Intel Corporation in June 2010 where she was responsible for global internal audit, investigations, and ethics and compliance operations staffs. During her 29-year career with Intel, she held various operational and corporate finance controllership, management and executive positions and managed the human resource organization responsible for U.S. compensation and benefits.

In 2001, Ms. Wilkins was recognized by Ebony Magazine as one of the top-ranking African American women in corporate America. In 2004, she was named Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year by the Gamma Nu Chapter of Iota Lambda Sorority, with recognition from the U.S. Senator from California, California State Senator, and the Mayor of San Francisco.

Ms. Wilkins holds a BS degree in accounting from Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an MBA from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California. She has been a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and Financial Executives International. She has also been involved in professional organizations such as the Conference Board, the Audit Director Roundtable, the Compliance and Ethics Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board, the General Auditors’ Council of Manufacturers’ Alliance and the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Ms. Wilkins currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Golden Gate University and is a member of the audit and finance committees. She previously served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Sacred Heart Schools in Atherton, California, where she chaired the Audit Committee from 2008-2013. In addition, she was a member of the Links, Inc., an organization that promotes and engages in educational, civic and inter-cultural activities to enrich the lives of members of the African-American community. She served on the Executive Board and as Treasurer of the Peninsula Bay Chapter of the Links, Inc. Ms. Wilkins was a member of the Board of Trustees of her alma mater, Xavier University, in New Orleans where she chaired the business affairs committee. Ms. Wilkins has also served as a member of the Finance Council of St. Pius Church in Redwood City, California.

Financial Expert
Member of the ASUS Committee
Robert J. Sprowls
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert J.  Sprowls

Mr. Sprowls has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of American States Water Company since January 2009 and as a board member since May 2009.  He was Chief Financial Officer for more than four years prior to that. He has more than 30 years of experience in business strategy, operations management, corporate finance and business problem-solving for regulated utilities, utility holding companies and highly competitive, non-regulated utility affiliates.  In addition, he has served in leadership roles in the water industry as President and a member of the executive committee of the National Association of Water Companies, a non-profit organization representing private water companies.  

As President and Chief Executive Officer of American States Water Company, he holds similar titles and responsibilities for the company’s subsidiaries, Golden State Water Company and American States Utility Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries and serves on their boards.  Mr. Sprowls joined American States Water Company in June 2004 as Senior Vice President – Finance, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary. He was promoted to Executive Vice President – Finance, Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary in January 2008 and became Executive Vice President of the company and its subsidiaries in November 2008.

Prior to joining American States Water Company, Mr. Sprowls spent 21 years at CILCORP Inc., or CILCORP, a public utility holding company whose largest subsidiary, Central Illinois Light Company, served approximately 250,000 electric and gas utility customers. During his tenure with CILCORP, Mr. Sprowls held positions as President, Business Unit Leader – Energy Delivery, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Treasurer of Central Illinois Light Company, CFO of a non-regulated subsidiary of CILCORP, QST Enterprises Inc., and Vice President and Treasurer of CILCORP. Mr. Sprowls left CILCORP and Central Illinois Light Company following the sale of the company to Ameren Corporation in 2003.

Mr. Sprowls is currently a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Water Companies.  He is also a member of the Southern California Leadership Council.  He has served on the board of directors of CILCORP Inc. and Central Illinois Light Company.  He has been a past chairman and a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Energy Association, a past chairman and a member of the board of directors of Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois and a committee chairman for the Heart of Illinois United Way Campaign.

He holds a BA degree in economics and business administration from Knox College in Illinois and a master in business administration from Bradley University, also in Illinois. He is a Certified Public Accountant (Inactive) and a Certified Management Accountant.

Member of the ASUS Committee