Rivera brings 25 years of senior management
experience as the Company prepares to scale operations.
LOS
ANGELES, Sept. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cadiz, Inc.
(NASDAQ: CDZI) (NASDAQ: CDZIP) ("Cadiz" or the "Company"), a
California water solutions
company, announced today the appointment of Cathryn Rivera as Chief Operating Officer
("COO"), effective as of September 16,
2024. The Company began expanding the management team
earlier this year with the appointment of CEO Susan Kennedy. As COO, Rivera is expected to
lead the Company's operations in the execution phase of its
groundbreaking groundwater banking project and scaling deployment
of water treatment technologies to remove constituents such as
arsenic, Chromium 6 and "forever chemicals."
Known as a savvy leader with a passion for taking on initiatives
that have real world impacts, Rivera served four governors from
both parties over 25 years in the operations center of California government.
"Cathryn is the eye of the storm," Cadiz CEO Susan Kennedy said. "Calm. Decisive. Never
taking her eyes off the objective. Cathryn's execution skills
are second to none. She's the best I've ever worked
with."
"Water is without a doubt the next great challenge for
California," said Rivera. "I
believe Cadiz is on the verge of delivering game-changing solutions
that will impact millions of lives. This exciting opportunity
allows me to draw on 25 years of solving complex problems to help
the people and communities I've been dedicated to serving all my
life."
Rivera served as Appointments Secretary for California Governor Gavin Newsom from 2019 to 2024, finding the
right people with the right skills for over 3,000 positions
responsible for governing the 5th largest economy in the
world. Upon Rivera's departure, Governor Newsom noted:
"Cathryn has done tremendous work to help build an administration
that better reflects Californians' rich diversity of backgrounds,
perspectives and experiences."
Throughout her tenure at the heart of California's governance, Rivera was tapped by
Governors to interface with businesses and industry leaders to
address complex challenges, often in a crisis. At the outset of the
COVID pandemic she led a team to establish a web-based service
within 72 hours to allow the state to acquire COVID supplies for
distribution, worked with the California Manufacturing and
Technology Association to assist small businesses with converting
operations to manufacture protective supplies, and created programs
to help essential workers protect themselves and the public on the
front lines of the pandemic.
Most recently, Rivera established two new independent Offices,
within the executive branch, including the Governor's Office of
Land Use and Climate Innovation, to ensure efforts and actions
directed by Executive Order would continue beyond the governor's
tenure.
Before joining the Newsom Administration, Rivera served as a
Board Member on the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, at the
nexus of a critical workforce and the $57
billion agricultural industry. In this role, Ms.
Rivera helped develop a level playing field for farmworkers and a
regulatory framework for mandatory mediation that survived a decade
of legal challenges, including at the Supreme Court of the United States.
From 1999 to 2002 Rivera was the Chief Deputy Cabinet Secretary
for Governor Gray Davis, serving as
the Governor's key liaison to state agencies, departments, and
boards. In that role, Rivera was responsible for the development
and implementation of administration policies for the largest, most
complex government agencies including Health and Human Services
Agency and Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and
Department of Food and Agriculture.
Previously, Rivera served on the Board of Directors for Planned
Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest affiliate of the national
organization overseeing a $100
million budget with 35 health centers in 42 counties across
California and Nevada.
Rivera has held positions as Treasurer, Vice-Chair and Chair during
her tenure on the board.
Rivera received a B.S. in Business Management from Arizona State University, graduating from The
Barrett Honors College. She obtained her law degree from the
University of California, Berkeley
where she was co-editor-in-chief of the La Raza Law Journal.
Cadiz, with 45,000 acres of land and water in the Mojave Desert,
is developing one of the largest groundwater banking projects in
the Southwestern U.S. that is expected to provide water supply and
clean water technology to disadvantaged communities in the Colorado
River Basin and California's
Inland Empire and desert communities, including Tribes that
presently lack access to clean, reliable water.
About Cadiz, Inc.
Founded in 1983, Cadiz, Inc.
(NASDAQ: CDZI) is a California
water solutions company dedicated to providing access to clean,
reliable and affordable water for people through a unique
combination of water supply, storage, pipeline and treatment
solutions. With 45,000 acres of land in California, 2.5 million acre-feet of water
supply, 220 miles of pipeline assets and the most cost-effective
water treatment filtration technology in the industry, Cadiz offers
a full suite of solutions to address the impacts of climate change
on clean water access. For more information, please visit
https://www.cadizinc.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to
the Company's expectation of the benefits to be derived from the
appointment of Ms. Rivera as an executive officer of the Company.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in
our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no
assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Factors
that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from
those reflected in the Company's forward-looking statements are
detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission
filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2023 and
subsequent quarterly and current reports. We undertake no
obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement,
whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time,
whether as a result of new information, future developments or
otherwise.
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SOURCE Cadiz, Inc.
