Employees

Employee Spotlight: Colby Sneed
I’m Colby Sneed, the Director of Operations and Treatment at San Jose Water. In my position, I oversee the production, treatment, transmission, and storage of your drinking water. My team and I manage all of the pumps, motors, control valves, tanks, and reservoirs to keep the water flowing through our infrastructure system.

SJW Employee Spotlight: Suzanne DeLorenzo, Director of Water Quality
I’m Suzanne DeLorenzo, the Director of Water Quality at San Jose Water. In my position, I'm responsible for making sure that your drinking water is the highest quality it can be. My work is essential to monitoring the quality and cleanliness of our water in terms of state and federal regulatory requirements. In 2021, our highly experienced staff collected more than 1,000 regulatory and non-regulatory samples from our distribution system and treatment plant, generating over 23,000 data points. This sampling is key to ensuring healthy water!

San Jose Water History: Past Meets Present
On a warm morning in June, Bruce Williams, the great-grandson of Edward Williams, who had been president of San Jose Water in the late 1800s, joined current SJW President Andy Gere to visit Bruce’s great-grandfather’s namesake: Williams Reservoir.
The beautiful and pristine reservoir was built when Edward was president of San Jose Water – thus its moniker.

A Conversation with SJW’s Andy Gere
SJW President and COO Andy Gere was recently inducted into the University of Connecticut Academy of Distinguished Engineers alongside notable honorees such as a former economic and technology policy advisor in the Obama Administration and a retired senior executive at ExxonMobil. We had the opportunity to sit down with Andy to ask him a bit about his time at UConn and how it sparked his lifetime of dedication to the water utilities industry.

Big Reliability Win for San Jose Water Customers

Employee Spotlight: Gavin Devries
For most people, visiting the South Pacific island of Fiji sounds like a dream vacation. For Gavin Devries, Manager of Capital Planning at SJW, it was an opportunity to make a difference in the world by using his professional skills and education to serve his country as a civil affairs officer in the United States Army Reserve (USAR) over the summer.

San Jose Water – Protecting our Employees While Keeping the Water Flowing During COVID-19
While we are committed to providing clean drinking water to the communities and families that we serve, we wanted to also let everyone know of the steps we are taking to keep our employees safe.
As part of normal operations, we plan for emergencies such as earthquakes and wildfires. We have business continuity plans in place to make sure our operations are maintained in the face of adversity. COVID-10 has created some unique challenges. Below are some details of critical steps to keep our employees safe:

On the Job with SJW Distribution Service Inspectors
While the entire community is under a shelter-in-place order, essential San Jose Water (SJW) workers are on the job to make sure your water is flowing safely and reliably.
Distribution Service (DS) Inspectors perform critical work day in and day out. Just a few of their responsibilities include marking existing water lines before any excavation begins, locating leaks in mains and service lines, performing hydrant and valve maintenance, and operating the vacuum excavator truck.