Board of Directors

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

Ms. Holloway 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. 

She has also acted as a business consultant to Sacred Heart Schools since January 2021 and business consultant to WelbeHealth, a public benefit company that provides senior care services, from June 2011 until March 2023. 

Ms. Holloway currently serves on the board and the finance and audit committee of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. She also serves on the board and compensation committee of WelbeHealth. She 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. 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. 

She 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.
 

Chairman of the Board

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

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

Dr. Bontá served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Bontá Group for the last ten years until her retirement in March 2024. The Bontá Group provided 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 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 serving as director of the California Department of Health Services, Dr. Bontá served as director of the Department of Health and Human Services of the City of Long Beach, California. 

She has been a trustee of the Annie E. Casey Foundation since 2008 and a Governance Committee chair since 2009. She is also a board member of the New Hope Medical Foundation, and has been a member of the board of directors and of the foundation board of trustees at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles since 2019. Previously, Dr. Bontá was a board member at the Archstone Foundation from 2009-2021 and had served as the chair of its board of directors and audit committee. 

She 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 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. 

She holds doctorate and master’s degrees in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She held an appointment as an adjunct professor at UCLA’s School of Public Health from 1999 to 2023 and is a registered nurse.
 

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

Mr. Davis has over 37 years’ experience in the public utility industry. He most recently served as Corporate Group President, Utilities, of Sempra 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 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, 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. 

Mr. Davis has served as a director and as a member of the audit committee of Williams Industrial Services Group, Inc. from June 2019 until September 2023. 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. 

Mr. Davis 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 Bachelor of Science degree, Business Administration (Accounting).

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

Mr. Eichelberger had a career in public accounting for over 37 years, retiring in May 2022 as an Audit Partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP in the power and utilities industry group. He served complex companies as the lead client service partner with a primary focus on serving large utility holding companies with rate-regulated subsidiaries in the electric, gas, and water industries. He also served as the lead partner on non-regulated utility affiliates with significant investments in wind and solar projects. Prior to 2002 when he began his career at Deloitte, he was at Arthur Andersen LLP. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Florida and Georgia, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Georgia Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the Florida Institute of Public Accountants. 

He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ashford Dunwoody YMCA and a former member of the Board of Directors of Food for Thought Outreach. He was also active in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program for many years. 

He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Science in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology with a concentration in accounting.

Financial Expert
Member of the ASUS Committee
Roger M. Ervin
Director
Ervin
Retired, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blumont, Inc.

Mr. Ervin joined American States Water with over 35 years of experience leading public and private sector organizations including serving in various director roles. He retired after serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blumont, Inc. from 2014 to 2020. Blumont provides global engineering and management support services for the US Government, UK Government and the United Nations in more than 20 countries. Prior to serving at Blumont, he was a member of the leadership team at LMI Consulting, a 50+ year old US government contractor that provides operational and infrastructure support to the US Department of Defense, Department of State and US intelligence agencies. 

Mr. Ervin served as the Secretary of Revenue for the State of Wisconsin from 2007-2011, during which time he led the restructuring of agency operations, a rewrite of the state’s tax code and positioned the agency for the digital age. He has had additional government experience, including serving in US Department of State, US Department of Commerce and The African Development Bank. 

He has been providing consulting services relating to overseas businesses to Roche Diagnostics since 2022. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He served previously as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Business instructing students on the principles of Strategic Management. 

Since 2020, he has been a director and member of the audit committee of Ascendium Education Group, a non-profit and for-profit student loan corporation and has served on the audit and finance committees of several other not for profits since 1995. 

He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mary Ann Hopkins
Director
Mary Ann Hopkins
Retired, Chief Growth Officer, Arcadis NV

Ms. Hopkins has over 33 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. She has served in several leadership positions at Arcadis NV, a global design, engineering and consulting company based in the Netherlands, from 2016 until June 2023. At the time of her retirement in 2023, she served as the Chief Growth Officer and a member of the Arcadis Executive Leadership Team and was 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 served in various other executive and management capacities at Parsons since 1989. 

She has been a member of the board of directors and the audit, risk and compliance committee and the finance committee at Blumont, Inc. since 2016. Blumont provides global engineering and management support services primarily for the US Government, UK Government and the United Nations in more than 20 countries and includes delivering humanitarian assistance, building infrastructure and creating economic opportunities. 

She has a BS and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Syracuse University and attended the Advanced Management Program at Duke University.
 

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

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. He provided legal advice as outside counsel on various corporate matters to American States Water Company and its subsidiaries for a number of years prior to joining the board. 

Mr. Levin currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Descanso Gardens Foundation, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the support and operation of this public garden in Southern California. Through December 2023, he also served as the Foundation’s chair of the finance committee. 

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.
 

Robert J. Sprowls
Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
Robert J.  Sprowls

Mr. Sprowls is the sole management member of the board of directors and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company since 2009 and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for more than four years prior to that. He also has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of subsidiaries Golden State Water Company and American States Utility Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries since 2009. Mr. Sprowls has more than 35 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. 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, 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. 

He is currently a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Water Companies, a non-profit organization representing private water companies, and has previously served as its President and a member of its Executive Committee. He has served on the board of directors of CILCORP Inc. and Central Illinois Light Company. He has been a member of the Southern California Leadership Council, 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’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and finance from Bradley University, also in Illinois. He is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and a Certified Management Accountant. 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
Caroline A. Winn
Director
Caroline
Chief Executive Officer, San Diego Gas & Electric

Ms. Winn has over 35 years’ experience in the public utility industry. She has been the Chief Executive Officer of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), a subsidiary of Sempra, since August 2020. As CEO, she is responsible for managing an organization of 4,700 employees and over $2 billion of annual capital investments. She served as Chief Operating Officer of SDG&E from January 1, 2017 to July 2020. In prior executive roles at SDG&E, she has led multiple strategic initiatives, including architecting SDG&E’s wildfire mitigation program, orchestrating the transformation of its customer service organization, taking control of supply chain and streamlining procurement and logistics activities, and launched multi-million-dollar revenue streams. She spent the early years of her tenure at SDG&E and Sempra in technically complex engineering and construction roles.

Ms. Winn sits on the board of directors of SDG&E. She also has served as the chair of the Western Energy Institute beginning in 2020, a member of the board of directors and audit committee of the Kayne Anderson closed end energy fund (KYN) beginning in 2020 and a member of the management council of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce beginning in 2022. She is active in a number of charitable organizations, including serving as the vice chair of the Monarch School since 2019, a school dedicated to homeless students and services for families in need. She is a member of the directors’ council of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography beginning in 2019 and a board and audit committee member of St. Vincent DePaul Father Joe’s Villages, a non-profit organization serving the homeless in San Diego, beginning in 2021. She is also leading/chairing the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign in 2024.

Ms. Winn holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University Sacramento and is a licensed professional engineer in California.