Nazan Riahei Joins SJW Group as Vice President of Communications

Proven leader with more than 17 years of experience

Nazan Riahei, Vice President of Communications for SJW Group (Photo: Business Wire)

SAN JOSE, Calif. – SJW Group (NYSE: SJW) announces that Nazan Riahei has been named vice president of communications for SJW Group, effective April 15. In this newly created role, Riahei will oversee internal and external communications at SJW Group and help position the company’s national platform for future growth. She will also closely collaborate with the leadership and communications teams across the company’s state operations, leveraging resources and scale to optimize best practices, consistency, and efficiency.

“Nazan has a demonstrated track record of success and has developed a strong working relationship with SJW Group leaders since her support with our transformational merger nearly five years ago,” stated SJW Group’s Chair, President and CEO Eric W. Thornburg. “With the integration of Connecticut Water and Maine Water and the accelerated growth of Texas Water, the time is right to bring on a trusted expert with Nazan’s skills and background to help SJW Group enhance its communications, build upon its meaningful connections with stakeholders and elevate its brand nationally. Having worked with Nazan throughout the years, I know she embodies our core values of service and integrity, and I am confident her leadership will enable the company to further harness our national scale to serve local customers, communities and employees while remaining good environmental stewards.”

Riahei brings a wealth of knowledge from her tenure at prominent national strategic communications firms, having most recently served as a managing director at Abernathy MacGregor (now known as H/Advisors Abernathy). She has over 12 years of experience advising corporate clients across a broad array of communications needs, including transactions and financial communications, brand and reputation strategy, regulatory and public affairs, and crisis and issues management. She also has extensive experience working with California utilities, including SJW Group, where she has served as an outside adviser since 2018.

Prior to Abernathy MacGregor, Riahei served as an adviser at Sard Verbinnen & Co. (now known as FGS Global) and Brunswick Group. She started her career as a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Virginia and a Juris Doctor degree from the New York University School of Law. She has been admitted to the state bars of New York and California.

About SJW Group

SJW Group is among the largest investor-owned pure-play water and wastewater utilities in the United States, providing life-sustaining and high-quality water service to nearly 1.5 million people. SJW Group’s locally led and operated water utilities – San Jose Water Company in California, The Connecticut Water Company in Connecticut, The Maine Water Company in Maine and SJWTX Inc. (dba The Texas Water Company) in Texas – possess the financial strength, operational expertise and technological innovation to safeguard the environment, deliver outstanding service to customers and provide opportunities to employees. SJW Group remains focused on investing in its operations, remaining actively engaged in its local communities and delivering continued sustainable value to its stockholders. For more information about SJW Group, please visit www.sjwgroup.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Some of these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as “believes,” “expects,” “estimates,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “seeks,” “plans,” “projects,” “may,” “should,” “will,” or the negative of those words or other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict.

These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions including, but not limited to, the following factors: (1) the effect of water, utility, environmental and other governmental policies and regulations, including regulatory actions concerning rates, authorized return on equity, authorized capital structures, capital expenditures and other decisions; (2) changes in demand for water and other services; (3) unanticipated weather conditions and changes in seasonality including those affecting water supply and customer usage; (4) the effect of the impact of climate change; (5) unexpected costs, charges or expenses; (6) our ability to successfully evaluate investments in new business and growth initiatives; (7) contamination of our water supplies and damage or failure of our water equipment and infrastructure; (8) the risk of work stoppages, strikes and other labor-related actions; (9) catastrophic events such as fires, earthquakes, explosions, floods, ice storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, terrorist acts, physical attacks, cyber-attacks, epidemic, or similar occurrences; (10) changes in general economic, political, business and financial market conditions; (11) the ability to obtain financing on favorable terms, which can be affected by various factors, including credit ratings, changes in interest rates, compliance with regulatory requirements, compliance with the terms and conditions of our outstanding indebtedness, and general market and economic conditions; and (12) legislative, and general market and economic developments. The risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of SJW Group to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Results for a quarter are not indicative of results for a full year due to seasonality and other factors. Other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to materially differ are described in SJW Group’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and speak only as of the date made. SJW Group undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.