Susan Leal is Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President for Water in the Americas at AECOM. She is a water utility expert and author specializing in identifying realistic and creative solutions to the water-related challenges facing our world.

Ms. Leal recently concluded two years as a Senior Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. As part of her fellowship, she co-authored Running Out of Water, a proactive book focused on solutions to our looming water crisis. She continues to serve as an Associate of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. She is a member of the advisory board of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley, where she also received her undergraduate and law degrees. Ms. Leal also sits on the Board of Governors of the Savannah Ocean Exchange.

As General Manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission, Ms. Leal led the charge for a dramatic upgrade of the Bay Area’s seismically unsafe water system and San Francisco’s outdated wastewater system. She previously served two terms as the elected Treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco and as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Career Highlights

August 2011-Present

• Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President for Water in the Americas, AECOM.
• Associate, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.

2009-2011

• Senior Fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative, Harvard University.
• Associate, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.
• Researched the challenges of achieving food and water security faced with growing population and climate change.

2004-2008

• General Manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, a regional utility that delivers water to 2.5 million customers and provides hydroelectric as well as clean renewable power.

• Led the successful charge to upgrade the Bay Area’s seismically unsafe water system and San Francisco’s outdated wastewater system.

• Established the Water Utility Climate Alliance, a coalition of large water utilities tasked with proactively addressing climate change issues.

• Implemented “greasecycle” – a biodiesel fuel program that uses restaurants’ waste oils and grease to run San Francisco’s fleet of vehicles while keeping this waste out of the city’s sewer system.

1997-2004

• Treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco.

• Led San Francisco to become the first California County to implement a socially responsible investment portfolio. San Francisco’s return on investment surpassed every other California County during these years.

• Introduced City Payment Center: a one-stop shop to facilitate licenses for small businesses and allow city residents to purchase transit passes, pay water bills and obtain passports.  

 1993-1997

• Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
• Chaired the Finance Committee.

 1985-1994

• Vice President of Heath Care COMPARE, a publically traded health care consulting company.

1982-1984

• Senior Consultant, California Assembly Committee on Ways and Means.
• Prepared multi-billion dollar health care budgets for the California Assembly.

1976-1982

• Counsel to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Education

• J.D., University of California, Berkeley
• B.A. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley

 

Find Susan on the Web

• See Susan Leal speak at a rally for the Clean Energy Act SF on July 22, 2008.

• Friend Susan on Facebook

• Become a Fan of Running Out of Water on Facebook