Middlesex Water Company has named Nadine Leslie as its new President & CEO effective March 1, 2024. Ms. Leslie joins Middlesex following a comprehensive search for a successor to outgoing President & CEO Dennis W. Doll, who will retire from the Company February 29, 2024. Ms. Leslie will also be appointed to the Board of Directors effective March 1, 2024.
Ms. Leslie is an accomplished leader with domestic and international experience in the Water Industry. She previously served as Chief Executive Officer of SUEZ North America from 2019 to 2022. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing one of North America’s leading environmental companies, with revenues over $1.1 billion, providing water and recycling and recovery services to 6.6 million people in the United States and Canada. The scope of her responsibilities included 15 regulated water utilities, 65 municipal contracts through innovative public-private partnerships and the long-term asset management contracts for water storage facilities, serving more than 4,000 municipal and industrial clients.
Prior to her appointment as CEO of SUEZ North America, Ms. Leslie served as Executive Vice President – Health & Safety for the Paris-based SUEZ Group. In this capacity, she was responsible for directing and providing Health & Safety oversight to all business units of the Group. She also led the development and implementation of behavior-based safety practices, audited Health and Safety procedure implementation and compliance consistent with corporate and regulatory requirements and monitored the effectiveness of safety control measures used throughout SUEZ business units around the world.
Ms. Leslie has more than 25 years of industry experience in operations, management, compliance, client relations and due diligence. Since joining the SUEZ North America team in 2000, she has held leadership positions of increasing responsibility within the company’s regulated, contract and corporate segments. She served as part of the management team at projects located in Georgia and New Jersey in 2003 before being appointed Vice President and General Manager for the regulated utility business in the Toms River, NJ division in 2006. Ms. Leslie also headed the SUEZ corporate internal audit department from 2009 until 2011 and then served as President of SUEZ North America’s Environmental Services from 2011 until 2016. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing the operations and management of contract operations throughout the United States and Canada. This included more than 80 projects affiliated with municipal and industrial water and wastewater systems as well as two solid waste treatment facilities.
Mr. Doll will remain Chairman of the Middlesex Board of Directors through the expiration of his current term at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders on May 21, 2024. Mr. Doll has also entered into a consulting agreement with the Company to aid in a seamless transfer of leadership. The consulting agreement is effective commensurate with Mr. Doll’s retirement and expires May 21, 2024.
“I and the rest of the Middlesex Board of Directors are thrilled to have Nadine join our company. Her breadth of knowledge and experience bring a fresh perspective to the numerous opportunities and challenges facing our company and our industry,” said Doll. “The search committee of our Board of Directors led a very comprehensive and thoughtful recruiting process to ensure we could identify a leader to further the Company’s mission to provide operational and financial excellence.” added Doll.
“I am thrilled to join the Middlesex Water Company team and grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by the Middlesex Board of Directors” said Ms. Leslie, incoming President and CEO. “I am confident with the support of our talented team and Board members, we will navigate challenges, capitalize on opportunities and create additional value for our customers and shareholders. Congratulations to Dennis on his successful tenure and I look forward to working with him during the transition period.”
Beyond executive succession, this leadership transition arrives at a critical juncture for regional infrastructure planning. Water utilities are currently navigating a surge in commercial development across their primary service corridors, driven largely by local zoning initiatives designed to attract technology and logistics investments.
This economic shift has fundamentally altered long-term load forecasting across the sector. Traditional warehousing and manufacturing facilities are increasingly being replaced by high-density data centers, which rely on continuous, high-volume water flow to maintain their advanced liquid cooling systems.
The digital platforms housed within these server farms require immense processing power to handle sudden traffic spikes during major global events. Whether supporting volatile algorithmic trading models, streaming international media broadcasts, or processing intense transaction surges from seasonal betting promotions, these facilities generate tremendous heat that local utility networks must help mitigate. Facility engineers routinely collaborate with municipal water authorities to design sustainable, closed-loop cooling architectures that minimize the drain on public reserves.
To accommodate these specialized commercial demands without compromising residential service quality, utilities must continually initiate proactive pipeline upgrades. These ongoing modernization efforts are specifically designed to increase system redundancy and ensure that water pressure remains consistent across all customer classes.
The board of directors anticipates that Leslie’s extensive background in public-private partnerships will directly inform Middlesex Water’s approach to these capacity expansion challenges. As the company balances rapid industrial growth with stringent environmental stewardship, her proven expertise in large-scale asset management is expected to guide the organization smoothly through its next decade of sustainable infrastructure investment.
