American Water is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States, serving over 14 million people across 14 states and 19 military installations. For its governance team, keeping board information secure, current and easy to access is critical.
Under the leadership of Jeff Taylor, Senior VP, Chief SEC Counsel and Corporate Secretary, American Water built on its existing use of Diligent Boards to create a more connected approach to governance. By bringing board materials, communications, questionnaires, evaluations and approvals into one secure platform, the team simplified administration, strengthened security and made it easier for directors to work from the latest information.
American Water had Diligent Boards in place for several years before Taylor arrived, giving its five-person governance team a dependable foundation for board and committee materials.
Board materials are only one part of the governance function. Annual D&O questionnaires, board evaluations, written consents, signatures and sensitive communications all create administrative work and can introduce inefficiencies when handled through separate processes.
For American Water, the opportunity was not to replace existing governance practices, but to make them more connected, consistent and secure. The team wanted to modernize key workflows, simplify annual processes and provide directors with a single source of truth for governance information.
Today, Diligent Boards serves as the central hub for board and committee materials across American Water. Materials are posted in advance of meetings, while updates and revisions can be distributed instantly without creating version-control challenges.
The platform also supports a broader set of governance activities. Secure messaging provides a protected channel for sensitive communications, while D&O questionnaires, evaluations and written consents are managed within the same environment. Integrated e-signatures help streamline approvals and filings, reducing the need for manual processes and administrative follow-up.
The D&O questionnaire module is phenomenal... Diligent has really made it easy to design, update and customize a questionnaire as needed to reflect a company's needs... I pretty much insist that substantive materials be sent only through Diligent. It's efficient, safe and easy to update.
Jeff Taylor, Senior VP, Chief SEC Counsel and Corporate Secretary, American Water
That security-first approach now anchors every touchpoint between Taylor's team and the board.
By consolidating key governance activities into a single platform, American Water has created a more streamlined experience for both administrators and directors.
Key benefits include:
"You are incurring significant risk and inefficiencies if you do not use any board portal. Hands down... Diligent's suite of tools is intuitive, easy to use and administer. I use it virtually every day!"
Jeff Taylor, Senior VP, Chief SEC Counsel and Corporate Secretary, American Water
Explore how Diligent Boards can help your team protect sensitive board content, speed up updates and approvals and simplify annual D&O questionnaires and board evaluations in one secure environment.
