Portsmouth Water will elevate its new engineering director, Bob Taylor, to chief executive from 1 January 2019 as managing director Neville Smith retires.
Taylor joined Portsmouth Water as engineering director on 1 November 2018 from South West Water, where he was operations director of drinking water services. Previously he was the managing director of Bournemouth Water, prior to its acquisition by South West Water in 2015.
Smith will retire on 4 January 2019 after over 20 years of service with Portsmouth Water, first as finance director and for the last seven years as managing director. Smith said it had been a “privilege…to have played a part in making Portsmouth Water the business that it is today, proving that a small company can be a leading performer in the industry”.
Taylor said he was “eager and excited” to be taking the lead in the final stages of PR19 and particularly as Portsmouth prepares for new regional water source the Havant Thicket reservoir – “the most significant investment in the company’s history”.