Mark S. Smith — Chief Information Officer and Vice President at American Water Works

Mr. Mark S. Smith has been Chief Information Officer and Vice President at American Water Works Company, Inc., since September 2012. Mr. Smith is responsible for all aspects of information technology service delivery and management including Information Technology Services' (ITS) support of American Water's business transformation and SAP migration. Mr. Smith has nearly 30 years of technology expertise and leadership experience in the development, implementation and support of IT solutions. His strategic focus for the ITS organization is one based on developing internal business partnerships, establishing a service oriented culture and optimizing (and making more transparent) IT costs. Throughout his career, Mr. Smith has worked to foster IT cultures of collaboration and business sensitivity with a focus on results and practical utilization of technology. In his former position as ITS Senior Director, Business Application Development & Project Management Office, Mr. Smith was accountable for delivering quality, timely business application solutions for Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and field operations. During his tenure in this role, Mr. Smith drove the delivery of American Water's first customer self-service web portal, the ITS department's first comprehensive portfolio management solution and also established the department's first set of technical career paths aimed at broadening and deepening key technology skill sets. More recently, Mr. Smith and his team established the Technology Solutions Council (TSC) that works collaboratively with ITS to prioritize and select the business-driven, ITS-enabled projects in support of the company's long-term aspirational goals. Prior to joining American Water in 2008, Mr. Smith held several roles with Siemens Medical Solutions including Group Manager of Management Information Systems and Director of the Shared Services Office where he was responsible for enterprise and system level architecture definition, administration and implementation for internal development as well as custom commercial applications. While with Siemens, Mr. Smith was promoted to Director of the Siebel Competency Center, for which he led the Customer Relationship Management [CRM] implementation for over 1,600 users during a merger of three large domestic sales organizations. These responsibilities included the management of both on-site and off-shore resources and also led to the development of an international configuration and pricing tool used globally by over 3,000 employees. During his 23-year career with Siemens and Shared Medical Systems (pre-acquisition), Mr. Smith was nominated and awarded eight individual and team performance awards. Mr. Smith is actively involved in community efforts and serves as Vice Chairman on the Board of Directors for Touch New Jersey, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing food bank services in southern New Jersey. He is also a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA). Mr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computers and information systems from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors.