President & CEO, Aquarion Company
Charles “Chuck” Firlotte is President and Chief Executive Officer of Aquarion Company, the seventh largest investor-owned water utility in the USA, serving Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Chuck has lived and worked in his native Canada, the US, and the United Kingdom, and has had significant knowledge of environmental issues in Asia, having served on the board of an equipment technology supplier to the clean and waste water industry in China. He is past President of the National Association of Water Companies, based in Washington, D.C
Beginning his career in labor relations and human resource management, Chuck early on identified that people and process were instrumental in sustaining long-term profitability. His success in impacting efficiency led to his recruitment to the U.S, and eventually, England. Under his leadership, Aquarion Company has led all regulated utilities in the State of Connecticut in customer service for seven successive years, and the company consistently places in Hearst Newspapers’ “Top Places to Work.” Under his leadership Aquarion won the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award, the State equivalent of the prestigious national Baldrige Award for excellence in efficiency and service delivery.
Known for his visionary and strategic skills, Chuck is a frequent speaker on the role of technology as a key enabler of operational efficiency, and on the critical need for infrastructure investment in the U.S. and Canada. Chuck presently serves on the Board of NB Power, an electric utility in Eastern Canada, and has also served in a leadership capacity on a number of boards of not-for-profit organizations, including the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), St. Vincent’s Medical Center and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council.