(Los Angeles, California) – Cadiz Inc. (“the Company”, NASDAQ:CDZI) is pleased to announce that eleven directors, including two new board members, were elected to the Company’s Board of Directors at the 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders held yesterday July 10, 2019. The two new board members, Maria Echaveste and Carolyn Webb de Macias, replace two retiring members, Ray Pacini and Tim Shaheen, who honorably served on the Board of Directors since 2005 and 1999, respectively.
“We thank our shareholders for participating in the 2019 Annual Meeting process and for their confidence in our mission by electing a Board that will oversee the execution of our plan to sustainably conserve and use water for important agricultural on our land and domestic use where needed,” said Scott Slater, Cadiz CEO, President and Board Member.
“We are tremendously grateful for the superlative board service of Tim and Ray and welcome Maria and Carolyn, who both bring invaluable public policy, social justice and community activism experience to our Board that can help guide the Company in its efforts to provide clean, reliable and affordable water to Californians who need it most,” added Keith Brackpool, Chairman of the Board.
Maria Echaveste is a scholar with a distinguished career as a community leader, public policy advisor, lecturer, senior White House official, and attorney. She is presently President and CEO of the Opportunity Institute, a non-profit working to increase economic and social mobility focused on equity for the most vulnerable communities. Echaveste has been affiliated with UC Berkeley in various capacities since 2004 including: lecturing at the School of Law and in the undergraduate division on immigration and education and serving as program and policy director of the Law School’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy from 2006 -2012; serving as a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies since 2008; and as a Visiting Scholar with the Berkeley Food Institute from 2015-2016. Previously, from 1998 to 2001 Echaveste served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton focused on issues relating to immigration, civil rights, education, finance, Mexico and Latin America. From 1993 to 1997 she served as Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division at the US Department of Labor. In 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Echaveste as a special representative to Bolivia. From 2015-2017, Echaveste served as vice-chair of the California International Trade and Investment Advisory Committee, an appointment by Governor Brown. Echaveste presently serves on the board of directors of the Level Playing Field Institute, Mi Familia Vota and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
Carolyn Webb de Macias is a community leader with an extensive career in public policy and higher education. Ms. Webb de Macias currently serves as Board Chair for the Los Angeles Partnership, a non-profit organization that manages 17 public schools through an MOU with the Los Angeles Unified School District, and as Member of the Board of the Community Coalition of South Los Angeles, a community education and advocacy organization. Previously Webb de Macías served in the office of Elementary and Secondary Education in the US Department of Education as an appointee of President Barack Obama from 2010-2012. From 1997 – 2008, Webb de Macías served in various roles at the University of Southern California including adjunct faculty member in the USC Rossier School of Education, associate provost from1997-2002 and vice president for external relations from 2002 – 2008. From 1991-1997 Webb de Macías served as chief of staff for Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. Webb de Macías’ strong record of community service includes roles as founding member of the Board for the Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES), member of the Boards of the Los Angeles African American Women’s Public Policy Institute and the International Black Women’s Public Policy Institute, member of the Central City Association Executive Committee, and founding president of the Education Consortium of Central Los Angeles. Webb de Macías has been honored for her work as a founding member of Young Black Scholars of Los Angeles and named a Black Woman of Achievement by the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
More information about the elected members of the Cadiz Inc. Board of Directors is available on the Company’s website – https://www.missionaguacadiz.com/management/.
Full meeting results will be filed with the SEC on Form 8-K.