Laurent Auguste Named President And CEO Of Veolia Water North America

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Laurent Auguste has been named president and CEO of Veolia Water North America, the continent’s leading provider of water and wastewater services for municipalities and industries. He will report directly to Antoine Frérot, CEO of Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement. Auguste will serve on Veolia Water’s global executive committee, and he will also be responsible for Veolia Water’s activities in South America.

Auguste most recently served as president of Veolia Water Japan, where he grew the business dramatically since 2002. With approximately 2,500 employees, Veolia Water Japan is now among the main water services companies and represents the only substantial foreign water services company operating in Japan. The company’s pedigree includes the Chiba wastewater public-private partnership near Tokyo, which serves 500,000 people, as well as major wastewater partnerships in Hiroshima and Saitama, which serve approximately 1 million people.

Prior to that, Auguste was president of Veolia Water Korea beginning in 1999, where he developed some of the water industry’s largest and most sophisticated industrial contracts, including agreements with Hyundai Petrochemical Co. and Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. Veolia Water Korea also signed, constructed and now operates a major municipal wastewater project in Incheon as part of a joint venture with Samsung Engineering.

A graduate of Ecole Centrale de Lyon, one of France’s most prestigious engineering schools, Auguste began his career as a management consultant focused on environmental issues. He also served as director of a Veolia Water branch office in northern France.

Veolia Water North America, the leading provider of comprehensive water and wastewater services to municipal and industrial customers, providing services to more than 14 million people in approximately 600 communities. The company is part of Veolia Water, the No. 1 water company in the world, serving more than 108 million customers. Veolia Water is the water division of Veolia Environnement and (Paris Bourse:VIE), the world’s largest environmental services company providing tailored solutions in water management, waste management, energy management, and freight and passenger transportation. With more than 300,000 employees, Veolia Environnement recorded annual revenues of $48B for the 2007 fiscal year. Visit the company's Web sites at www.veoliaenvironnement.com and www.veoliawaterna.com.

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