Cascade Water Alliance has selected Ray Hoffman as its next chief executive officer.

Hoffman, who has been a strategic policy advisor at Cascade for almost two years, succeeds Chuck Clarke, Cascade’s CEO since 2009, who will retire at the end of December.

“It is seldom that an organization is presented with such an outstanding, experienced leader such as Ray,” Cascade Board Chair John Stokes, Bellevue City Council member, said following Cascade board’s unanimous vote.

Hoffman brings more than 20 years of executive leadership in public utilities having served eight years as managing director of Seattle Public Utilities overseeing four business lines (drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, solid waste and handling energy issues) delivering drinking water to 1.4 million customers in the region. A cum laude accounting graduate of the University of Illinois, Hoffman earned a master of accounting science from Illinois and a Ph.D. in Business, Government and Society from the University of Washington Graduate School Of Business. Over the years he has served on a number of boards of national water associations.

Hoffman officially begins his duties Jan. 1.

“While we welcome Ray to lead us into Cascade’s third decade, we also want to thank the steady, outstanding leadership of Chuck Clarke, who led Cascade through the development of successful Lake Tapps partnerships and operations for future water supply, leading critical legislation that the region desired, strong financial management and the overall management of Cascade’s small, nimble, multi-skilled experienced staff. Our board recognizes his tremendous contributions and leadership over the past decade,” Stokes added.

Cascade is a municipal corporation that provides safe, clean, reliable drinking water to almost 400,000 residents and 20,000 businesses in Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond, Tukwila, Sammamish Plateau Water and the Skyway Water and Sewer District.

For more information, visit cascadewater.org