S. David Freeman Joins LADWP as Interim General Manager

S. David Freeman was appointed Interim General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) on October 6, 2009. Mr. Freeman now oversees the largest municipal utility in the country, managing over 8,500 employees and an annual budget of more than four billion dollars.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Freeman served the City of Los Angeles as Deputy Mayor of Energy and Environment, the City’s chief environmental official. He was previously President of the Los Angeles Harbor Commission, where he led the boards of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to adopt the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action plan, a comprehensive strategy to reduce port air emissions by nearly 50 percent over a period of five years.

Mr. Freeman was the first person with energy-related responsibilities in the Federal government, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. Thereafter, he began a 30-year run as board member and manager of many of America’s largest publicly-owned utilities. President Jimmy Carter appointed him Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1977, where he cut sulfur oxide emissions in half, stopped construction of eight large nuclear power plants and pioneered a massive energy conservation program. Mr. Freeman then served as general manager of large public power agencies for the next two decades, including his first tenure with LADWP from 1997 to 2001.

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