Essential Utilities promotion sees new duties for head of IR

Brian Dingerdissen has been named as the new vice president of investor relations and treasurer at Pennsylvania-headquartered Essential Utilities.

An internal hire, Dingerdissen had already been serving as the firm’s chief of staff and vice president of communications and IR for a number of years – a role that had seen him take the lead on investor relations. His promotion is part of a ‘planned succession’, according to the company, which this month also announced a 7 percent increase in its dividend.

Dingerdissen retains his responsibilities for investor relations, while his promotion means he now also leads the company’s ESG program as he reports to Dan Schuller, Essential Utilities’ CFO. As treasurer, Dingerdissen is responsible for the company’s financing and cash management activities as well as its relationships with credit agencies.

‘Having served the company as head of investor relations for 14 years and chief of staff since 2015, Brian has the leadership skills as well as the knowledge and experience to excel in his new role,’ says Schuller in a company statement. ‘He will continue to develop as he works hand in hand with outgoing senior vice president of finance and treasurer Stan Szczygiel until his retirement in early 2023.’

Three years after joining Essential Utilities in 2005, Dingerdissen ‘assumed leadership’ of the IR program. Under his tenure, the firm has grown from a market cap of $2 bn to more than $13 bn. Having ‘enhanced’ relationships with the investment community, Essential Utilities notes Dingerdissen’s outreach with sell-side analysts as well as institutional and retail investors: ‘In 2019, he led the investor relations efforts for the company’s successful secondary public equity offering of $2 bn to finance the acquisition of Peoples’ – a ‘transformational’ $4.27 bn deal to buy the Pittsburgh-based natural gas distribution company, which was completed in early 2020.

In his role as chief of staff, Essential Utilities says Dingerdissen ‘played a key role in the successful CEO transition at the company in 2015, including the formation and implementation of a new leadership team and growth strategy’.

An MBA graduate of Villanova University, Dingerdissen has held multiple roles and been involved in various disciplines alongside leading the IR program at the firm: between September 2017 and May 2018, he served as the company’s interim chief human resources officer. In 2019, he initiated the development of the company’s formal ESG program. In March 2020, he added communications to his portfolio of responsibilities.

He is currently a board member of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross and is a former board member of the Villanova Executive MBA Alumni and the Philadelphia chapter of NIRI.