Downtown-based water infrastructure company Cadiz Inc. has announced a leadership transition effective Jan. 1.

Stepping down as chief executive is water and land use attorney Scott Slater, who has led Cadiz since 2013; he will remain as a consultant to the company while devoting more time to his other positions outside the firm.

Taking his place as the new chief executive will be Susan Kennedy, the current board chair; she joined the board in early 2021. Kennedy, 63, is far better known in California circles as the longtime chief of staff to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and, before that, cabinet secretary to former Gov. Gray Davis. She also served a four-year term on the state’s Public Utilities Commission.

Cadiz will also expand its executive team next year with two new posts: one focused on development and operation of the company’s signature water pumping, transfer and storage project and the other focused on scaling the company’s recently acquired water filtration business, ATEC Water Systems.

Cadiz has tried for more than a quarter century to bring water from an aquifer under its Mojave Desert holding to market via pipelines that connect to Southern California’s existing water infrastructure. The company says this would boost vital water supplies to the region, especially in times of drought.

But the pipeline paths cross government lands, providing an opening for opponents to try to block the project through lawsuits or legislative or bureaucratic actions. Opponents have argued that Cadiz will end up extracting more water from the aquifer than is replenished naturally, causing the aquifer to drain and harming fragile desert ecosystems.

One of the project’s principal opponents was the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who saw it as undermining one of her signature achievements, the 1994 Desert Protection Act.

Slater was brought on board as president in 2011 to guide the company through all these legal, legislative and bureaucratic challenges. He became chief executive in 2013.