Veolia Water North America hires water and wastewater expert

• Company intends to further its research and development capabilities

HOUSTON, April 12, 2007 -- Water and wastewater expert John F. Cigana has joined Veolia Water North America as vice president, technology and process development. Cigana brings more than 10 years of research and development experience in the water and wastewater industry to Veolia Water. Having contributed to more than 70 technical papers and publications, he has secured several patents and helped launch new products and technologies in the water and wastewater business. He is an internationally recognized expert on water and wastewater treatment topics.

Cigana returns to Veolia Water after a brief stay as director of the CREDEAU laboratories at Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal, where he played a pivotal role in the start-up of these new research laboratories in the water and wastewater field. During Cigana's tenure, these unique laboratories generated a considerable amount of new research projects.

From 1997 to 2005, Cigana held various technical positions for Veolia Water. He began his career with Veolia Water as a project engineer in the Veolia Water Systems/John Meunier business center and later helped manage the portfolio of water and wastewater technologies for Veolia Water in North America as a technology manager. He was promoted to lead the industrial wastewater research and development department of Anjou Recherche in France, where he managed a multi-million research and development budget and helped develop significant new products and technologies.

Cigana earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering and master's degree in environmental engineering from Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal.

"Innovation is at the heart of our company," said Philippe Laval, chief operating officer for Veolia Water North America. "We're happy to have John back on our team. Working in close collaboration with universities and research consortia, he'll help us to continue to develop new fields of study and leverage our technical expertise. This allows us to continue to offer our customers value-added services and technologies, ensuring they receive the most cutting-edge water and wastewater treatment services."

Veolia Water North America is 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 (NYSE:VE) and (Paris Bourse:VIE), the largest environmental services company in the world, with more than 270,000 employees in about 64 countries and annual revenues of $30 billion.

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Also see:
-- "Veolia Water North America posts best safety statistics in history"

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