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The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans Hires Chief Audit Executive
For Immediate Release
January 27, 2023

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — In line with its Five-Year Strategic Plan, the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans (SWBNO) welcomed Ed Sutherland as its first Chief Audit Executive. This newly created position will champion organizational and operational improvement, a key focus area for the utility.

Sutherland will oversee SWBNO's Internal Audit Department, which reviews the utility's operations and programs to ensure work is completed efficiently, while aiming to increase transparency and mitigate risk. Primary focus areas for evaluation and improvement include the adequacy and effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.  The Chief Audit Executive will also make recommendations to safeguard SWBNO's resources and ensure those recommendations are implemented across the utility—ultimately strengthening SWBNO's internal control environment.

"It's an honor to join the Sewerage and Water Board at such a momentous time in its history," said Sutherland. "This utility's work truly inspires me; and I’m motivated to help the Sewerage and Water Board build on its recent positive momentum. My goal is to foster a culture of partnership while creating and implementing a program that reinforces accountability utility-wide."

Since graduating from Louisiana State University's E.J. Ourso School of Business with his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2002, Sutherland has dedicated his career to auditing, compliance, and risk mitigation. Over the last 20 years, he gained a broad range of experience in the private and public sectors, including insurance, disaster recovery, resilience, and community development. Sutherland has a track record of building excellent teams to evaluate risk and present effective solutions to mitigate it.

Most recently, Sutherland served as the Monitoring, Environmental, Compliance, Closeout, and Audit (MECCA) Director at the State of Louisiana Office of Community Development's Disaster Recovery Unit. In this role, Sutherland oversaw MECCA efforts for seven federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) concurrently, encompassing over 300 grantees and subrecipients and implementing over 1,500 programs, projects, and activities across the state of Louisiana.

"The Leadership Team and I are delighted to have Ed on board," said SWBNO Executive Director Ghassan Korban. "His experience in financial, operational, and compliance controls management makes him the right fit as we continue to examine and overhaul our internal processes and programs."

The Chief Audit Executive will report directly to the SWBNO Board of Directors—and specifically the Audit Committee—with additional administrative reporting to the Executive Director.

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