Jeffrey M. Taylor is senior vice president, chief SEC counsel and secretary for American Water. In this role, Mr. Taylor is responsible for all aspects of American Water’s securities law, corporate governance, and corporate law compliance, and oversees the corporate secretary function.
He is also responsible for preparing or assisting in the preparation of American Water’s SEC filings and other public disclosures, corporate governance matters, legal compliance for debt and equity financings and other securities offerings as well as loan, credit and hedging transactions, overseeing compliance with New York Stock Exchange listing rules, and general corporate law matters.
As corporate secretary for American Water and several of its subsidiaries, Mr. Taylor oversees board matters and subsidiary management functions for these entities. He also serves as a counselor and legal advisor to various constituencies and functional units within American Water, including the board of directors, accounting, treasury, investor relations, corporate communications, risk management and insurance, human resources, and business development.
Prior to joining American Water in June 2015, Mr. Taylor was an associate general counsel and assistant secretary at Pepco Holdings, Inc., one of the largest energy delivery companies in the mid-Atlantic region. Prior to joining Pepco Holdings, he was a partner in the Public Companies and Capital Formation practice group in the Philadelphia office of international law firm Blank Rome LLP and devoted over 17 years in private practice to the representation of domestic and foreign clients in a wide array of industries in securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and capital raising, corporate governance, executive compensation and business and corporate law matters.
Mr. Taylor received his law degree, with honors, from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 1995 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Northwestern University in 1992.
Mr. Taylor served from 2020 to 2024 on the Board of Directors of the Society for Corporate Governance, including three years as Chair of its Audit and Finance Committee. He is also a three-term past President of the Middle Atlantic Chapter of the Society and has served since 2006 as a member of the advisory committee.
He also served as Vice/Co-Chair of the Securities Regulation Committee of the Business Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association from May 2009 to July 2011. Mr. Taylor is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of Corporate Counsel and is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and as in-house counsel in New Jersey.