Amy Kahler said she knew the time was right to pursue the CEO job at Des Moines Water Works when it was announced her predecessor, Ted Corrigan, was retiring. Corrigan stepped down on July 18, and Kahler immediately began her new role leading the water utility.

Kahler, who is a fan of true-crime TV and ’80s hair bands, began her career at Deloitte as an auditor, later moving on to Principal Financial Group in their corporate accounting office. After five years, she wanted to find a smaller company, “where I felt I was really making an impact.”

When she joined Des Moines Water Works 25 years ago, she was the organization’s controller and was responsible for all the financial processes. Then, five years later, the opportunity opened to move into the role of director of customer service and marketing, a deviation from her accounting past that at first she wasn’t quite sure about.

“I laughed and said, ‘I’m a CPA, what do I know about customer service and marketing, that was crazy.’”

After giving it some thought, she tossed her name into the hat and ended up getting the new role.
She learned about the operations end of the organization and heard from customers about what was important to them, which Kahler said “has served her well.”

After 16 years she transitioned into the chief financial officer role and back to her financial roots. That was about four years ago. And today, she finds herself at the helm of the organization.

The Business Record caught up with Kahler during her first week in her new job to learn more about her goals, what she has learned from her predecessors, and the challenge of navigating a lawn watering ban during her first days on the job.

Here is some of what she had to say.

This Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity

You are following in the footsteps of two engineers who led the organization. How is your approach going to differ with your background in finance?
I know my time here hasn’t been in operations. I’m learning very quickly and when you are a senior leader here you see the breadth of everything, so I certainly have been exposed to operations. But I’m deeply entrenched in the financial and customer service side, so it just makes me a different kind of candidate. I thought the time was right, especially with Central Iowa Water Works coming online, to consider the difference. I will bring the customer service background as we advance Des Moines Water Works. I know what customers want. And my background in finance. A lot of our challenges are financial in nature, and I think that’s something that I bring to the table, being able to balance that in a sustainable and realistic way.

Having only been in your new role for a few days, have you been able to establish a vision or set goals for what you want to achieve?
Ted has been a great mentor. The transition did not look like what we thought it would because of the nitrate situation and the lawn watering ban, but it still was a great transition and it really escalated my learning curve.

My goals would be categorized in three buckets. First is organizational strength. I really want us to be recognized as an anchor institution in the community. The community is built around water and if it were not for water, we could not exist for life or for economic development. We have name recognition, but I want to make sure we are participating in the community, finding organizations that have complementary core values and see how we can partner with them toward the benefit of our customers. I also want to work to build a pipeline of employees and leaders, and elevate ourselves in the community as an employer of choice.

The second bucket is innovation. We have a tremendous opportunity to leverage new technology like artificial intelligence. There is so much opportunity there. How can it help us operationally? For predictive analysis. How can we use AI to look at weather patterns or overlay that with demand and other data? We have a lot of data. We collect so much it’s overwhelming. It’s unwieldy. How can we use AI to help us sort that data? And look at why customers may not be paying on time. Is it because they don’t have the resources? Is it because they’re busy? Is it because they aren’t organized? There are different solutions for each of those scenarios.

The third bucket is sustainability. We live in the Midwest where typically our water sources are ample. We rarely have to worry about not having enough water. The drought between 2021 and 2024 was a different story. So many other parts of the country have looked at demand management so that we can better use our resources because it is not limitless. So just making sure we are being good stewards of the environment so we have a sustainable future as a water utility.

What have you learned from Ted Corrigan and his predecessor, Bill Stowe, that you believe will help you take the organization forward?
I learned how to make tough decisions from Bill. He didn’t have a lot of patience to overanalyze situations, which I think we can tend to do. He would ask for information and data, make a decision and move on. And if it was the wrong decision he would say, ‘We can fix it. We’ll adjust.’ Ted is a collaborator. He is very steady. Always a trusted voice in the room. He is very fair and thoughtful. From Ted I learned how to work through and manage your own emotions and to keep an open mind to different perspectives and to work toward a solution that considers all perspectives in the room and make it a win-win when possible.

What will your management style be?
I adapt to the situation. I am a servant leader. I want to give a little direction, set the framework and make sure employees have what they need to get the job done and then get out of their way. We have a great team here and I don’t need to step along with them every step of the way. That doesn’t serve either of us. I’m also very passionate about creating psychological safety. I want everyone to feel comfortable telling me when they have a different idea or when they disagree. That is something that comes from an experience I had at Iowa State. I was in a tax class and was a good student. It was my junior year and I was trying to summarize something in my head and I asked the professor, ‘Is that true?’ He just looked at me and said, ‘Do not come back to this class until you can ask an intelligent question.’ That just rocked me. As I walked away from that class I thought that I will never make anybody feel the way that professor made me feel. That interaction deadened the room for the rest of the semester and nobody participated anymore because it wasn’t safe. I have carried that with me since 1992 and I refuse to make anybody feel that way.

Can you talk about how dealing with the nitrate issue and lawn watering ban has affected you as you transitioned into this new role?
At first it could have been overwhelming and maybe for a couple of moments it was, but as we started walking through it I was grateful it was occurring before I even started because I was surrounded by great operational people, Ted included, and got to travel along that learning curve and learn. It was heavy into operations. It gave me a lot of foundational information and knowledge. There is no better way to learn than baptism through fire. I had it in a safe environment where I could work with my mentor and just really learn and be part of that. So actually, I appreciate that it happened as it did because it gave me some wind as I landed as CEO on that first day.

You said you like to read. Is there a book you have read lately that you would recommend?
My favorite author right now is Adam Grant, and he has two books I’ve read recently. One is called ‘Hidden Potential’ and the other is called ‘Think Again.’ Both are very good but
‘Hidden Potential’ is really what inspired me to make the decision to apply for this job. It talks about understanding your abilities and using those to help benefit an organization. It’s a very eye-opening book.

Age: 54
Hometown: Adel, Iowa
Family: Married, three adult children, two sons, one daughter
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from Iowa State University
Activities: Reading, going to flea markets, collecting Iowa State Fair pottery, attending concerts and occasionally binge-watching a TV series. Also serving as treasurer of the Iowa Snowmobile Association and working with Children and Families of Iowa.
Contact: kahler@dmww.com