Mai Hattar
Assistant Group Manager-Engineering,
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Mai Hattar is assistant group manager of engineering at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which—along with its 26 member agencies and retail suppliers—provides water for 19 million people in six counties across a 5,200-sq-mile service area. Mai provides leadership to design and construction management staff, as well as to the initiative to establish alternative delivery methods at MWD. She also assists with overall engineering leadership and staff empowerment.

The agency’s full suite of in-house engineering services provide technical support to maintain reliable delivery of high-quality water; manage MWD’s capital investment plan to provide infrastructure resilience; and develop Pure Water Southern California— an advanced water treatment project that once built will be among the largest of its kind in the world.

Mai joined MWD in 2002 as an engineer and project manager for water treatment plant capital projects, including the Weymouth Oxidation Retrofit Program. She held various management roles in the engineering group program management section, which leads capital infrastructure projects from inception through design, constructio, and commissioning. Prior to joining the agency, Mai was a process engineer and engineering project manager for a construction company with major infrastructure projects in the Philippines, Indonesia, Nevada, and California.

Mai holds a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from University of California, San Diego and an M.S. degree in engineering from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona. She is a licensed professional engineer.