At Work With Water: Carolyn Parent, Metron-Farnier
At Work With Water is a series focusing on the incredible people who are making a difference for water. In each edition of XPV Water Partners’ newsletter, we’ll speak with a person from one of our portfolio companies who is doing things differently – ensuring that the water sector continues to evolve, thrive, and meet global challenges with innovative solutions.
Sought-after, high-growth CEO Carolyn Parent recently joined Metron-Farnier, a leading smart water data management system company, bringing more than 25 years of global experience with start-ups to Fortune 100 giants. We spoke to Carolyn about her career as the leader of several innovative technology organizations, Metron’s role in a water secure future, and her top priorities for growing the company.
You’ve built a career successfully launching, scaling, leading, and transforming companies. Tell us about your decision to join Metron. What excites you most about this opportunity?
For much of my career, I’ve been drawn to “mission-based” companies with great products that need some support to grow and get their solution to more customers. The companies who I have worked with needed the latest technology, data, and analytics so to help solve some of the biggest problems facing our planet and also contribute to our global economy. At the same time, my children have greatly influenced my perspective and made me much more conscious of their generation’s concerns. Water sustainability and climate adaptation are hugely important to them – and to me.
It’s not hard to see how Metron is making a difference for our customers. As a result, the company has grown rapidly in the last five years. For me, joining the Metron team represented an exciting and tremendous opportunity to build on this momentum. With improved access to accurate, real-time data and insights about their water systems, our customers can make better decisions about how to manage water sustainably, control their costs, and build resilience. I was drawn to Metron’s solutions because we are helping enable sustainable practices that support water infrastructure and create sustainable communities. Insight and actionable smart water intelligence are key to fixing undetected issues, conserving water, and decreasing wastefulness. I am proud to lead a company that works with businesses, cities, and consumers to save water, time, and money.
How does your previous experience in software and intelligence technology translate to this sector?
“Actionable intelligence” has been a common theme throughout my career. Information is valuable, but how we translate and share it is even more important. In each of my roles, I’ve thought about how we can activate disruptive technology to empower users to solve problems, improve our lives, and protect the health and safety of people and our planet. My specialty is accelerating company growth at scale to achieve these goals.
At Metron, that experience translates beautifully. Metron was one of the first providers of cellular-enabled advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with visualized alert analytics, disrupting the market by bringing smart metering to smaller utilities and water providers nationwide. As a leader in smart water management systems to the real estate industry and other infrastructure markets, our software and solutions gather insights about leakage and loss in water systems and that critical information is pushed to the people who can take immediate action or use the data to prioritize and support future decisions.
While water is a new market for me, I’m excited to learn from our deeply knowledgeable team.
As the company’s new leader, can you speak about how the team will approach building on Metron’s momentum? What are your top priorities in the coming year or two?
Metron’s momentum has been spectacular – that’s part of what attracted me to the company. We have great customers, great products, deep industry knowledge. These are all fantastic ingredients for scaling the business. With the investment backing from XPV and incredible growth in the real estate and utility markets, it’s the perfect opportunity to bring in some tools and processes to help the company reach our next levels of growth. We’ll also be working to share our story and build awareness about Metron’s team and solutions. We want to expand our reach by adding to our customer success and sales teams and leveraging partnerships.
How does Metron’s vision align with your personal values and outlook?
The Metron team has tremendous heart; everyone here is passionate about water sustainability. Our team understands and values that our work is part of a mission to make the world a better place. We truly care about impact and quality.
This is such a fragmented, fractured world. It’s getting harder and harder to find ways to bond with our neighbors. But water is something we all share. If our team can mobilize around core human needs, and if we can scale sustainable solutions that benefit our common threads, it gives me hope for our future. It resonates.