On the day that Montgomery County utility provider Quadvest completed its $540 million sale earlier this month, CEO Simon Sequeira gave every employee a gift and a personalized letter that promised to change their lives.
In the letters, Sequeira wrote something nice about each employee and what he remembered about the work they had done for the company. Included too was an estimate of each employee's share of $40 million in bonuses divided among 115 employees that Sequeira's family would distribute as part of the sale.
"The people who gave some of the best years of their lives to us, we just thought it was the right thing to do," Sequeira said in an interview, "to reward them for all their hard work."
How it happened
Sequeira and his four siblings , who owned Quadvest, last year decided to sell the company to H2O America. The deal for the water and wastewater utility company finalized on Oct. 1. As part of the sale, the family chose to give $40 million from the proceeds to around 115 Quadvest employees, a gesture Sequeira called a show of appreciation for their loyalty and hard work through the company’s expansion over multiple decades.
Sequeira said some employees will wake up and check their bank accounts on Friday, Oct. 21 and see they are now millionaires. Depending on their position and tenure, others will receive less, Sequeira said, but someone making $60,000 a year who has been with Quadvest for 10 years will get around a $250,000 check.
Many told him they'd use the money to retire with dignity, pay off their house or fund their children's college.
"I couldn’t have been more happy that this money is going to go to them and help them have a better life," Sequeira said. "I'm just overwhelmed with gratitude that my employees have shown me."
Looking back
Wanting to avoid any familial strife that comes with handing down a business to future generations, Sequeira said he and his siblings 10 years ago made the decision that they would sell the company at some point. A few years later, a plan was created to give 10 percent of the net proceeds of any sale back to the employees, Sequeira said.
The time came last year when Quadvest was listed on the market and sold. Only some employees knew that they might one day share in any sale proceeds until Sequeira announced the company sale in July 2025 and unveiled the plan to everyone else.
What’s changing?
Quadvest now has more than 100,000 customers, Sequeira said and that could double in a few years with Montgomery County's expected growth. The Magnolia-based water and wastewater utility provider has stressed that customers shouldn’t expect any hiccups in the changing of the guard.
“While ownership of Quadvest’s assets has changed, operations continue without interruption for customers served by Quadvest systems,” according to a news release from H2O America. “A passionate, dedicated team of locally based employees and leadership serving these Houston-area customers has been retained and will continue to serve these growing communities.”
Quadvest will join H2O America’s subsidiaries The Texas Water Company and Texas Water Operation Services. Gary Sequeira and his father-in-law Odell Vaught founded Quadvest in 1978.
Sequeira is no longer the CEO as of Oct. 1 but remains a consultant with the company. He hopes that more people choose to be generous with their employees when they contemplate selling their companies.
"We felt like it was the right thing to do," Sequeira said.
