Leadership & Organization

The water utility's leadership team is comprised of the water director, two deputy directors, six divisions, each led by an assistant director, and a communications coordinator. Their names and contact information is below.

Position Name (click name to send email) Phone Number
 Water Director  Chris Harder, P.E.  817-392-5020 
 Deputy Water Director, Business Services  Jan Hale  817-392-8438
 Deputy Water Director, Infrastructure Services  Laura Wilson, P.E.  817-392-2427 
 Assistant Water Director, Capital Project Delivery  Tony Sholola, P.E.  817-392-6054
 Assistant Water Director, Customer Care  Jerry Pressley  817-392-8257
 Assistant Water Director, Field Operations  Roy Teal, P.E.  817-392-8144 
 Assistant Water Director, Financial Services  Brian Brown  817-392-8820
 Assistant Water Director, Management Services  Shane Zondor  817-392-7814
 Assistant Water Director, Plant Operations  Shannon Dunne  817-392-8299 
 Assistant Water Director, Strategic Operations  Shela Chowdhury, P.E.  817-392-8242
 Media Relations & Communications Coordinator  Mary Gugliuzza  817-392-8253 

(PDF, 131KB)View the organizational chart(PDF, 131KB)

Responsibilities

Business Services

This area is comprised of two divisions – customer care and management services. In addition, the MyH2O project manager reports to the deputy director for business services.

The customer care division includes all customer facing operations – call center, billing and revenue accounting, meter services, conservation and backflow/cross connection control, customer engagement, development services, pretreatment services and wholesale customer billing and engagement.

The management services division includes finance and rates, capital improvement project accounting, capital project support, organizational development, water information technology, occupational health and safety, security and emergency management, records management and department administration.

Infrastructure Services

This area is comprised of two divisions – field operations and capital project delivery.

The field operations division is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the water distribution system and wastewater collection systems. The division handles main break and leak repairs, wastewater backups, sanitary sewer overflows, inspection of wastewater line conditions, fire hydrant and valve maintenance and much more.

The capital project delivery division is responsible for engineering and construction of projects related to water and wastewater mains, new development, treatment facilities, storage tanks, pump stations and lift stations, in-house design, construction inspection and coordination of work with the city’s street bond program projects.

Strategic Operations

This division oversees master planning, capital improvements planning, regulatory services, laboratory services, asset management and SCADA systems.

Plant Operations

This division includes both drinking water and wastewater treatment operations. This includes five drinking water plants, one water reclamation facility, elevated and ground storage tanks, pump stations, lift stations, a peak flow basin, biosolids operations and wholesale customer metering stations.

Chris Harder, P.E., became water utility director in August 2018, after serving six months as interim water director.

Harder joined Fort Worth in 1999 as a project engineer and was promoted to engineering manager in 2006. In 2017, he was selected as assistant director of the engineering division. A departmental reorganization in 2017 moved him to the role of assistant director of the strategic operations division. This division oversees capital project planning, asset management, regulatory compliance and laboratory operations.

His work experience includes capital planning, master plan studies and assessments, and design and management of numerous projects related to water and wastewater treatment plants, pump stations, lift stations, storage tanks, pipelines and meter stations.

Harder is a registered professional engineer in Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Valparaiso University, a Master of Science in civil engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a master’s in business administration from Texas Christian University.