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 Director, Business Services Jan Hale 817-392-8438
Deputy Director, Infrastructure Services Laura Wilson, P.E. 817-392-2427 
Assistant Director, Field Operations Roy Teal, P.E. 817-392-8144 
Assistant Director, Strategic Operations Shela Chowdhury, P.E. 817-392-8242
Assistant Director, Plant Operations Shannon Dunne 817-392-8299 
Assistant Director, Customer Care Jerry Pressley 817-392-8257 
Assistant Director, Management Services Shane Zondor 817-392-7814
Assistant Director, Capital Project Delivery Tony Sholola, P.E. 817-392-6054 
Media Relations & Communications Coordinator Mary Gugliuzza 817-392-8253 

View the organizational chart(PDF, 159KB)

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.