A unique perspective of the groundwater industry will be brought to the table when Eric Macias receives the president’s gavel in December at Groundwater Week 2024.
It will mark the first time the National Ground Water Association’s president comes from the Manufacturers Section. Macias is chief operating officer of LORENTZ U.S. Corp. in Slaton, Texas.
“For my fellow board members from all sections to agree, have confidence in my leadership abilities, and to let me represent them and our industry is a privilege,” said the 42-yearold Macias who will be NGWA’s 74th president.
“It was never my intention to be in the position. Initially, I wanted to give back to the industry and work on the board as long as I felt I was adding value and being productive. I think the message that the board was wanting to send was that we are a great team together as far as the scientists and engineers, contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers — and that all of us working in conjunction that we’re better together.”
Macias is eager to build on the momentum that current NGWA President David Traut, MGWC, CVCLD, sought for the Association’s nearly 10,200 members. Macias is laser-focused on three priorities in 2025:
- To complete NGWA Business PRO, an innovative app designed to provide water well contractors with an all-in-one business management tool
- To improve and build out NGWA University
- To explore and implement a strategy which allows the groundwater industry to be recognized as a meaningful place to work and attract new talent.
The groundwater industry’s foremost concern of workforce development during the last four years has pushed the limits of companies staring at backlogs of work that some say hasn’t been felt since the housing boom following World War II.
But Macias is hearing many water well contractors say they’re catching up on their backlogs and some sectors are beginning to cool down due to high inflation and interest rates. (This was before the Federal Reserve announced on September 18 cutting interest rates by half a percentage point.)
Therefore, Macias believes the industry can expect the rest of 2024 to be flat with a slow first quarter to begin 2025. Even so, the industry will continue to be essential, and Macias sees the COVID pandemic in 2020 proving just how strong it is.
“The people in our industry are the core strength,” Macias shared. “In the long term, our industry will continue to grow and be of great importance to the world’s water supply.”
As the seventh president to hail from Texas, Macias is methodical with his words and reactions in large part because he is an aircraft pilot who has logged around 1300 hours thus far flying to business development meetings and projects. His calm and collective demeanor has been evident since getting elected to the NGWA Board of Directors in 2019.
“You can see him processing all the information, all the opinions that everybody is sharing, and I think it’s important to have a person like that, especially as a leader who can sit and process and think and listen to everybody,” said Jeremy Kuhn, vice president of NGWA’s Manufacturers Section Board of Directors. “He does a really good job of it.
“He is not the most vocal person like some of us are, but you don’t need everybody to talk because then you end up just talking over each other. You need listeners.”
Click here to read the full profile of Macias in November's 2024 issue of Water Well Journal®.