Lane Crider named CEO of Beaver Water District, Alan Fortenberry will retire in 2019

The Beaver Water District board of directors has hired Lane Crider as its next chief executive officer. The appointment is effective Oct. 1.

Crider previously worked for the past 29 years for Fayetteville firm McGoodwin, Williams and Yates Inc. and MWY, a Division of Olsson Associates. He began his career with McGoodwin, Northwest Arkansas’ oldest engineering firm, as an intern while still a student at the University of Arkansas. The company was acquired earlier this year by Nebraska-based engineering and design firm Olsson Associates.

Crider is replacing longtime CEO Alan Fortenberry, who is retiring in 2019. Fortenberry has been with Beaver Water for nearly three decades, and has been CEO since 2001. Under his leadership, the organization has grown to deliver nearly 19 billion gallons of water a year to municipalities across Northwest Arkansas.

Since being named as the CEO, capital improvements in excess of $125 million dollars have been accomplished, which has positioned the District to meet water needs in Northwest Arkansas for many years to come. He established a separate Environmental Quality Department and encouraged the development of a Beaver Lake watershed protection strategy through the Northwest Arkansas Council, which resulted in the formation of the Beaver Watershed Alliance.