Orth tapped to guide Black & Veatch Americas water business

Share this page:

Tuesday February 3rd, 2015 | OVERLAND PARK, Kansas

Industry leader’s portfolio includes critical projects to solve complex water challenges impacting millions

Black & Veatch today announced that Mike Orth has been named Executive Managing Director for the Americas in the company’s water business. He will be based in Kansas City. Orth will guide the company’s growth efforts in supply, storage, treatment, conveyance and asset management, delivering projects for clients through both traditional methods and alternative solutions such as design-build and public-private partnerships.

Orth replaces Ralph Eberts, who has been selected to serve as Executive Managing Director for Integrated Solutions in Black & Veatch’s Management Consulting group. Orth joined Black & Veatch in 1989. He spent the previous year as the company’s Deputy Managing Director for the Americas. He has been instrumental to many of the company’s growth initiatives through his leadership role on numerous water and wastewater treatment and infrastructure projects.

“Black & Veatch is committed to aggressive growth by delivering innovative, best-in-class solutions for clients across the water industry... Mike brings to his new role a deep understanding of the market and a strong client-service mentality that will expand our reach.”

Cindy Wallis-Lage, President of Black & Veatch’s water business

Under Orth’s direction in the central region of the United States, Black & Veatch has secured and executed complex, critical projects to solve key challenges for communities. He played a principal role on the T-Bar Ranch Water Supply design-build project in Midland, Texas. Orth recently worked with the Metropolitan Water District of Greater Chicago to win a design-build contract for the world’s largest phosphorus recovery project. Other highlight projects in his portfolio include several large tunnel projects across the Midwest and Great Lakes areas. He helped secure the Tomahawk Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and nutrient removal project and leads our team’s water treatment and conveyance work for WaterOne of Johnson County, Kansas.

Orth is a member of the American Water Works Association. He is currently Director-Elect of the AWWA’s Kansas Section, an organization he has also served as Chair and Trustee. He is a member of the Water Environment Federation, and has been an active volunteer in the Kansas City area, including with the United Way of Kansas City.

Editor’s Notes:

The T-Bar Ranch project brought water from a 7,000-acre new raw water well field some 60 miles to the city of Midland, an area that has suffered from severe to extreme drought. Black & Veatch and Garney Construction worked in a joint venture to deliver this award-winning project in a mere 12 months.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) selected Black & Veatch and Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies to design and build a new nutrient recovery system at its Stickney Water Reclamation Plant in Cicero, IL. The facility will improve water quality in local rivers, lakes and streams. It will also produce commercial fertilizer from recovered resources.
Black & Veatch is currently supporting numerous cities through planning, programmatic services, design and construction management of more than $6 billion of infrastructure that will dramatically reduce combined sewer overflow into local rivers and streams. This includes more than 42 miles of tunnels that will store, without major disturbance to cities and citizens, untreated wastewater and stormwater until it can be safely treated.
Black & Veatch is part of a team that is working to provide improvements at the Tomahawk Wastewater Treatment Plant to meet anticipated nutrient removal limits and to provide wet-weather facilities and treatment capacity to 19 million gallons per day.

Media Contact Information:

CHRISTOPHER CLARK | +1 913-458-2778 P | +1 816-674-0572 M
ClarkCA@bv.com | >24-HOUR MEDIA HOTLINE | +1 866-496-9149

About Black & Veatch

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2018 were US$3.5 billion.