The Pembina Valley Water Co-op has hired its next chief executive officer.

The board of directors began searching for a new CEO several months ago, and after a series of interviews with some of the top applicants, approved the successful candidate. However, the regional utility won't officially identify its choice until mid October as the person is still employed in the province.

"There was a good slate of candidates from which to choose from, and after a series of interviews, it came down to three applicants, all of whom were certainly capable of doing the job," said interim CEO, Sam Schellenberg. "From there, it was simply a matter of finding the best candidate who could meet the demands of this particular position."

The job became vacant this summer when long time employee and CEO Gord Martel passed away in August. Martel had a strong engineering background as CEO, but Schellenberg says that was no longer necessary for the job as the utility already had personnel on staff with that skill set.

"We placed an emphasis on the management side," said Schellenberg. "We also needed someone who could communicate effectively with the staff and ultimately with the owners of the corporation; the 14 municipal councils who make up the Co-op."

Shellenberg suggests the Water Co-op is entering a pivotal period of change and the new CEO and board will need to project the long term future demand for water in our region and how that demand will be met.

"Then they will need to look at climate change and determine what they will do in the event of a drought. This year has been extremely wet, but that can turn around on a dime and we can have a drought scenario especially with the way the climate is changing right now. That's a level of preparedness that needs to be there, not just for the water co-op, but also for all the municipal members."

The new CEO will take over the post by the beginning of November.