Al Bly, Founder and Former CEO of U.S. Water, Announces His Retirement from the Water Treatment Industry
March 27 2017 - 1:15PM
Business Wire
Al Bly today announced his retirement from the water treatment
industry after 31 years. In a letter to current U.S. Water CEO
LaMarr Barnes, Al expressed his gratitude to those that were part
of his journey with U.S. Water.
“I would like to thank U.S. Water employees, customers, vendors
and industry professionals for what has been an incredible ride.
Thank you to my partners in starting and building U.S. Water:
Stacey Bly, Randy Meyer and Mike Bertrang. The vision was to create
a great company consisting of chemistry, equipment and engineering
in support of the customer - to change the water treatment industry
in a positive way, to create opportunities for those who wanted to
improve the environment in which we live in a positive way, and to
create a company where an employee’s passion and energy could be
harnessed for a great outcome for the customer. I think we
accomplished that,” stated Bly.
In the letter, Al also expressed appreciation to LaMarr Barnes,
Kent Herbst, Jim Merritt and those who were instrumental in growing
U.S. Water through 10 acquisitions, and to ALLETE Chairman,
President and CEO Al Hodnik and the ALLETE team for continuing the
vision to grow U.S. Water into a distinctive and dominant force, to
be the “Future of Water” and the best place to work in water,
stating that “I believe ALLETE is a great home for the U.S. Water
platform.” Duluth based ALLETE Inc. (NYSE:ALE) acquired U.S. Water
in 2015.
Lastly, Al thanked the customers of U.S. Water and his friends
in the water treatment industry. “I would like to thank Terry Loso,
Jim Stahl, and Clay Watson for helping us and propelling us
forward; Ron Fagen and Dave Vandergriend for putting faith in us
during the ethanol industry buildout that helped push us to another
level; and Bruce Ketrick, Steve Dumler, Dennis Clayton, Andy Weas,
Greg Gehrke and my many friends at Associated Labs and AWT. I could
not have not succeeded without your help and guidance,” said
Bly.
In response, Barnes stated, “All of us at U.S. Water thank Al
for his vision, his passion for the company and the water treatment
industry, and his leadership in developing our company into the
national platform we have become. We wish Al and Stacey the best in
their next phase of life. I know Al will continue to celebrate our
wins as we move forward in fulfilling his original vision for the
company.”
Headquartered in St. Michael, Minnesota, U.S. Water has a
national footprint and serves a growing and diverse mix of about
4,800 industrial customers, including a significant number of
Fortune 500 companies. U.S. Water provides integrated water
management for industry, combining chemical, equipment, engineering
and service for customized solutions to reduce water and energy
usage and improve efficiency.
U.S. Water helps customers achieve efficient and sustainable use
of their water and energy systems, and is a leading provider to
industries such as biofuels, power generation, oil and gas, and
health care.
ALLETE, Inc. is an energy company headquartered in Duluth,
Minnesota. In addition to U.S. Water Services, ALLETE owns two
electric utilities, Minnesota Power and Superior Water, Light and
Power of Wisconsin; ALLETE Clean Energy, based in Duluth; and BNI
Energy in Bismarck, North Dakota; and has an eight percent equity
interest in the American Transmission Co. More information about
ALLETE is available at www.allete.com.
For more information, contact
sarah.haug@uswaterservices.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170327005941/en/
U.S. Water Services, Inc.Sarah Haug,
763-497-1293sarah.haug@uswaterservices.comwww.uswaterservices.com
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