Eric Macias Is Laser-Focused on the Future

The first from NGWA’s Manufacturers Section will preside over the Association in 2025.

By Mike Price

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.

Eric Macias

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,” says 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.

Macias at the 2024 Smart Water Policies Fly-In with Xochitl Liana Torres Small, United States deputy secretary of agriculture, and 2024 NGWA President David Traut, MGWC, CVCLD.

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 shares. “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.

Macias with his wife Lacey, daughter Ella, and son Mack.

“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,” says 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.”

Traut, who initiated NGWA’s Work Force Development Task Force this year and will continue to lead it in 2025, points to Macias’ commitment and dedication to the members of NGWA that will set him up for presidential success. This past year Traut groomed Macias on how the Government Affairs Committee operates along with other Association functions.

“Everyone who knows Eric, or if you just recently met him, will quickly observe that he is a personality type who fully analyzes the details of any given situation and will ask all the critical questions prior to taking action,” Traut says.

Workforce Development Is Top of Mind

With industry experience beginning in the back of a warehouse and later in the field with customers, Macias believes the groundwater industry needs to view workforce development as a “birth rate,” identifying the number of individuals it needs to bring in each year to sustain and meet future demand.

The valid viewpoint is based on this reality: A record 4.1 million Americans were set to turn 65 this year and each year through 2027, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income’s Retirement Income Institute. Some of these retirees work in the groundwater industry.

Understanding the urgency of the industry’s most pressing issue, Macias suggests the following:

• Strive every day to increase the knowledge in the industry—no matter if you’re an engineer, contractor, manufacturer, or supplier—because “smart and talented people want to work on a team with other people who are going to encourage and challenge them to be their best.”
• The more professional companies can represent the industry, the more value the industry can provide to the end customer.
• This results in better margins throughout the entire channel, which makes the industry more competitive with other industries.

“The only way we will gain new people is for each and every one of us to actively recruit and mentor the next generation,” he states.

Macias is in the groundwater industry solely because of mentors who he worked with in the early 2000s at a pump supplier in Amarillo, Texas. They saw potential and took Macias under their wings.

“David Perez, Roy Harris, and Burton Shephard appreciated my desire to learn, and I took every advantage and paid attention to anything they could teach me about the business,” he recalls. “They also were flexible with my [college] class schedule. I really looked up to these guys, and they made work fun.

“The other thing that I liked were our customers. They treated me with respect and encouraged me to continue learning and would also teach me more about drilling and installing pumps.”

Macias eventually pursued a career with the pump supplier rather than finishing college. He joined LORENTZ as chief operating officer in December 2014 and credits countless co-workers and customers over the years who supported him in reaching his goal.

“The people in our industry are the core strength. In the long term, our industry will continue to grow and be of great importance to the world’s water supply.”

“I really think back to the beginning and try to find young, smart, hardworking, and thirsty-for-knowledge people to bring into our industry as was done for me,” he shares. “I’ve made it a point in our company to hire people who are not in our industry. Sure, this can be more challenging, but it’s worth the effort.”

Interestingly, Macias received a copy of a letter several years ago that he had written when he was 19 from one of the individuals who he worked for while in college. The letter listed Macias’ goals and the steps he would take to achieve them. His top goal? COO (chief operating officer) of a company.

“Set goals and work hard, you can achieve anything,” he asserts.

Despite his job title changing over the years, it’s not uncommon to see Macias behind a drilling rig with a contractor more than behind a desk. Macias even helped promote LORENTZ solar water pumps on YouTube during the height of the COVID pandemic by flying in to help install an eight-panel system on a farm in North Carolina. The 2021 video has nearly 200,000 views.

Macias will be part of NGWA’s Work Force Development Task Force. Each membership section is represented on the Task Force so viewpoints can be heard across the industry.

“Perspective is important in our industry, and Eric does a great job of being empathetic to the different vocations in our industry,” says Blake Talkmitt, chair of NGWA’s Suppliers Section Board of Directors.

A Leap of Faith to Serve

Macias was encouraged by long-time friend and past NGWA Supplier Board Director Ryan Arnett of Austin Pump & Supply Co. Inc. in fall 2018 to consider serving on the Manufacturers Section Board of Directors.

Arnett, who serves as president of Austin Pump & Supply and received NGWA’s 2019 Supplier of the Year Award, is passionate about the Association. His passion and encouragement were instrumental for Macias along with seeing someone who is running a large company still be able to volunteer.

“That’s always the biggest hurdle in these organizations; we’re all busy,” Macias says, “and so when you see somebody like that who is balancing operating a company successfully and also serving on the board successfully, you have to be honest with yourself. There’s a little bit of selfishness in you that says: Can I do both?”

Macias is successfully maintaining both his work priorities and NGWA commitment. His time management skills increased during the beginning of the pandemic that coincided with him earning his pilot’s license in April 2020. The accomplishment made him appreciate his time and set him on a course to be diligent in structuring it.

It’s simple for Macias: Unless he’s focused and willing to do what it takes to be successful, he’s leery of committing time to volunteer. He encourages all industry professionals to volunteer.

“The only reason I’m sitting here is because I got involved,” he shares. “Just take that leap of faith and support from family and colleagues.”

For industry professionals who are not NGWA members, Macias knows there is strength in numbers. He knows this only makes the industry stronger.

“I believe in surrounding yourself with the most knowledgeable people in the industry and building relationships on things we have in common,” he says.

Macias attended his first Smart Water Policies Fly-In this May in Washington, D.C., where NGWA members attended more than 40 meetings on Capitol Hill and discussed policy priorities .

While meeting with policy makers like the United States deputy secretary of agriculture, Macias learned that NGWA needs more members to participate in the two-day event if they want their voice heard at the federal policy maker level.

“Many of our members and state associations have strong relationships with their state senators and representatives,” he shares. “We need to be pushing from the state and federal level to ensure that these politicians know our Association is a great resource to help them understand groundwater issues.

“We must be involved in new policies and laws that will have an impact on our membership’s businesses.”

Seizing the Opportunity

Earning his pilot’s license in April 2020 afforded Macias the advantage of traveling to business development meetings and projects during the pandemic when restrictions were in place.

With business being conducted across the United States and more taking place on both coasts, Macias felt blessed to not have to slow down during this time. The challenge of flying also fulfills his need for adrenaline and helps him appreciate how short life is.

“You’ve got to seize the opportunity,” he declares. “When you have an opportunity that pops up and you can be there, and your competition can’t and you can go close the deal before they can even think about getting there, then you’re one step ahead.”

The groundwater industry prides itself on conducting business with a handshake, so face-to-face interaction is irreplaceable. It’s particularly important for Macias and his company’s solar water pumping systems.

“It’s not something that’s been around since 1955. It’s a newer technology even though it’s really not,” he says. “It’s 30 years old now, but people still have questions, and they want confidence in that your product works. And more importantly, that there is someone standing behind it if something goes wrong, so putting your face in front of them and forming those personal relationships goes a long way.”

Macias, who loves teaching new employees and customers how to design, install, and troubleshoot his company’s pumping systems, appreciates how the groundwater industry’s questions about solar pumping systems have evolved.

The increase in installations through the years has led to questions on how to run meggers better and troubleshooting techniques for larger systems (100 horsepower) versus fractional horsepower systems. The most common solar pumping system in the water market is one that moves 3000 gallons a day for livestock watering, which equates to ¾ to a 2½ horsepower pumps.

A proud father moment came when Macias’ 8-year-old son, Mack, recently won a sales contest on LORENTZ solar powered pumping systems for livestock watering. His son was asked by a judge in the contest about how overcast days will impact getting water to the livestock.

“He pulled out the chart and showed her how DC brushless motors are 92 percent efficient and how under variable loads, variable speeds, they’re able to still hold up to 70 to 75 percent efficiency,” Macias shares, “so if you size the system correctly, then you can still get full water output even on cloudy days if your technology and your sizing application is correct.

“All it takes is knowing where to get the data to understand what the amount of sunlight is going to be and properly planning the size of your solar array and utilizing the most efficient technology and a motor and a pump and a controller.”

LORENTZ, founded in Germany in 1993, has more than 300 team members globally. Macias is the head of the North American company and is responsible for all finances, operations, and sales functions. Macias reports to the board of directors of LORENTZ, which oversees all LORENTZ companies internationally.

“While I consider myself a great business operator and I enjoy operations, my passion is business development,” he says.

“In 2007, the company I worked with identified an opportunity to drastically grow our business by marketing solar powered pumps. The water well industry at that time had a very low adoption rate of solar powered pumps and the amount of training that had been conducted in our industry was very little. So, we set off on a mission to educate our customers on solar powered pumping systems and that is when I learned that I really enjoy helping others learn, which makes us all more successful together.”

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Macias grew up on a farm/ranch in the Texas panhandle that used lineshaft turbine pumps for irrigation and windmills to water cattle. This provided him with light experience with pumps in general. He also was active in 4-H.

The Texas family man who fell in love with the groundwater industry in his early 20s working in a pump supply warehouse knows time is of the essence with workforce development. He wants to educate future generations to get them interested in the industry.

“I’m here for the good of the industry,” he says.

2023 NGWA President Jason House, LG, PG, anticipates Macias will bring both intensity and energy to his leadership in 2025.

“Eric has great ideas, and you know when he speaks up, he has thought deeply about the issue and will provide a nuanced perspective on the problem at hand,” House says.

Mike Price is the senior editor of Water Well Journal. In addition to his WWJ responsibilities, Price contributes to the Association’s scientific publications. He can be reached at mprice@ngwa.org, or at (800) 551-7379, ext. 1541.