Central States Water Resources names Brent Thies CFO

Central States Water Resources promoted longtime finance leader Brent Thies to chief financial officer as the utility continues rapid expansion. The move comes as CSWR scales its financial operations alongside major growth in customers, systems and revenue.

Why it matters: - Central States Water Resources is elevating a long-tenured finance executive into a broader role as the utility continues to grow. - The CFO appointment comes as CSWR says it needs tighter alignment between financial planning, capital investment and expansion. - CSWR says its scale now includes more than 1,000 regulated systems and nearly 500,000 customers across 11 states.

What happened: - Central States Water Resources named Brent Thies chief financial officer on October 26, 2026. - Thies joined CSWR in 2017 as a senior accountant. - Thies most recently served as senior vice president and corporate controller. - CSWR is based in St. Louis.

The details: - Thies has overseen accounting, financial reporting, regulatory financial reporting, audits and tax compliance. - CSWR says Thies helped build and strengthen the company’s financial organization during a period of major growth. - The company says equivalent residential units increased 100-fold during Thies’ tenure. - CSWR says revenue increased 70-fold over the same period. - Thies was promoted to vice president and corporate controller in 2022. - Thies is a Certified Public Accountant with experience in public accounting and corporate finance. - CSWR describes itself as the 10th largest investor-owned water and wastewater utility in the United States. - CSWR also says it is the nation’s largest owner and operator of domestic wastewater treatment systems. - The company says it has been the industry’s most active acquirer since 2019, completing more acquisitions than the next five investor-owned utilities combined. - CSWR was founded in 2014. - The company says it operates in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. - CSWR says it serves more than 500,000 customers in one section of the release and nearly 500,000 customers in another. - Learn more about CSWR

Between the lines: - The promotion signals confidence in a finance leader who has already helped guide CSWR through a period of aggressive expansion. - Moving a controller into the CFO seat suggests CSWR is prioritizing operational continuity as financial complexity grows. - The company’s repeated emphasis on acquisitions and system growth points to a strategy built around consolidation and infrastructure investment.

What's next: - Thies will take on broader responsibility for financial strategy and operations. - CSWR says the new role will help align financial planning and capital investment with long-term objectives. - The company is likely to keep scaling its regulated utility footprint as it pursues continued growth.

The bottom line: - CSWR is betting on an internal finance veteran to help manage the demands of its next growth phase.