NEW ORLEANS -- The Sewerage & Water Board will have a new leader on Wednesday.
The agency announced Monday evening that a committee tasked with finding the next executive director had whittled the field of candidates from four to two, leaving Ghassan Korban and Avis Russell in the running.
“This has been a thorough process and I’m confident that either of these candidates could lead this agency as it undergoes the changes necessary to better serve New Orleanians,” acting Executive Director Jade Brown-Russell said in a prepared statement.
Korban is Milwaukee’s commissioner of public works. The S&WB said he began his career in that city’s Department of Public Works as a project engineer in 1987.
Russell served as city attorney under Marc Morial and oversaw a controversial and failed effort to privatize the S&WB during his administration. She also is the former vice president and chief compliance officer for Parsons, an infrastructure firm, and former general counsel and interim general manager for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who serves as president of the S&WB's board of directors, will make the final selection, which the board will have to approve.
The announcement of the final candidates came after a meeting at which the committee decided to remove Andrew Brady, assistant director of Houston Water, and Latoya Franklin-Bullard, who has worked as a management consultant for a number of companies, including Air Liquide Co. in Houston and the Shell Catalyst Refinery in Baton Rouge, as candidates.
The S&WB has been without a permanent leader since Cedric Grant left in the wake of last summer’s flood, beginning the lengthy process to find his successor as a number of interim leaders have led the agency.
Danny Monteverde can be reached at danny@wwltv.com.