David L. Orth, General Manager

David L. Orth became KRCD’s general manager in February 2002. Before coming to KRCD, Orth served for two years as Vice President of Resource Management for Woolf Enterprises, a diversified San Joaquin Valley farming operation and from 1995-2000 as General Manager of Westlands Water District. Prior to becoming Westland’s manager, Orth served as the district’s director of finance for nine years and was responsible for the district’s financial management and the $40-$50 million annual operating budget. Previously, he was a deputy Fresno County treasurer.

In addition to his role as KRCD General Manager, Orth is Coordinator of the Southern San Joaquin Valley Water Quality Coalition. Orth also serves on the Association of California Water Agencies' Energy and Groundwater Committees and is chairing a statewide subcommittee for ACWA, which is working on implementing a portion of the newly passed water legislation regarding groundwater monitoring. Orth is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Water Education Foundation.

Orth is a native of Porterville. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California State University, Fresno and is a certified public accountant.

David Merritt, Deputy General Manager of Power Operations

David Merritt joined the district in September of 2010 and provides senior management to the Jeff L. Taylor Pine Flat Power Plant and the Malaga Peaking Power Plant. Before coming to KRCD, Merritt worked for GWF Power Systems / GWF Energy LLC for almost 19 years, within both the operations and maintenance groups. His last assignment with GWF was managing three of their assets, a 28 MW solid fuel fluid bed combustor and two separate 2xLM6000 simple cycle peaking facilities.

In addition to his role with KRCD, Merritt is also a board of director with Western Turbine Users Inc. (WTUI), one of the largest users groups of the General Electric line of LM gas turbines. Merritt also served in the US Navy in the aviation field and was honorably discharged in 1990.

Steve Stadler, P.E., Deputy General Manager of Flood & Environmental Operations/Chief Engineer

Steven Stadler joined KRCD in 2006 and oversees management of KRCD's flood control and environmental operations and serves as KRCD's Chief Engineer. Before coming to KRCD, Stadler worked for Praxis Engineers, Inc. as a Process Development Engineer working on various energy-related research and development projects for the Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute. He later became Software Development Manager and was responsible for the development of the company's modeling and optimization software products prior to the company's acquisition by General Electric. Prior to working for Praxis, Stadler worked at Shell Oil Company as a Pressure Equipment Engineer in their southern California refinery.

Stadler is originally from Corcoran. He received his Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from San Jose State University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer by the State of California in the mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering disciplines. Stadler also obtained a Jurist Doctor degree from the San Joaquin College of Law and is an attorney.

Randy Shilling, Deputy General Manager of Business Operations

Randy Shilling received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from California State University, Fresno in 1979. He then spent the next 24 years with the Tax Branch of the Employment Development Department (EDD) as an auditor. Shilling was an audit supervisor with EDD when he came to KRCD in November 2003 as the Director of Finance. Shilling manages the accounting, human resources and office administration functions at KRCD.