After 43 years in public power, including the last seven as the General Manager of Zeeland Board of Public Works (BPW), Andy Boatright retired on September 18, 2026.
When Andy joined Zeeland BPW as General Manager in 2019, he brought decades of experience in public power with him. Under his leadership, the BPW strengthened its leadership team, invested in system reliability and infrastructure modernization, and advanced long-term planning for the community’s future power needs—all while keeping rates competitive and earning national recognition for reliability, safety, and customer satisfaction.
“What I’ve always loved about public power is that it’s not about shareholders; it’s about ‘community’,” Boatright said. “Every decision we make comes back to the people who live here, and getting to serve the Zeeland community for the last seven years has been an incredible honor.”
Looking Ahead
Effective September 18, Bob Mulder stepped into the role of General Manager, bringing with him deep roots in the organization and nearly eight years of utility leadership experience.
Bob joined BPW in March 2018 following 18 years as a control systems engineer, and has most recently served as Power Supply and Market Operations Manager. In that role, he oversaw generation, procurement, transmission, and delivery for more than all of Zeeland’s electric customers. The BPW Board of Directors voted unanimously in January to offer him the position, a reflection of the confidence the board has in his institutional knowledge, technical expertise, and ability to manage complex utility operations.
“I’m incredibly humbled and honored by this opportunity,” said Mulder. “I look forward to continuing our tradition of reliable, responsive public utility service while collaborating with the board, staff, and community to address future growth and operational challenges.”
A Torch Well Passed
There’s a reason this transition feels steady rather than uncertain: it was planned for. As Andy put it himself, “Over the years, we’ve worked very intentionally to develop and sustain a culture of leadership excellence within the organization, and it’s important to us that this culture continues well into the future.”
That culture now carries forward into some real work already underway: completing the Integrated Resource Plan and related capacity planning, preparing for electric and water demand growth tied to industrial expansion, modernizing customer service and technology systems, and continuing the same staff development and succession planning that made this moment possible in the first place.
Forty-three years of public power leadership deserved a celebration. And a new chapter, built on that foundation, deserves a warm welcome. From all of us at Zeeland BPW: thank you, Andy, and welcome to the lead role, Bob.
