GWMWater announced the appointment of its new managing director on Monday.

Mr Williams replaces Jeff Rigby, who left to take up the top job at Coliban Water, based in Bendigo.

Mr Williams has been acting managing director since December.

Before the relief position, Mr Williams, a qualified accountant, was GWMWater's business performance and risk manager since 2004.

He has been employed in the water industry since 1996, when he returned to Horsham from the health and energy sectors in Melbourne.

GWMWater chairman Peter Vogel said more than 50 high calibre applicants from across Australia had applied for the managing director position.

He said five people were short-listed.

"Mark has an excellent understanding of the complexities associated with the water industry, and in particular he has a great depth of knowledge of our business at GWMWater and understands the needs of our customers,'' Mr Vogel said.

"Mark has a very good knowledge of our customers and customer relationships. He has an extremely good understanding of the water industry.''

Mr Vogel said the post-pipeline era presented new challenges.

"We have a new board, a new managing director and we will need a new chief financial officer now with Mark becoming managing director, and we need a sustainable water and infrastructure manager after John Martin left to go to Horsham council,'' Mr Vogel said.

"We have reasonable debt to manage, and obviously with Mark's financial background, he'll be able to handle that.''