Mara Ramos has over 30 years of experience in the water sector, working in multidisciplinary projects in the fields of water resources, sustainability, planning and management. Mara was the head of DAEE, the Water Agency for São Paulo State and now ... Read full biography

Tony Milburn

Tony Milburn Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Tony Milburn (1942 – 2023) A civil engineer by profession, Tony initially worked on flood relief schemes and water resource projects on the Wye River Authority. He then moved to the... Read full biography

Ed Hulshof

Ed Hulshof Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Ed Hulshof (1948-2022) combined chemistry, economics and practice in his academic education.: Organic Chemistry, Utrecht University; Chemical Technology, Delft University; Economics, Hasselt ... Read full biography

Piers Cross

Piers Cross Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Piers Cross (1951-2017), a South African with a background in social anthropology and public health, was the founding CEO of the Mvula Trust which, in the Mandela years (1990s), helped South A... Read full biography

Ken Roberts

Ken Roberts Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Kenneth Frederick Roberts (1923-1995) was born in Lancaster, England, and attended Manchester University where he received an honours degree in civil engineering. In 1947, he joined the Bris... Read full biography

Charles (Charlie) O’Melia

Charles (Charlie) O’Melia Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Charles R. O’Melia (1934-2010) was one of the world’s leading authorities on water treatment science and practice. Born in New York City, Charlie’s fascination with t... Read full biography

Keiji Goto

Keiji Goto Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Keiji Goto (1927-2013) started his career as a waterworks engineer at the Tokyo Metropolitan Waterworks (TMW) in 1949. Steep population and economic growth in Japan followed the reconstruction ... Read full biography

Francois Fiessinger

Francois Fiessinger Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Francois Fiessinger (1944-1997) spent the majority of his career at Lyonnaise de Eaux, where he became a world expert on water treatment processes, and in combining both research and o... Read full biography

John Briscoe

John Briscoe Distinguished Pioneer Professional background John Briscoe (1948-2015), a native of South Africa, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Cape Town in 1969, an M.S. in environmental engineering in 1972... Read full biography

Heinz Bernhardt

Heinz Bernhardt Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Heinz Bernhardt (1929-1996) studied chemistry in Marburg, where he graduated with a doctorate in 1957. Directly after his studies, he started his career at Wahnbachtalsperrenverband, where... Read full biography

Leonard Bays

Leonard Bays Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Leonard (Len) Bays (1930 – 2009) completed his university training undertaken in Lancashire and London with degrees in both mathematics and chemistry. He initially worked for the Northwest ... Read full biography

Ken Ives

Ken Ives Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Kenneth James Ives (1926-2009) studied civil engineering at University College London (UCL) and then spent seven years with the Metropolitan Water Board in London. There he formed the basis of ... Read full biography

Gerrit v R. Marais

Gerrit v R. Marais Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Gerrit v R. Marais (1927-2005) was professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Early in his career he made significant contributions to low-cost water supply and sanitation,... Read full biography

Ernst Kuntze

Ernst Kuntze Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Ernst Kuntze (1920-2014) was Head of the Wastewater Division in the City of Hamburg. He studied Civil Engineering in Hannover and began his professional career 1950 at Ruhrverband. Since 1963... Read full biography

Wilhelmus Krul

Wilhelmus Krul Distinguished Pioneer Professional background Wilhelmus F.J.M. Krul (1893-1981) is nationally renowned in The Netherlands for his central role in establishing The Netherlands as one of the world’s leading drinking water suppliers in ... Read full biography

Rene Brunotte

President: 1952-1955 (IWSA)

Rene Brunotte Distinguished Pioneer Professional background An engineer who worked for the National Rural Forestry, Agriculture and Water Agency, and was committed to the betterment of the small communities and rural areas of the Alsace region of Fra... Read full biography

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Nafisa Barot

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Strategic Programmes and Engagement Manager - Strategic Programmes and Engagement samuela.guida [a] iwahq.org

As a Strategic Programmes and Engagement Manager at the International Water Association (IWA), Samuela coordinates and manages IWA’s portfolio of strategic programmes, projects, and communities of practice related to the water sector. Dr Guida ... Read full biography

Jessica Chiroma

HR & Operations Manager

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Mei Yee Chan

Mei Yee Chan is the Senior Programme Manager of Water and Sanitation services at TÜV SÜD PSB Singapore. She leads the programme development of establishing lab testing and certification services and drafting international standards for innovati... Read full biography

Mengqi Ding

Finance & Operations Officer (Consultant) - Accounts & Finance mengqi.ding [a] iwahq.org

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Regina Gnirss

Director of Kompetenzzentrum Wasser Berlin; R&D department, Berliner Wasserbetriebe

Regina Gnirss has a Civil Engineering background with experience in Research and Innovation management with national and international funding, water and wastewater treatment technologies, stormwater treatment, adaptation to climate change in urban a... Read full biography

Peter Githinji Kahuthu

Nyeri Water and Sanitation Company Limited, Technical Services Division Head

Eng. Peter G. Kahuthu is currently the Head of Technical Services Division at Nyeri Water and Sanitation Company Limited (NYEWASCO) in central part of Kenya. Key responsibilities include: Policies development and implementation, Efficient water and s... Read full biography

Benedicte Rulleau

Irstea Bordeaux, Researcher

Bénédicte Rulleau holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Montesquieu Bordeaux IV (2008). She has done a postdoctoral work at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and has been a Lecturer at the University of Versailles-Saint Q... Read full biography

Mari Asami

Department of Environmental Health, National Institute of Public Health, NIPH, Chief Senior Researcher

Dr. Mari ASAMI, is currently a chief senior researcher at Department of Environmental Health, National Institute of Public Health, NIPH, Japan and a professor of Research Center for Water Environment and Technology, the University of Tokyo (Affiliate... Read full biography

Bianca Nijhof

Associate Director, Anthesis

Bianca is a proven & successful leader in business and sustainability with an extensive network across business, governmental organisations and NGOs. She is an experienced communicator and natural collaborator with ample experience on natural, so... Read full biography

Mathieu de Kervenoael

Water & Waste Treatment Infrastructure - SVP, Head of Strategic Development & Marketing

Mathieu de Kervenoael has over 25 years of international business experience in the water sector, including long-term management of water & wastewater utility systems and services, as well as development of water & wastewater treatment infras... Read full biography

Bruno Tisserand

Economic & Legal Affairs Committee, EurEau Chair

Bruno Tisserand is chair of EurEau Committee 3, the voice of Europe’s water sector. He hails from France, where he is Research Program Director for Water with Veolia. He has an engineering degree and a masters in chemistry, physics and biology. He ... Read full biography

Kamal Laksiri

Ceylon Electricity Board, Project Director

Dr. Kamal Laksiri specialized in Hydropower Engineering sector and is mainly concerned with the optimum use of water in the energy sector. Since his graduation, he further completed his higher studies in relevant subject areas: Master’s degree in H... Read full biography

Mariam Abu

Global Awards and Events Officer

Mariam is Global Awards and Events Officer at IWA. She has a background in Education and has worked in events for over 4 years working in both membership organisations and venue hire. At IWA Events Team she supports the liaison with programme commi... Read full biography

Meenu Puri

Membership Officer

Meenu is a Data Analytics specialist and has joined IWA as a Membership Officer. Prior to joining IWA she has worked in India as Data Analyst and as online trainer for Predictive Modelling for several years. Meenu’s academica background is a ... Read full biography

Ana Carrasco

Executive Assistant

Ana Carrasco is an Ecuadorian lawyer with a master degree in Energy, Resources and Environment Law from the University of Melbourne, in Australia. Here she specialised on the topics of resilience in the context of human rights and climate change with... Read full biography

Agnes So

Engineer at Hong Kong Public Relations Unit, Drainage Services Department

Agnes SO is an Engineer at the Public Relations Unit of the Drainage Services Department at the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Experienced in projects relating to the 3-pronged approach in flood prevention, Ms. So particip... Read full biography

Varghese Babu

IT & Digital Transformation Director

Varghese Babu, a management professional, graduated from Model Engineering College Kochi, India with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering. He further obtained a Post-Graduate Degree in Business Management from XLRI Jamshedpur in India. Befor... Read full biography

Luke Somerwill

Specialist Groups Officer

Luke works as a Specialist Groups Officer at the IWA Global Office in The Hague. He is a Public Policy and Human Development MSc graduate from Maastricht University and United Nations University – MERIT. In addition to working for several NGOs ... Read full biography

Sumaira Omer

Supporting Officer

Sumaira joined IWA in April 2019 as Supporting Officer. Being originally from Oxford in the UK, she has an academic background in Economics where she has a BSc in Economics, Finance and International Business from Oxford Brookes University. Before jo... Read full biography

Louisa Gosling

Louisa Gosling works in WaterAid’s International Programmes Department, in a team of sector specialists providing support to country programmes. She has been collaborating with others to promote awareness of access to water and sanitation as human ... Read full biography

Caterina Marinetti

Leadership Engagement Officer

Caterina is a young environmental engineer, passionately working at the boundary between engineering and social sciences. She holds a BSc degree in Environmental Engineering from ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome, and an MSc in Water Resources Man... Read full biography

Anthony Milburn

Water Resources Consultant; IWA Past Executive Director

Rob McDonald

Lead Scientist for the Global Cities program, The Nature Conservancy

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Aaron Reuben

Communications Officer for Landscape Restoration, IUCN

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Dipak Gywali

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Olivier Wendlassida Yameogo

Olivier Wendlassida Yameogo currently holds the position of Head of Water Quality Service of the National Office for Water and Sanitation (ONEA). His main mission in the institution is to monitor the quality of the water produced and distributed and ... Read full biography

László Somlyódy

President: 2004-2006

László Somlyódy is Professor Emeritus at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics where he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Water Utility and Environmental Engineering. Throughout his career he received numerous honours... Read full biography

Vincent Bath

President: 2000-2001

Vincent Bath is the former CEO of Rand Water, a water utility in South Africa. In 2000, he was elected Co-President of the newly established International Water Association (IWA). Vincent Bath was a Vice-President of the International Water Services ... Read full biography

Piet Odendaal

President: 2000-2001

Piet Odendaal is the former Executive Director of the Water Research Commission in South Africa. In 2000, he was elected Co-President of the newly established International Water Association (IWA). A professional chemist and philosophy academic, Piet... Read full biography

Wolfgang Rauch

Professor Wolfgang Rauch with the 2018 IWA Outstanding Service Award. Acting professor at the University of Insbruck in Austria, Professor Rauch is a civil and environmental engineer and a widely published researcher in the fields of water pollution,... Read full biography

Fernanda Wolter

Global Events & Awards Officer

Fernanda is a Brazilian with an academic background in business administration. Before joining the International Water Association as Events and Awards Officer, she worked for 12 years at the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) as project manager and... Read full biography

Olaf van der Kolk

Director, Aquaminerals, Netherlands

Olaf is AquaMinerals’ director, a Dutch and Belgian water utilities owned company which is the intermediate, on the field of water-originating resources, between the water sector and various economics sectors. There are numerous opportunities v... Read full biography

Yoshihiko Matsui

Professor Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, IWA Board Member

An IWA member since the year 2000, Dr. Yoshihiko Matsui has formally been part of IWA governance since 2013 as a member and from 2015 as a secretary of the IWA Japanese Committee. He is a member of Joint Organizing Committee of IWA World Water Congre... Read full biography

Keith Hayward

Marketing & Communications Director

As IWA’s Marketing & Communications Director, Keith leads the team supporting IWA’s corporate marketing and communications activity and the activity around its events, programmes and membership engagement. He is also responsible for T... Read full biography

Annina Takala

IWA Emerging Water Leader & Doctoral student at Tampere University of Technology Finland

Annina is doctoral student at Tampere University of Technology and my interest is sustainable development of water services and learning in the water sector. She is also chair of YWP chapter in Finland. She currently serves on the IWA Emerging Water ... Read full biography

Akissa Bahri

National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia (INAT)

Akissa Bahri, an agricultural engineer by training, has worked in water research in the fields of water resources development and management, agricultural use of marginal waters and biosolids, and their impacts on the environment with a focus on wate... Read full biography

Tony Wong

Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Australia

Professor Tony Wong is Chief Executive of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, an Australian Government Initiative with research hubs in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Singapore. He is internationally recognised for his researc... Read full biography

Carolina Latorre and Mohamed Tawfik

Carolina Latorre, IWA Programmes Officer Mohamed Tawfik, Consultant, IWA Basins of the Future Programme Read full biography

Leader of the Working Group Statistics and commercial director of De Watergroep, Belgium

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Cheryl Davis and Diana Guio

Cheryl Davis is a Principal at CKD Consulting and Chair of the IWA Best practices on Workforce Sustainability Specialist Group. Diana Guio worked as independent sustainability consultant prior to join IWA as Learning and Capacity Development Officer... Read full biography

Jiri Wanner

Professor, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic; IWA Governing Member

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Florin Iliescu has been a member of the IWA since 2001, a regular participant in the IWA congresses and conferences. His long professional career has always been related to the water sector. As the General Director for a medium size Water Company in ... Read full biography