Leon Awerbuch has been involved in the desalination industry for more than 35 years. He joined Bechtel Group in 1972 in R&D followed by increased responsibilities for power and water programs as International Bechtel Co. Ltd Vice President and Senior Regional Representative for the Middle East. During his 35-year career with Bechtel, he was in charge of desalination programs involved in R&D, design and engineering as well as EPC of desalination and power projects.
Currently involved in providing technical and commercial consultancy to number of leading suppliers and utilities covering Reverse Osmosis and Thermal Desalination and Power Projects as well as assessment of new desalination technologies.
He is currently IDA Director and Chairman of IDA Technical Programs Committee, President of International Desalination Consultancy Associates (IDCA) and President & Chief Technology Officer at Leading Edge Technologies Ltd. , Board member of Global Clean Water Desalination Alliance (GCWDA) and advisor to MASDAR renewable desalination program, evaluator of solar-desalination proposals of U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
As a developer of LET Integrated Upgrading Systems using Nanofiltration membrane softening technology, he was granted numerous patents covering the MED-MSF-RO-NF Integrated Hybrid Technologies. Other patents cover Geothermal Energy and Flue Gas Desulphurization.
Mr. Awerbuch was one of the early pioneers in Hybrid Power-Desalination concepts, Desalination Aquifer Storage and Recovery (DASR) and Hybrid MSF-MED. The patented Integrated Hybrid MSF-NF project won the 2007 Global Water Intelligence Award for Innovation. Mr. Awerbuch also won the first prize for Innovation conferred by the Saudi Water and Electricity Forum in 2007. Based on his patents, LET was a first prize winner of Innovative Use / Application of Technology awarded by inaugural H20 Water Awards 2010 celebrating the outstanding achievements of individuals and organizations who contributed to the advancement of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region’s water industry.
Corinne Trommsdorff has a Masters in agriculture science and environmental engineering from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, AgroParisTech, and has over 15 years of experience working as a consultant, with a focus in later years on energy efficiency and optimisation in the water sector. She has worked 8 years in the USA, 4 years in Switzerland and 4 years in France, with assignments on development projects in a variety of countries including Armenia, Chile, Egypt, Georgia, Morocco and the Philippines. Her roles have varied from project engineer to project manager, working with utilities in design and planning of water and sanitation infrastructures, as well as providing technical expertise and coordination between disciplines. In 2014, she was the water expert of a multi-disciplinary urban planning team for a Sustainable City Demonstrator financed by the French government. As manager of the Cities of the Future Programme at IWA, Corinne is leading the development of a water-energy-carbon framework which will guide utilities to improve energy optimization, and balance their water, energy and GHG footprints; she is also developing a framework for cities to transition to an integrated urban water cycle with cross-sectoral synergies to improve resilience, resource recovery, and liveability.
