Newsha K. Ajami is the Chief Development Officer for Research at EESA. A leading expert in sustainable water resource management, smart cities, and the water-energy-food nexus, she uses data science principles to study the human and policy dimensions of urban water and hydrologic systems. In her role at LBL, she is focused on developing interdisciplinary and impact focused research initiatives across various domain within EESA. Dr. Ajami served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board for two terms and is currently a mayoral appointee to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She is a member of the National Academies Water Science and Technology Board and serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Dr. Ajami also serves on a number of state-level and national advisory boards. Before joining LBL, she served as the founding director of the Stanford Urban Water Policy program and a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Earlier in her career, she also served as a Science and Technology fellow at the California State Senate's Natural Resources and Water Committee where she worked on various water and energy related legislation. She has published many highly cited peer-reviewed articles, coauthored two books, and contributed opinion pieces to The New York Times, San Jose Mercury, and the Sacramento Bee. Dr. Ajami received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Irvine, and M.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran.

Erik Driessen is Managing Director Northern Europe with Isle Utilities.  After getting his BSc (Hons) degree in Chemical Engineering Erik started working in the water business and continued doing so for the last 17 years. With a passion for water, technology and innovation he is driven to spot opportunities with mutual benefits. Erik has worked for two innovative water technology start-ups and a globally operating consultancy, always focusing on industrial water and new business development (B2B). Before he joined Isle Utilities Erik was Innovation Manager at Vitens, the largest water utility in The Netherlands where he boosted the ambition and development of the Smart Water Grid philosophy. Within Isle Utilities Erik is responsible for the Industrial water TAG and consultancy in Europe.

Tom Freyberg is an experienced environmental journalist, having worked across a variety of business-to-business titles. Since joining Pennwell in 2010, he has been influential in developing international partnerships for the water brand and has overseen digital developments, including 360 degree video case studies. He has interviewed high level figures, including NYSE CEO’s and Environmental Ministers. A known figure in the global water industry, Tom has chaired and spoken at conferences around the world, from Helsinki, to London and Singapore. An English graduate from Exeter University, Tom completed his PMA journalism training in London.

Andre Fourie is Global Director, Water Sustainability at Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer. He leads the company’s work on water stewardship such as investing in watershed protection in high-stress areas. ABI’s portfolio comprises over 500 beer brands includes global brands Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois, and numerous multi-country brands.

David Grant is the director of Global Water Stewardship at PepsiCo. Prior to joining PepsiCo, David spent three years with AB InBev, where he was the head of sustainable development for the Africa sector, and prior to that, he was with SABMiller. In total, he has been in the beverage industry for a good part of 20 years.  At PepsiCo, David's role is to oversee PepsiCo’s water stewardship agenda and support the company in moving forward in delivering its global water strategy. That includes covering both internal water use efficiency, which is basically making sure that the company extracts the most value out of every drop that comes into its facilities, and also the programs implemented to support broader conservation of the watersheds where water is sourced from.

Ivan Lalovic is the founder and chief executive officer at Gybe, a start-up focused on changing how water quality and pollution challenges are tracked, understood, and solved. Before Gybe, Ivan worked with microelectronics manufacturers like HP, Intel, AMD, and Samsung to enable high performance computing and sensing. Ivan's entrepreneurial journey was inspired by an extended sabbatical, sailing close to 10,000 miles on the Atlantic Ocean with his spouse and two young kids. He is driven by his passions, to develop cloud-based technology solutions that transform how we monitor, understand, and manage water issues. Ivan holds a Physics degree from Whitman College, a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Washington, and is an author of more than 50 papers and 24 US patents.

Brian Moloney is the Chief Executive Officer of StormHarvester Ltd. He is a civil engineer specializing in drainage and flood prevention with over 10 years’ experience running an engineering consultancy operating in the UK, Ireland and Australia. Due to his inherent enthusiasm for civil engineering and StormHarvester’s products, Brian still remains very ‘hands on’ with customers and projects, as well as driving the business’s strategy and growth.

Kimberly Nelson joined True Elements in Januarly 2022 as Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director, Public Sector. Previously, she was Senior Director of Microsoft's U.S. Public Sector's State and Local Government Solutions business. Her focus for over 16 years was to work with Microsoft's partner ecosystem to develop repeatable online solutions that reduced cost, risk, and time for public sector clients in key sectors such as Critical Infrastructure and Health. Prior to Microsoft, Kimberly had a 22-year career in public service in both state and federal government. She served as the Assistant Administrator and Chief Information Officer for the Office of Environmental Information at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she was responsible for environmental information policy. This was a Presidential Appointment confirmed by the U.S. Senate. At the state level, she served as Executive Deputy Secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection with responsibility for Policy, Communications, and Operations. Kimberly has a bachelor's degree in Political Science (Shippensburg University) and a master's degree in Public Administration (University of Pennsylvania).

Dr. Angela Ortigara is from Brazil, and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering with a focus on Water and Wastewater Management.  After four years at the UN working with SDG 6 monitoring and reporting, she then joined WWF to work on water stewardship projects in China, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam. She is currently involved in supporting WWF offices working with cotton production in India, Pakistan, and Turkey. She is also increasingly involved in monitoring impacts at the river basin level with the use of conventional and digital technologies.

Justin Proctor supports North American public sector markets for Ecopia AI. A geospatial data company that leverages groundbreaking advancements in artificial intelligence to convert high-resolution imagery of our earth into HD Vector Maps. These datasets are embedded into critical applications around the world, providing foundational information for critical decision-making, improving the welfare of societies, efficiency of economies, and health of environments. After graduating with a degree in Political Science from The University of Western Ontario, he has spent his time working in Tech with a focus on governments.

Will is an internationally recognized thought leader on water strategy and innovation. He has authored numerous books and articles and presented on: the value of water, innovations in digital water technology, the circular economy, and the energy-water-food nexus. He has been a water strategy advisor to private and public-sector enterprises and NGOs for his entire career.

Nick Thompson is a Partner at WATR. WATR has been designed to improve water quality around the world by providing an easy, accurate and a reliable way of monitoring water conditions, so that action can be immediately initiated with an option to integrate with current APIs. The unit can be adjusted to suit the needs of the user with probe versatility and the ability to take samples at different depths, WATR is suitable for a large breadth of environments.  Nick is also a Partner at Solder Creative, where he helps clients use new and emerging technologies to realize the potential of the connected world.

Dr. Steven Ward is a Senior Manager in Deloitte’s Audit & Assurance group. He joined the Sustainability & ESG Services team in November 2021 with over 20 years of experience in the Geospatial Technology and Sciences Industry. ​He supports the ESG team and customers with assessment, analysis and communications related to scientific methods, data analysis and applied research. Throughout his career he has led dozens of sustainability and environmental research projects/programs for private industry and government customers across the US. His expertise in this space is technology focused with an emphasis on GISciences, remote sensing, scaled computation and AI/ML methods. Steven received his Ph.D., Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Management, Chemistry, Agronomy and Hazards Geography from Louisiana State University