Wastewater and Resources in Desalination: Transforming challenges into sustainable solutions for a brighter future.

Ali graduated with Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, IA. Right from school, he joined DuPont De Nemours, Permasep® Products  (RO membrane division). 
In 2005, Ali joined GE Corporate as Desalination Sales Leader then in 2006 joined GE Water & Process Technologies. In September 2007, he was appointed as Commercial Development Leader, for Middle East and North Africa providing industrial water purification solutions as  well as water re-use and desalination solutions. 
He joined Nanostone in April 2023 and ZwitterCo in June 2024 as Sales executive for MEA.  Ali has many years of water and wastewater including infrastructure investment experience  dealing with large water projects in Algeria, Cameroon, Iraq, Kuwait, and across the MEA  region.

Mike is an Account Manager with H2O Innovation. Mike’s career in the desalination industry began when he joined Genesys-PWT on a placement during his Chemistry degree from the University of St Andrews. Since then, Mike has assisted in many research projects, including use of formulated chemicals in novel applications and laboratory development of new products. Mike now helps deliver innovative solutions to meet industrial and commercial client needs.

Juan Cifuentes is a Technical Manager at Energy Recovery, Inc., with extensive experience working in wastewater treatment and reverse osmosis desalination. Prior to joining Energy Recovery, Juan held several engineering roles for large EPC firms focused on commissioning, operations and maintenance, and procurement, including managing process and engineering design of wastewater treatment and desalination plants. Juan has worked on water treatment projects around the world, including in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and China. He has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Oviedo. 

Alvaro Lagartos is a Chemical Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the water industry and desalination. He has developed different roles in the industry from project engineer, process engineer, project manager, or technical service engineer in Europe, USA, LATAM, and Australia. Since 2017 he has been working for LG NanoH2O, initially as a Senior Application Engineer, and in 2023, he was promoted to Senior Technical Marketing Manager, his current role.

Dr. Christine Kleffner is a process engineer with over 10 years of R&D experience in membrane technology. She specializes in the innovative application of membrane processes for energy efficient treatment and concentration of saline process and wastewater, striving to develop sustainable technical solutions for the industrial implementation of a circular economy.