AQUATECH ONLINE BREAKOUTS

Expertise Director – Water in Food & Beverage, NIRAS

Experienced water expert and business leader with +30 years’ experience dealing with water in the international Food & Beverage industry in general and water recycling in particular. He has gained this insight through working with business development, consultancy services for the F&B industry, R&D on patented hardware components and solutions, and expansion of new financial and digital offerings.

Founder & CEO, Aquacycl

Orianna Bretschger is the CEO and Founder of Aquacycl, a water technology company that provides distributed wastewater treatment for industrial companies. Aquacycl's BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology is the first commercially viable microbial fuel cell that simultaneously removes pollutants from water and produces direct electricity. Her research has resulted in 32 journal publications, 3 book chapters, and 8 patent filings.

Business Development Manager, Vitens

Content Director

Tom Freyberg is the founder and director of Atlantean Media. An award-winning environmental journalist, he has had articles and comments published in The Times, The Guardian, CNN, the Grocer magazine and a Swedish institute publication, WaterFront.

After graduating from Exeter University with a BA (Hons) in English, he completed his journalism training with PMA in London. After spending five years working on renewable energy, recycling and waste titles, he then moved into the international water market as chief editor of Water & Wastewater International (WWi) magazine.

Travelling the globe and reporting on projects from Latin America, to the Middle East and South East Asia, this role really opened his eyes to the water challenges and available solutions available around the world.

During this time he covered high profile interviews, including Singapore Environment Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan and Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, as well as multiple CEOs.

In the summer of 2018, he launched Atlantean Media, a global digital content creation company serving the environmental engineering industries, specifically water. The company was born out of a need to bring engineering-based content to life.

Through Atlantean Tom represents Aquatech Global Events as content director and also serves as the content strategist for new feature-length documentary, Brave Blue World, featuring Matt Damon and Jaden Smith.

Carolyn is the Director of the Water Program at The Gordon Foundation where she works with partners across sectors in Canada. This work focuses on improving freshwater stewardship through citizen engagement in decision-making and the use of the best available evidence.

Carolyn is a passionate advocate for open data and has led the development of DataStream, an online platform that provides access to information about water quality.

Carolyn holds a BSc in Biology from Mount Allison University and a Master’s in Environmental Management from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Emma Wattie has worked intimately with the numerous stewardship organizations who utilize AWN’s resources and training for the last six years. Emma has over eight years of data collection and management experience and has collaborated closely with organizations in the effort to build Atlantic Canada’s water monitoring capacity. Emma obtained her MSC in Integrated Water Resource Management from McGill University (2012) and her BSC in Biology from Saint Francis Xavier University (2010) where she studied the impacts of different agricultural practices on the benthic macroinvertebrate community within the St. Mary’s River.

Chief Digital Information Officer at Aarhus Vand A/S 

Jesper heads implementation of the digital transformation strategy at Aarhus Vand. The digital transformation at Aarhus Vand involves and includes everybody in the company and is realized through dedicated and committed partnerships. Aarhus Vand is actively using new (Water 4.0) IT technologies in combination with deep domain knowledge, experience and data to drive the transformation.

Jesper has 29 years of international experience from the global water sector working on water projects as technical expert and manager. Jesper is a distinctive leader in global water environments. His engineering and management experience with water management issues involving multiple stakeholders includes project leadership and engineering development of complex water models to assess and communicate integrated water management. Despite his senior positions, he has until recently remained an active practitioner and has been involved with implementation of water management projects around the world.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Civic Ledger, Katrina’s vision for a future government will be an operating system for industry and start-ups to innovate and believes that shifting to the digitisation of government services and programs will fundamentally change the way we value, share, consume and hold public assets such as civic entitlements.

Katrina’s experience as a career bureaucrat, not-for-profit executive and a blockchain industry mentor adds a wealth of knowledge and experience to lead Civic Ledger application of emerging technology will help solve traditional problems. Her ability to translate complex technology into language understood by Government and Business Leaders, has driven Civic Ledger’s piloting of blockchain use cases within government.

In 2018 and 2019, Katrina was recognised as a Female Fintech Leader Finalist and Female Blockchain Leader Finalist by her Industry peers and in 2018, Civic Ledger was named as Australia’s Emerging Fintech Company of the Year. In 2019, Katrina was appointed as an Australian Blockchain Fellow in recognition for her contribution to the responsible adoption of blockchain technology both in Australia and globally.

Chief Digital Officer

Meriem is in the center of the digital transformation as SUEZ Chief Digital Officer. She shares her viewpoints about the city of tomorrow, a sustainable city not only relying on technology but even more on user experience. In her daily mission, she has to organize a change in order to make services faster and more accessible for every citizen. She is helping SUEZ to provide new services, answering new digital systems and helping us to develop the resource revolution.

Yossi has 19years’  experiencein  the  water  industry.  Hestartedhis  career  as  a marketing director  andproject  manager at  EMS  Mekorot  Projects,  a  subsidiary  of Mekorot,the national water company, andhas acquiredextensive experience in waterand wastewater treatment, desalination, pumping equipment,pipe works,water supply systemsthrough engineering and sales.

In January2010, Yossi joined Mekorot as Director ofitsWaTech®Division.WaTech®-the  Entrepreneurship  &  Partnership  Center  for  Water  Technologies–is  auniqueprogram thatsupports new innovative water technologysolutions which are relevant tothe day-to-day functioning ofMekorot.

In addition, Yossi has headed innovative ventures in the water industry with start-up companies in Israel and abroad. He is in charge of the applied research in the company, which includes activities with the academia and research institutes in Israel and abroadincluding the EU. Furthermore, he is responsible for promoting the field of intellectual property.

Yossi holds a B.Sc.in Chemical Engineering and an MBAfrom Ben-Gurion University ofthe Negev, Israel. 

General Manager

GWP's managing director Julia Braune boasts over 15 years of professional experience in the field of environmental services, including ten years in water management and is therefore highly familiar with challenges of the water sector and market requirements. She also has extensive experience in project management, acquisition and communication as well as human resources management. Before joining GWP in 2017 she has held leading roles in water supply and wastewater disposal companies developing and managing various projects with municipal as well as industrial cooperation partners.

Digital Water Consultant

Emma Weisbord chairs SWAN’s Rising Smart Water Professionals Programme and is active in IWA’s Digital Water Programme. Since her MSc in Water Science, Policy, and Management, she has worked with Oxford’s Primary Health Care Department, Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, IWA, and water technology startups. As a Digital Water Consultant with Royal HaskoningDHV, her mission is to empower water professionals to overcome barriers to innovation and support the adoption of effective technologies that improve access and affordability of water and sanitation services.