Pauline Walsh

CEO - Affinity Water

Pauline has a BEng (Hons) in mechanical engineering from University College Dublin and an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland. She is an honorary fellow of the Institute of Engineers of Ireland. Pauline has broad international read more

David Black

Interim chief executive - Ofwat

David Black was appointed as interim Chief Executive of Ofwat in April 2021. Prior to this, he was Chief Regulation Officer at Ofwat and led the 2019 price review, securing significant investment to improve resilience and protect the environment, alongside read more

Emma Howard Boyd

Chair - Environment Agency

Emma Howard Boyd has been the Chair of the Environment Agency since 2016. The Agency is a public body responsible for the protection and enhancement of the environment in England. She’s also an Ex officio board member of the Department read more

Sophie Broadfield

Deputy director, water services - Defra

Sophie is responsible for the overall regulatory system for water companies in England, overseeing the relationship with Ofwat and engagement with the water industry. She also leads on ensuring there is a secure and sustainable supply of water in the read more

Paul Hickey

Managing director - RAPID

Paul Hickey is the Managing Director of RAPID (Regulators Alliance Progressing Infrastructure Development) - a regulatory partnership between Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate. RAPID’s goal is facilitate the coordinated delivery of a programme of strategic water read more

Trevor Bishop

Director - WRSE

Trevor has been Director at WRSE since January 2019. As Organisational Development Director for WRSE Trevor’s key responsibilities include strategy/policy, engagement and business management. Trevor is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. Prior to his current role read more

Liz D’Arcy

Head of data insights and analytics - MOSL

Liz’s career spans gas, electricity and water sectors with a continuous focus on the capture, use and management of data to inform decisions at operational and strategic levels. She was part of the founding MOSL team which opened the non- read more

Craig Bennett

Chief executive - The Wildlife Trusts

Craig started as Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts in April 2020, with the ambition of putting a third of the UK’s land and sea into nature recovery by 2030. He has been described as “one of the country’s top read more

Toby Willison

Director of environment and corporate affairs - Southern Water

Toby joined Southern Water in November 2020. Toby has a PhD in ecology and has spent the majority of his career in environmental services. This has included international research, consultancy and policy making. Toby most recently lead operations at the Environment Agency. While at read more

Stuart Roberts

Deputy president - NFU

Stuart farms 120 hectares in Hertfordshire in partnership with his wife. A third generation arable and livestock farmer at Hammonds End Farm, Harpenden, Stuart has also worked for Defra and the Food Standards Agency and held senior management roles within read more

Peter Coombs

EMEA Innovation manager - Innovyze

Peter is a Chartered Water and Environment Manager with 44 years of experience, he started his career in the water sector as a Civil/Resident Engineer covering all aspects of storm & foul water drainage. He designed, modelled and delivered a read more

Innes Thomson

Chief executive - ADA

Eur Ing Innes Thomson BSc CEng FICE became chief executive in February 2016 after working for the Environment Agency for 10 years, latterly as Area Flood Risk Manager in Yorkshire and Trent areas. Innes is responsible for managing the ADA team, read more

Amina Aboobakar

Commercial director - The Rivers Trust

Amina Aboobakar is the commercial director for the Rivers Trust, where she is helping to deliver their strategic ambition to expand as a movement and drive transformational change across the water environment, driving better collaboration and strategic partnerships with water read more

Ben Earl

Director of sustainability, energy & water efficiency - Skewb

Ben is Director of Sustainability, Energy & Water Efficiency for utility consultancy Skewb where he is leading on key partnerships across various sectors. Ben recently joined from Southern Water where he was Head of Water Efficiency which involved delivering Target 100, the read more

Sophie Tremolet

Water security director - Europe - The Nature Conservancy

Sophie is water security director for Europe at The Nature Conservancy, a global conservation NGO (www.nature.org). She is an economist with more than 20-year experience in the water sector. Prior to TNC, she was a consultant advising utilities, development banks, read more

Granville Davies

Regional lead, Water Resources North & Clean water and catchment strategy manager - Yorkshire Water

Granville Davies is a Chartered Civil Engineer with almost 25 years' experience in the water sector. He is currently Yorkshire Water’s Clean Water and Catchment Strategy Manager, where his team is responsible for the development of YW’s long term approach (25+ years) to clean water asset planning, from catchment management through water resources and drought read more

David Young

Senior fellow - Broadway Initiative

David Young has extensive experience in climate change, sustainable land use and energy policy reform. A founding Executive Director of Natural England, he now specialises in environmental market design, and the planning and finance of sustainable development.

Guy Thompson

Group director, environmental futures - Wessex Water

Guy Thompson is Group Director of Environmental Futures at Wessex Water and Managing Director of EnTrade, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wessex Water that creates and operates online markets for nature-based solutions and accredits their environment services. He was previously read more

Stephanie Hurry

Head of water efficiency engagement - Waterwise

Robin Price

Managing director - WRE

Robin Price is the Managing Director of Water Resources East. With over 250 multi-sector stakeholders, the organisation is co-creating a regional integrated water management plan for Eastern England. Robin is a Chartered Scientist with a degree in Biological Sciences and a read more

Alice Ritchie

Climate change and water lead - CLA

Alice Ritchie is the Climate Change & Water Lead at the CLA, representing 30,000 members who own or manage 10 million acres - over half the rural land in England and Wales. She advises CLA members and works with the read more

Kathi Bauer

Natural capital coordinator - South East Rivers Trust

Since joining South East Rivers Trust in 2018, Kathi has worked on using ecosystem-based adaptation to increase the resilience of catchments to drought and support adaptation to water scarcity as part of the EU funded PROWATER project. Her role as read more

Sam Kennedy

Director, environment and climate action - Essex County Council

Samantha is Director of Environment and Climate Action at Essex County Council, driving the authority’s response to the climate challenge. She leads a broad portfolio of services including waste, energy, flood resilience, green space, outdoor education, culture and heritage. She read more

Jim Barker

Head of water resources, leakage and smart networks - Portsmouth Water

Jim is the Head of Water Resources, Leakage and Smart Networks for Portsmouth Water. He leads the delivery of strategic water planning for the business, with the chief challenge of securing sustainable supplies of water for Portsmouth Waters Customers, and read more

Richard Price

Chief operating officer - Bristol Water

Richard leads Operations at Bristol Water, a Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Institute of Water. He has over 25 years of experience of Engineering, Construction and Operations across both Water and Wastewater treatment read more

Paul Hammett

National specialist (water resources) - NFU

Food security goes hand-in-hand with water security and Paul’s role is recognition of the challenges facing farmers and growers as they seek a fair share of water for food production. Paul has worked for the NFU for more than 30 read more

Peter Close

Water resources manager - Northern Ireland Environment Agency

Peter Close has worked within the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) for almost 34 years. He has worked as an Emergency Pollution Officer, within Industrial & Agricultural Regulation teams, and for the last 15 years as a Water Resource Manager. read more

Keith Haslett

Water director - Northumbrian Water

Keith joined Northumbrian Water in September 2020 as Water Director leading 800 people in the water team who are based in the North East, Essex and Suffolk. Keith has a wealth of water industry experience in senior roles within PLC read more

Hannah Stanley-Jones

Head of future resources - Anglian Water

Hannah is accountable for the development of new resources to meet the future challenges of climate change and population growth in the Anglian Region. She has a water resources background having previously held the role of Head of Water Resources read more

Jake Rigg

Communications and sustainability director - Affinity Water

Jake has worked for over fifteen in communications and strategy. After graduating in history from Oxford and then economics at Birkbeck College, London, Jake has worked for JP Morgan, Dupont and LCH Clearnet. He was a speechwriter for the Secretary read more

Ed Beard

Assistant director – policy - National Infrastructure Commission

John Jones

Head of environment - Norfolk County Council