Mary Ann Dickinson is the founder and Executive Director of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the efficient and sustainable use of water in the United States and Canada. Based in Chicago, the Alliance works with water utilities, water conservation professionals in business and industry, planners, regulators, and consumers.
Prior to joining the Alliance in July of 2007, Mary Ann was Executive Director of the California Urban Water Conservation Council, a non-profit organization composed of 387 urban water supply agencies, environmental groups, and other entities managing statewide water conservation in California and implementing the nation’s first set of Best Management Practices.
Mary Ann has over 35 years of experience, having worked at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in environmental planning, she has authored numerous publications on water conservation, land use planning, and natural resources management, and has co-produced two films which have aired on public television and community cable stations. She is a fellow at the Water Resources Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz, a Trustee and past Chair of the American Water Works Association National Water Conservation Division, and has presented numerous papers on water conservation around the world.
Former Asst. Administrator for Water, US Environmental Protection Agency,
Washington, DC, USA
Benjamin H. Grumbles was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 20, 2004, as Assistant Administrator for Water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to that Ben served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Water and Acting Associate Administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations.
Before coming to EPA in 2002, Mr. Grumbles was Deputy Chief of Staff and Environmental Counsel for the Committee on Science in the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served for over 15 years in various capacities on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, including Senior Counsel for the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee.
From 1993 to 2004, he was an adjunct professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, teaching courses on the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Ocean Dumping Act, and Oil Pollution Act.
His degrees include a B.A., Wake Forest University; J.D., Emory University; and LL.M. in Environmental Law, from the George Washington University Law School.
Ben was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife, Karen and their two water-loving kids.
General Manager Service Sustainability, City West Water,
Melbourne
(citywestwater.com.au)
Geoff has 30 years experience in the water industry and has worked in the planning, design, construction and operation of many of Melbourne’s major water supply and sewerage infrastructure projects.
Geoff has been at City West Water for around 5 years as General Manager Service Sustainability and has responsibility for Trade Waste, Cleaner Production, Water Conservation, Environmental Management, Customer Service & Corporate Communications. In particular, he has been involved in the development and implementation of the Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy, the Melbourne Water Supply Demand Strategy and the Metropolitan Joint Water Conservation Plan.
Professor Stuart White
Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology,
Sydney
(www.isf.uts.edu.au)
Professor Stuart White is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures. He has worked and undertaken research in sustainability for over 20 years, specialising in the use of least cost planning for utilities and the advocacy, design, implementation and evaluation of programs for improving resource use efficiency.
At the Institute, and previously as Director of Preferred Options (Asia-Pacific) Pty Ltd, he designed or implemented three of Australia’s largest water efficiency programs, in Kalgoorlie Boulder in Western Australia, in northern New South Wales and in Sydney.
In 1998 he was appointed as a member of the NSW Task Force on Water Conservation and in 2001 as a member of the Expert Panel on Environmental Flows for the Hawkesbury Nepean. He has written and presented widely on sustainable futures including taxation, participatory decision-making and public policy.
CEO, Smart Approved WaterMark (Event partner organization),
Sydney
(www.smartwatermark.org)
Julian Gray is CEO of the Smart Approved WaterMark, Australia’s outdoor water saving labelling program for products and services that save water around the home. The Smart Approved WaterMark scheme was created in 2004 in response to the challenge of reducing per capita urban water consumption across Australia. The Smart Approved WaterMark’s vision is of an Australian public that is aware of, and actively engaged in, water conservation around the home. This will be achieved by: promoting products and services that help conserve water; helping consumers understand often complex water conservation issues; and championing innovative solutions for sustainable water use around the home.
Julian combines an educational background in international communications and environmental science with 20 years environmental marketing and communications experience in the public, not-for-profit and private sectors.
He has consulted in environmental marketing communications across Europe,
in Africa and Australia.
Throughout his career Julian has championed the use of marketing to help address environmental issues. In the UK Julian was involved in a number of national advisory committees, including UK Government committee’s on branding protected landscapes and raising awareness of UK’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. He was a foundation member of the Society for the Interpretation of Britain’s Heritage, a member of Heritage Interpretation International, and a national committee member of Interpret Britain including guest editor for Interpretation Journal.
Julian has worked on a number of water related projects in Europe and Australia, including: PRIMAVERA which used GIS technologies for protected landscape management; LIFESCAPES, an inter-regional development branding project; Steering Committee member for the Water Services Association of Australia’s Knowledge Management Project; and Steering Committee member for the Australian Water Association’s H2Oz water industry recruitment branding project.
Julian has won a number of national awards for environmental communication, branding and marketing projects. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. A University of Macquarie postgraduate, Julian is currently based in Sydney.
Greg Stewart the West Coast General Manager for Total Eden Water Systems for the past 6 years has been with the organisation for a total of 12 years. Total Eden based in Perth Western Australia is now part of the Total Eden McCracken Group (TEMG) which has over 50 water management locations throughout Australia, the group is one of the largest irrigation companies in nation. Greg also part of the National Executive Management team for TEMG.
Being in the Irrigation industry for the past 21 years Greg was previously the “Regional Commercial Manager Western Australia / Northern Territory” for James Hardie Irrigation. The role encompassed selling and promoting a broad range of irrigation product in various markets from domestic, commercial, golf and agriculture.
Greg was one of the inaugural Expert Panel members for Smart Approved Watermark when it commenced in 2003. He served in the position for a total of 5 years and was part of the team that was instrumental in the programs development and growth.
He continues to be the Chair Person for the 3rd year in a row of “Irrigation Australia Limited (IAL) in the Western Australia Region”. The IAL WA Region has been highly commended on its interaction with the Water Corporation, State Government and key stakeholders in water wise initiatives and best practise for irrigation.
Jeremy Cape has been associated with innovation throughout his professional career. From his position as General Manager of Elders first on line rural information service, to his current roles with the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures and as Chair of the Expert Panel of the Smart Approved WaterMark, his work has been characterised by his involvement in ground breaking initiatives.
He helped establish and was then the General Manager of the Australian Irrigation Technology Centre, Australia’s only independent equipment testing and evaluation centre. He became the Executive Officer of the National Irrigation Science Network and was instrumental in preparing the successful application to fund the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures, a $70 million dollar investment in irrigation research and development.
He has managed a number of important research projects including most recently a project looking at the verification of water meters for the National Water Commission. He developed Australia’s first national Code for On-Farm Irrigation Practice and wrote the National Best Practice Guidelines for Urban Irrigation for the Irrigation Australia Limited.
Jeremy was a national director of the IAA from 1991 to 2000 and national chairman from 1993 to 1996. He has represented Australia at the International Standards Organisation technical subcommittee on irrigation equipment since 2001.
His company, CapeAbility Consultants Pty Ltd provides technical, business and training services to clients including state and federal government departments, public and private companies and individuals, in Australia and internationally.
Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO’s Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research
(www.cmar.csiro.au)
Bryson is a Theme Leader for CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship and a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO’s Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research. He was the Director of CSIRO’s Climate Program from 2004 to 2006.
He served as a Lead Author for the Second, Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and a Convening Lead Author for the IPCC’s Technical Paper on Water and Climate Change. Bryson has received a certificate of recognition for his contribution to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to the IPCC and Al Gore.
His research interests include: hydroclimatic extremes; analysis and simulation of non-stationarity in hydroclimatic time series, downscaling numerical climate model simulations, and the effects of climate forcing on rivers.
Bryson is an Editor for the international journal, Climate Research, and an invited member of the Steering Committee for International Meetings on Statistical Climatology, the Surface Water Committee of the American Geophysical Union, and the Expert Groups on a) Scenarios and b) Climate Change and Water, for the UN’s World Water Assessment Programme. He is also a member of the Expert Advisory Board for the European Union’s WATer and global CHange (WATCH) Project.
Dr Anne-Maree Boland has 20 years experience in dealing with natural resource and water management in Australian agricultural industries. This has included research and development in the areas of water use efficiency (WUE), salinity, waterlogging, recycled water, environmental management systems and the adoption of improved irrigation management practices. Anne-Maree has experience in working with and establishing partnerships with diverse stakeholders groups (government, water and agricultural industries). She completed a PhD in 1995 with the University of Melbourne for which she was awarded the Chancellors prize and has published extensively in international journals, presented many conference papers and produced a number of grower manuals. Anne-Maree has travelled overseas including a Churchill Fellowship to investigate irrigation and salinity advancements and study tours to Europe and the USA to further explore the use of alternative water sources.
Chris is the newly appointed CEO of Irrigation Australia. He has nearly 30 years experience in numerous facets of the irrigation industry, including nursery, tree crops, research and system design and management. Most recently, Chris managed the research program within the almond industry. One of the most successful outcomes was new management techniques which incorporated irrigation, nutrition, plant physiology and soil science into a holistic approach aiming for management optimisation. The result was a doubling of productivity above and beyond world’s best practice.
Chris has qualifications in Applied Science (Agriculture) and Business (majoring in Management and Marketing).
Mark Frisby
Australian Institute of Landscape Architects
(www.aila.org.au)
Mark has extensive experience in master planning, urban and landscape planning and design, construction documentation, contract administration and project management. Mark has a broad range of experience for public and private clients, from small scale residential housing development to the design, documentation and supervision of major projects.
