Launch of the Perspectives Paper on “Storing Water: A new integrated approach for resilient development”

Dr. Delli Priscoli was senior advisor at the U.S. Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources. Over 40 years, he directed the Corps research, training and field assistance programs on; Social Assessment techniques, Public Participation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  These programs set standards across the USG. The ADR program received the first U.S. Hammer award for efficiency in government from the US Vice President. He directed numerous high-level studies, designed, facilitated and served on many special committees in USACE and the U.S.G. Dr Delli Priscoli became Chair of the Global Water Partnership (GWP) Technical Committee. He is on board of Governors of the World Water Council. Dr Delli Priscoli has been advisor to the World Bank on water policy and to all UN water related agencies and IFI’s and worked closely with Water Ministers worldwide. He was an original member of the U.S. delegation to the Middle East multilateral peace talks on water. He co-chaired the DG of UNESCO’s world commission on Water and Freshwater Ethics.  He is the Editor in Chief of the peer reviewed journal Water Policy. The American Water Resources Association awarded him the Icko Iben award for achievement in cross disciplinary communications in water. 

Peter Repinski

Peter Repinski joined GWP in August 2019 as the Chief Operational Officer & Deputy Executive Secretary. During the last 8 months he has also taken on the role as Interim Executive Secretary.

Peter has 20 years of international experience in management and improving of environmental, social and ethical performance in corporate and public settings, with a background in programme coordination, negotiations, project finance evaluations and hands-on implementation of sustainability policies/projects in 50 countries (Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America and South America).  

Peter has previously worked for the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and UNEP, in various positions, as well as having worked as a management consultant at Andersen (formerly Arthur Andersen) Environmental Risk Services.   

A Swedish national, Peter holds a Master of Science degree (Earth Sciences) from Stockholm University combined with a European Master Degree in Environmental Management (EAEME) from University of Athens, Greece, ERASMUS University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Imperial College, London, England.

Mark Smith

Dr. Mark Smith was appointed Director General of IWMI in August 2020. Dr. Smith, formerly IWMI’s Deputy Director General – Research for Development, brings more than 25 years of research and program management experience in water resources, agriculture, climate and sustainability.

He was formerly Director of the Global Water Programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). He has led innovative, multi-regional programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America addressing river basin management, transboundary cooperation, climate change adaptation and nature-based solutions.  

He has a Doctorate in ecology and resource management from the University of Edinburgh and a Master’s in climatology from the University of Guelph.

Winston Yu

Winston Yu is a Senior Water Resources Specialist at the World Bank. He joined the Bank in 2005 and has carried out projects and studies in the South and East Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa regions.  His special interests include river basin management, hydrologic modeling, flood forecasting and management, transboundary issues, irrigation modernization, water institutions, and adaptation to climate change. Prior to joining the Bank, he was a Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) working on water and climate change modeling studies and also served as a Science Officer at the US Department of State where he worked on water issues in the Middle East (including Iraq).  He is currently on the Technical Committee of the Global Water Partnership and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University where he teaches courses on international water issues.  He holds a PhD in environmental science and engineering from Harvard University.

James Dalton

James joined IUCN in 2009 as the Water Management Advisor.  Before IUCN he was based in Fiji at the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SPC-GSD) as the Integrated Water Resource Management Adviser.  As Director of IUCN’s Global Water Programme, James is focused on working with a wide range of partners and stakeholders to advance water governance and management for people and nature.

He is an irrigation engineer with degrees in rural development, science and politics, irrigation engineering, and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering focussing on groundwater management in the Aral Sea Basin.  He has worked on water management for 20 years in over 25 countries worldwide and sits on the governance committee of the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol, the Board of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, the Board of the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, as a Technical Advisor to the Climate Bonds Initiative, serves on CDP’s Water Security Advisory Council and is a member of the Advisory Board to the Dutch Governments Valuing Water Initiative. In October 2020 he was selected as a Member of the European Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance.  He is currently based at the IUCN Headquarters in Switzerland.

George Annandale

Dr. Annandale is known for his expertise in reservoir sedimentation management, having authored one of the first books on this topic, having co-developed the Life Cycle Management Concept for the World Bank, and having globally worked on numerous reservoir sedimentation management projects. The first book he authored, entitled “Reservoir Sedimentation”, deals with technical aspects of sediment deposition, while the books “Quenching the Thirst”, “Reservoir Conservation: The RESCON Approach” and “Extending the Life of Reservoirs” focus on sustainable management of water resource infrastructure; addressing the effects of climate change and reservoir sedimentation on water and power supply reliability.

Akissa Bahri

Akissa Bahri served as Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries from September 2020 to February 2021 in Tunis, Tunisia. From March to August 2020, she was Secretary of State in charge of Water Resources. Prior to this, she was a Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia, and earlier she worked as Coordinator of the African Water Facility (AWF) at the African Development Bank; as Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Accra, Ghana; and as Director of Research at the National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry in Tunisia (INRGREF). She has worked in water research in the fields of water resources management and agricultural use of marginal waters and biosolids. She has authored over 100 research and policy papers and reports. She has received international honors. She holds an Agricultural Engineer degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie de Toulouse, France, a Doctor-Engineer degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University, Sweden.

Pamela Collins

Dr. Pamela Collins is the Associate Scientist for Conservation and Sustainable Development in the Moore Center for Science at Conservation International, where she explores options for incorporating nature’s contributions to people into conservation policy at the national and global scales. Prior to joining CI, Dr. Collins served as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the Institute for Water Resources of the US Army Corps of Engineers, where she worked on topics in the areas of ecosystem restoration and green infrastructure. Her PhD at EPFL in Switzerland used computational modeling and geospatial analysis to evaluate the human and natural drivers of European vegetation change since the end of the last ice age, and she earned her undergraduate degree in ecology and environmental studies from Dartmouth College.

Julien Harou

Julien Harou is Chair of water engineering at The University of Manchester. He’s Research Director of the $10M 5-year FutureDAMS.org project. His research group contributes planning approaches and tools for water resources planning and management. Recent work is on strategic water-energy infrastructure design, water investment assessment, trade-off analysis, transboundary river basins, and optimizing for ecosystem services in dam system design.  Julien works for UK water companies and with governments globally; he speaks French, Spanish, German and some Russian.

Tom Panella

Tom Panella is the Director for Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture in the East Asia Department at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is responsible for portfolio programming, project delivery, and policy dialogue. He served as ADB’s Chief of Water Sector Group from 2017-20, Afghanistan Country Director from 2014-17, and joined ADB in 2003. He has led water operations in Central, South, and Southeast Asia including postings in Indonesia directing the water and climate change programs and in Uzbekistan as head of project management. He worked at the World Bank from 2000 to 2002 as a Water Resources Management Specialist. He was the Southern California Regional Director for Tabors, Caramanis and Associates from 1989 to 1993 and served as the Convener of the California Urban Water Conservation Council in 1997 (now the California Water Efficiency Partnership). He is a member of the AGWA Strategic Advisory Council, GWP Technical Committee, Advisor to the HELP, and Toilet Board Coalition Steering Committee. He has a PhD and MPP in Public Policy and MSc from the Energy and Resources Group from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA from Michigan State University.