Speaker Listing 1

Cheryl Hicks is a senior advisor to the United Nations Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate on water, sanitation and hygiene (https://ceowatermandate.org/); a founding partner and chair of the board at ASE-INFRA Partners, investing in sanitation economy infrastructure; and board member and chair of the impact committee at Quadia Impact Finance. From 2015-2020 Cheryl has been the inaugural Executive Director and CEO of the Toilet Board Coalition (TBC), a business-led coalition supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in the sanitation sector. While at the TBC, Cheryl initiated the Toilet Business Accelerator Programme and established the vision and innovation pathways of the Sanitation Economy.

Sascha is a senior consultant at Carnegie Consult, a development finance consultancy boutique in Maarssen, the Netherlands. She has worked in (development) finance for over 10 years in various positions. Sascha started her career as part of the impact investing team of Actiam (formerly SNS Asset Management) and worked for a pan-Asian microfinance group in Indonesia. Before joining Carnegie Consult she was part of the fund-of-funds team at Triple Jump, doing fund investments in emerging- and frontier markets for a public mandate - the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF). At Carnegie, Sascha worked on various assignments in the field of development finance and debt advisory.

Eize Willem (Ed) Anker (born 30 June 1978) is a former member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the ChristianUnion. Since 26 May 2014 he has been an alderman of Zwolle. Anker started his political career in the youth organisation of the Reformed Political Alliance, one of the predecessors of the ChristianUnion. He studied political science in Amsterdam. From 2005 to 2007 Anker was a member of the city council of Zaandam. In 2006 he was nominated for the eight place on the candidate list of the ChristianUnion for the coming elections of the House of Representatives

Diederik is the executive vice president of institutional relations at Sustainalytics. Over the past seven years Diederik has helped build Sustainalytics into the largest independent provider of ESG research and analysis for the global investment community. He acts as an advisor to senior executives, portfolio managers, and risk professionals on developing and implementing responsible investment strategies. Diederik directly manages the Institutional Relations team that scored 1st, 2nd and 3rd position in the 2012 Thomson Reuters Extel and SRI-connect IRRI Survey for best client services person in ESG research. In 2013, Diederik transferred from Amsterdam to New York City. The move is in a response to the growing momentum of responsible investment in North America and reflects Sustainalytics' increased focus on client service and sales in this market. During his time in New York, Diederik will retain his responsibilities overseeing Sustainalytics' global institutional relations team.

Alex Reed was appointed director of the Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection in November 2019. The office has a multi-faceted approach to resilience, including coral reef protection; preservation of coastal and aquatic management areas; beach and inlet management; and the implementation of ecosystem restoration projects to prepare Florida’s coastal communities and state-managed lands for the effects of sea level rise, coastal flooding, erosion and storms. Alex has been with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection since 2009, serving in a variety of roles and most recently as the director of the Division of Water Resource Management. Alex earned a Bachelor of Science in geology from Florida State University.

Hadi works as a project coordinator for WaterworX and is enrolled in the Young Expert Programme. WaterworX is a Water Operator partnership between utilities (World Waternet and SOMAGEP SA) aiming to improve the performance of the utility in providing potable drinking water, reducing NRW, leadership and organizational development, improving water quality and enabling environment. Hadi’s also engaged in AJPEA, the young water professional’s association in Mali, which is currently working on capacity building and mentoring projects including leadership trainings and career development.

Jérôme van der Maes, LLM, MA is chairman of ‘Delfland Inclusive’ and project manager water quality at the Water Authority of Delfland. Jérôme took the initiative to start-up diversity and inclusion, first for LGTBQ and now working towards an integral focus on diversity and inclusion in Delfland. Jérôme has just published an article on diversity and inclusion in the ‘Social Inclusion’ edition of the Dutch magazine Water Governance: water-governance.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-02-Sociale-inclusiviteit_DEF.pdf

Taqsem Khan is the Managing Director and CEO of Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA), Bangladesh. Taqsem is a Visionary Leader and a successful reformer who made dramatic reform named “Dhaka WASA Turn Around Program” for last 12 years and converted a losing organization into a profitable, environment friendly, sustainable, pro-people and good governance public sector water utility in Southeast Asia by increasing production, increasing revenue income 3 times, reducing NRW from 40% to 7% in DMA area, reducing operating ratio to 0.66, introducing paperless e-billing system, ensuring water for all including low income community with 98% revenue collection. Taqsem has 40 years of vast management experience. He obtained his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from Moscow, USSR in 1981, and started his professional career with PHILIPS Bangladesh Ltd. as Production Engineer. From 1988 to 1998 Taqsem worked in the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), as Chief Engineer. Prior to joining WASA in 2009, Taqsem was involved with different NGOs in USA and Bangladesh from 1999 to 2008 and also worked as Senior Management Consultant in a Management Training Company.

Malena Galmarini has a degree in Political Science, Government and Administration. In December 2019, she became the first female President of Aguas y Saneamientos Argentinos (Aysa), the second largest water and sanitation company in Latin America and the fifth in the world. Lic. Galmarini also chairs the Latin American Association of Water and Sanitation Operators (ALOAS). She is a provincial deputy elected by the Province of Buenos Aires in use of license and previously served as Secretary of Health Policy and Human Development and Councilor of the Municipality of Tigre, among others.

Dennis van Peppen, manager of global issues and water at Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). During trade missions Mr. Van Peppen also functions as Deputy Special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands. He is an experienced project and programme management experience in both public and private sector, who has a passion for water management but also for international development, international politics and international political economy. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations of the University of Amsterdam.