Speakers
22nd Annual Leakage Conference
Alex Bailey
Smart Asset and Operations Manager, Anglian Water
Alex leads a team of skilled and passionate engineers to deliver Anglian Water's vision of Smart Water Systems. He is responsible for the deployment of pressure monitoring and condition sensors across the company’s asset base – from source to tap – and for delivering the meaningful insight needed to tackle challenges such as leakage, transient mitigation and relative efficiency. He helps deliver innovative ideas to the Water Business stream with people, process and technology to drive better outcomes for customers, assets, people and environment.
Fionn Boyle
Shop Window Manager,
Anglian Water
Fionn has worked for Anglian Water since 2014. He has a BSc in Biological and Forensic Sciences and a MSc in Water and Wastewater Engineering from Cranfield University. Fionn held positions in innovation and operations at Anglian Water before taking the role as Shop Window Manager and now holds the role of Senior Programme Manager for Safe Smart Systems. Fionn has led the Shop Window from a small test bed to becoming the industry’s first enterprise incubator. With this placed-based innovation approach, Anglian Water look to explore and implement the world’s future water company today, with successes rapidly scaled across the region. Fionn sits on the eastern area and YPN committees for the Institute of Water, the management committee for International Water Association’s Innovator’s Platform, and holds a seat on the board of directors for Anglian Water’s Future Leaders Board.
Kieran Brocklebank
Head of Innovation, United Utilities
Kieran helps businesses improve their innovation, supply-chain leadership and sustainability/corporate responsibility ambitions and performance. He has helped companies in defence, retail, third sector and social care. Right now, he leads United Utilities’ innovation activity – sourcing and testing breakthrough ideas to push new boundaries for the water sector.
Dr Leo Carswell
Principal Consultant – Technology and Innovation, WRc
Leo leads the Technology business area at WRc. He is responsible for WRc’s activities in the development, assessment and implementation of a wide range of technology within the water, waste and environmental sectors. This includes the WRc Approved™ fitness for purpose scheme, WRc’s role in the Environment Agency’s MCERTS certification scheme for water monitoring, and leading WRc’s activities in Scotland on the Hydro Nation Water Innovation Service. Leo has a PhD in instrumentation for water quality monitoring with more than 20 years’ wide-ranging experience in sensors and instrumentation.
Neil Edwards
Chief Technical Office, Fido Tech
Neil is a physicist and a disruptive inventor in the fields of tech and systems thinking. Prior to co-founding FIDO Tech, he started and grew several successful SMEs. Neil leads a talented team of developers, engineers and operational experts, whose research and development continues to break new ground in water leak detection, including AI leak-sizing – a world first achievement. With more than 30 years’ experience in computing, IoT, telecoms and Wi-Fi, Neil is a huge advocate for technology in general and AI in particular.
Jeremy Heath
Innovation Manager, SES Water
Jeremy has more than 25 years’ experience in the water industry, and has a background in mechanical engineering and database applications. He has worked for SES water for 20 years and in previous roles has managed water metering, leakage, GIS, remote working and network services. He has an excellent understanding of the problems facing the water industry, as well as the transformational power of innovative technical solutions. In 2015, he was appointed Innovation Manager at SES Water to promote innovation and ensure that an innovation culture was firmly embedded within the business.
Jon Hodgson
Business Development – Ant Hire Solutions (UK)
With a background in mechanical engineering, Jon has spent more than 35 years in manufacturing and consultancy with significant experience in the plastics and automotive sectors. He has operated at all levels, fulfilled several interim roles and is principal of business consultancy Spinnaker. Jon is passionate about sales and leadership and has worked with Ant Hire Solutions (UK) Limited since 2016.
David Jacobs
Leakage Strategy Manager, Anglian Water
David has worked for Anglian Water for more than 20 years in a variety of roles in the leakage team, most recently as Leakage Strategy Manager. He has responsibility for all aspects of leakage reporting and the water balance. In collaboration with the water resources and optimisation teams, he also defines the leakage strategy and investments required to ensure the company’s supply/demand balance is maintained into the future as part of the Water Resources management plan and business plan submissions.
Nathan Johnston
Technical Lead, AquaSensing
Nathan is a mechatronics engineering graduate from Canada’s University of Waterloo and one of the original team members at AquaSensing. With experience in product development across multiple companies, he leads the design of AquaSensing’s complete water leak detection system. His Master’s research involved designing the battery-free water leak detection sensors, which are a first of their kind for IoT devices. He is currently looking to explore the opportunity to apply these novel sensors to new water detection applications.
Sheikh Fakhar Khalid
Chief Scientist, Sensat
Khalid leads AI Research within the engineering, design and product teams. He has more than 20 years’ experience in applied Artificial Intelligence within the spatial analytics, satellite image processing, contextual reasoning and pattern recognition domain. Khalid previously conducted machine learning implementations at SparkCognition and completed stints at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Birkbeck College, University of London, and the University of Greenwich, where he was also a senior lecturer in GIS and Remote Sensing. Khalid received his PhD in Spatial Analytics and Soft Computing-based approaches in computer vision, as well as a BSc in computer science and an MSc in GIS. He is a frequent keynote speaker and published academic in the fields of spatial fuzzy computing-based machine learning and 3D computer vision. Khalid also leads the SensatUrban project, the largest photogrammetry-based Open 3D data of Cambridge, available for computer vision research.
Dene Marshallsay
Director, Artesia
Dene specialises in water supply and resource management. His key experience includes leakage and water loss management, water balance audits, demand management and forecasting, micro-component analysis of water use, network, revenue and smart metering. His subject-matter expertise in these areas extends to strategy development, policy and regulation, as well as tactical deployment of solutions. Recently, Dene has delivered an industry collaborative project on the impacts of COVID on water demand. Dene has more than 30 years’ experience in the UK and international water industry.
Glen Mountfort
Director – Technical Consulting, WRc
Glen joined WRc in August 2020 as Senior Consultant and specialises in leakage and water resources planning. He has previously worked for Jacobs and South Staffs Water and has extensive experience from his 18 years of working in the industry, both directly for water companies and as a consultant. Glen has been involved in producing business plans at PR09, PR14 and PR19 and water resources management plans at WRMP14 and WRMP19. Between 2017 and 2020 Glen provided technical assurance to a number of UK water companies, both in terms of annual performance reporting as well as business plans and water resources management plans. He is currently working on a number of UK-based and international leakage related projects.
Dr Jen Muggleton
Principal Research Fellow, at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton
Jen has 35 years’ experience in modelling and understanding various aspects of vibration in structures under water and in the ground. She worked at the Defence Research Agency (now Dstl) from 1985 to 1994, then at the ISVR on acoustics and structural vibration projects concerning wave propagation in buried plastic pipes for leak detection and pipe location. She instigated and led the ISVR involvement in the first two ‘Mapping the Underworld’ projects investigating vibro-acoustic methods for detecting and locating buried infrastructure, as well as its follow-on project ‘Assessing the Underworld’. Over the last decade, she has worked extensively with UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) and allied industries on their strategic initiative ‘Zero Leakage 2050’.
Jo Parker
Director, Watershed Associates
Jo is a chartered civil engineer and has worked in the water industry for more than 40 years. She has held a variety of senior roles with UK water companies and has also worked in countries as diverse as Afghanistan and Australia. She was awarded an MBE by the Queen in 1994 for services to the water industry. Jo currently works as an independent consultant specialising in the management of water mains. She is Chair of the Water and Sanitation Community Advisory Board for the Institution of Civil Engineers, Vice-president Engineering of the Institute of Water and a fellow of the International Water Association, as well as a member of the management board of the Water Loss Specialist Group. Last year, she was recognised by the Women’s Engineering Society as one of the top women engineers working in sustainability.
Carly Perry
Consultant – Executive Lead, Spring and Senior Manager – Energy & Utilities, Sia Partners
Carly leads the water sector business at Sia Partners with experience spanning across the sector globally. She has an extensive and broad background, working with water companies to deliver transformational programmes in technology and innovation adoption, mobilising large scale initiatives to meet new regulatory requirements, as well as designing strategies for regulated water companies. More recently, Carly has been working with UKWIR and the whole sector to design and stand up the MVP for Spring (formerly known as the Innovation Centre of Excellence), as well as leading the Open Data Strategy consortium, Stream. She has extensive knowledge of the UK water sector and has a vast and strong network within the sector. Carly is passionate about using innovation to solve the big problems and bringing together complex stakeholder groups to deliver collaboratively.
Dr Joe Sanders
Technical Director, RPS
Joe has 15 years’ experience as an academic, water company employee and consultant. He has worked in all areas of clean water networks, with a focus on leakage and asset management, using his experience to assist companies with their strategic and operational challenges. Previously, Joe held a number of positions at Affinity Water and Artesia, focusing on network asset management and leakage operations. Joe is a chartered engineer, and water and environmental manager. He sits on the CIWEM water resources panel.
Peter Simpson
Chief Executive, Anglian Water Group
Peter has been Chief Executive of Anglian Water Group since October 2013. His previous roles include Managing Director of Anglian Water from January 2010, and Chief Operating Officer from 2004. After completing an MSc in Analytical Chemistry at the University of East Anglia, Peter joined Anglian Water as one of its first graduate management trainees. Since then, he has remained with the company, with spells working in America, Europe and Asia. As a founding member, and now co-chair, of the UK Corporate Leaders Group, he has championed business action on climate change over many years. He is also an active supporter of Business in the Community (BiTC), which focuses on the positive difference business can make to communities. He currently Chairs BiTC’s East of England Leadership Team and is a Trustee of the international water charity, WaterAid. He is a Past President of the Institute of Water and a former Chair of Water UK. Peter holds an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager, a Chartered Scientist and a Chartered Environmentalist. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of the Environment and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management.
Dr Benjamin Tam
CEO, Isle
Ben’s background is in science and innovation – he has a PhD in biochemistry and has worked in a variety of scientific and managerial roles in the water industry. He is particularly interested in scientific problem-solving and managing the complexities and challenges of implementing new technologies, strategies and ideas. He managed a wide portfolio of innovation projects at Anglian Water, which enabled him to develop his expertise and scientific knowledge of water quality, water and wastewater treatment processes. In addition, Ben has experience in data management, multimedia customer engagement and smart water networks. He is passionate about innovation in the water sector and enjoys collaborative working to deliver successful projects.
Bob Taylor
Chief Executive, Portsmouth Water
Bob is Chief Executive Officer of Portsmouth Water, which has a 160-year history of providing water services on the south coast of the UK. Today, it serves a population of around 800,000. The company has a well-established reputation as one of the consistently best performers in the sector at lowest price, and is about to embark on the first major reservoir project to be built in the UK since privatisation. Previously, Bob was Operations Director of Drinking Water Services for South West Water, part of the FTSE-listed Pennon Group.
Paul Taylor
Leakage Manager, Severn Trent Water
Paul has 20 years’ experience in the water industry, working for Severn Trent Water. He specialises in water loss management, understanding water demand and leakage operations. He has held various roles in Severn Trent, most in the area of leakage management and strategy. He is currently Assurance Manager looking after regulatory Leakage and Per Capita Consumption reporting, water balance improvement projects and AMP7 leakage strategy. Paul also chairs the Water UK Leakage Network and is on the Public Interest Commitment on Leakage steering group.
Stuart Trow
Director, Invenio Systems
Stuart has worked in the UK water industry for 46 years, 43 of which have been directly involved with leakage management from all perspectives. He has managed leakage data and leak detection teams as a water company manager, has owned and managed a company specialising in ELL estimation, pressure management and leak detection, and has been a director of two pressure management companies, and two mains rehabilitation companies. He has undertaken regulatory and strategy reviews for several UK water companies. He was Ofwat reporter for Anglian Water and has been the Leakage Reviewer for WICS and Scottish Water since 2009. Stuart is currently a director of Invenio Systems and, as a consultant, has been assisting Welsh Water and Irish Water develop their leakage reduction strategies.
Frank van der Kleij
Principal Consultant – Asset Management Water (UK), Stantec
Frank is a Chartered Environmentalist with a MSc in Rural Engineering from Cranfield University with 25 years’ experience in water management, primarily in the areas of Clean Water Networks and Asset Management with a longstanding interest in Leakage Management. Between 1998 and 2021, he worked for Bristol Water in various roles including, as a consultant, for Bristol Water Services, working on a number of Non-Revenue Water projects in Central and South-East Asia. In Bristol Water, he had a key role in developing and implementing leakage management initiatives over the last two decades, cumulating into UK industry-leading performance by the company in recent years. Frank joined Stantec UK in November 2021 as a Principal Consultant in the Asset Management Team, working with several UK clients on clean water network risk and resilience projects.
Hannah Wardle
Network Optimisation Manager, United Utilities
Hannah has 25 years’ water industry experience and for the last 15 years has been focused on leakage delivery and operations, helping UU achieve its regulatory commitments. Innovation has been key to meeting the challenges facing operational leakage teams. Successful projects range from data improvements to allow daily analysis of flow changes, introducing a mass balance approach to upstream leakage, smart pressure control and the UKs first leakage sniffer dogs. Hannah regularly participates in UKWIR research studies, leakage conferences and benchmarking with other UK water companies.
Bradley Weston
Managing Director, Electro Scan
Brad joined Electro Scan in 2019 and leads the sales and operations groups in the UK, servicing customers in the UK and EU. Brad began his career straight from school serving eight years for the Royal Navy in the Above Water Warfare branch before leaving to join WRc as the Electro Scan Supervisor. Brad has delivered more than 3,000 pressurised insertions with a variety of leak detection tools and was instrumental in the creation of Electro Scan’s new DELTA, TRIDENT and KINGFISHER pressurised water products.