Speakers
25th Annual Leakage Conference 2nd and 3rd December 2024
Karen Atkinson
Manager of Leakage Reduction, Yorkshire Water
Karen joined Yorkshire Water on their graduate scheme in 2007.
Following a whistle-stop tour of the water side of the business, she settled in leakage – apart from brief spells in customer service, field operations and asset management. She has responsibility for all aspect of leakage at Yorkshire Water, which includes leakage operations, strategy, engineering, analytics, reporting and the water balance.
Andrew Ball
Technical Director, HR Wallingford
Andrew began his career at Southern Water, initially in water resources and then responsible for leakage reporting and demand forecasting and management. He moved to Australia to work on some of the world’s largest water resource projects before returning to the UK as a consultant. He was Head of Asset Management at South East Water, where he helped develop the company’s leakage strategy and innovation plans. Since joining HR Wallingford, he has worked on a range of leakage and water resources projects in the Caribbean, Ireland and Middle East. He is leading the NLRTC and leakage software projects for HR Wallingford.
Sandeep Bhatt
Condition Assessment Engineer, Xylem
Sandeep is a committed condition assessment engineer at Xylem, where she focuses on helping utility companies across the UK and Ireland prevent catastrophic pipe failures, while also developing long-term management plans to ensure sustainable operations. With more than 15 years’ experience in the water and wastewater sector, Sandeep has held various positions, including process engineer, applications engineer, and commissioning engineer.
Elisabeth Bowman
Reader in Geomechanics, University of Sheffield
Lis is a geotechnical specialist in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. She undertook her PhD on soil-pile interaction and her RAEng post-doctoral fellowship on landslide mechanics at Cambridge University. She has worked in civil engineering practice in the UK and as an academic in New Zealand. With an emphasis on laboratory testing and physical modelling, her research focuses on soil-water-structure problems, such as utility pipe failures, internal erosion in dams and flood embankments, and the mitigation of complex geohazards like rapid landslides. She is a Chartered Member of the ICE, UK.
Dr Leo Carswell
Head of Technology, WRc
Leo has a PhD in instrumentation for water quality monitoring and 25 years’ experience in sensors and wider technologies for water, wastewater and environmental applications. His current focus is WRc’s new Applied Research and Technology (ART) services, and he works with universities, technology developers and end-users to deliver new innovations to the water sector. Leo is currently involved in four leakage-related Ofwat Innovation projects: UAP4W, NLRTC, Designer Liners and No-dig leak repair technologies.
Ken Cartwright
Senior Associate Engineer, AtkinsRéalis
Ken has nearly 30 years’ experience in the water industry and has delivered projects focused on network design, modelling, performance assessments and leakage. For three years, Ken led Severn Trent’s Pressure Management Team, helped deliver over 22Ml/d of leakage savings and received an Innovational Insight award in 2017. Ken’s trunk main’s leakage experience began 1998 at the start of United Utilities’ upstream leakage journey, and he was responsible for a 16Ml/d reduction across one reporting area, including the discovery of a 5Ml/d leak hidden within a water treatment works facility. In 2021, Ken co-authored the UKWIR – Best Practice for upstream flow monitoring zones study and facilitates the Upstream Workgroup.
Richard Channell
Programme Director, Horizon Water Infrastructure
Richard is the custodian and lead of Horizon’s water company clients' smart meter programmes, and ensures the delivery of their Data as a Service (DaaS) solutions on time, on budget and with top-tier customer service – all while prioritising health and safety. With more than 30 years’ experience, including the past ten shaping UK smart metering solutions in the water sector, Richard brings deep knowledge and hands-on expertise to the role. He was previously at Thames Water, where he successfully led the DaaS smart metering technology and commercial strategy. With a proven track record of delivering large-scale smart metering projects, he has built the communications network for energy smart meters across Northern England and Scotland, as well as managed services for Thames Water and Anglian Water. A specialist in smart metering technologies and DaaS models, his expertise spans data insights and digital transformation to drive water efficiency and sustainability.
Courtney Connor
Leakage Technical Manager, United Utilities
After joining United Utilities’ graduate scheme in 2008, Courtney worked in operational roles on the water network before moving into leakage in 2018. She became Leakage Technical Manager in 2022. As an SME, she focuses on continuous improvement in leakage analysis, detection and reporting to achieve performance commitments and strategic goals. She loves problem-solving, supporting others and looking for new and better ways of working. Working alongside leakage managers, she aims to get the most from technicians and technology, analysts and analysis, and data and systems through innovation, continuous improvement and by driving consistency and standards.
Andrew Chatterley
Business Development Manager, Technolog
Technolog’s Business Development Manager for Wales and the West of England has more than three decades of experience in the water industry, and specialises in leakage and distribution. Since beginning his career in 1990, he’s taken on numerous leadership roles, including two successful terms as Head of Leakage at Wessex Water, where he consistently ensured the company met its regulatory targets. Since joining Technolog in June 2022, Andrew has continued to play a pivotal role in the industry. He was the host of the inaugural Pressure Management and Control Forum in Bath in 2008 and has been an active participant ever since, now proudly representing Technolog at the forefront of innovation in water management.
Tanya Dady
Smart Solutions Design Partner, Horizon Water Infrastructure
Tanya leads Horizon’s supply chain activities, and oversees the implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure and other smart solutions for water companies in the UK. Tanya brings 20 years’ experience in the water industry, most recently having successfully led initiatives for SES Water in leakage management, asset strategy and smart water strategy. She led the delivery of the first company-wide smart network in the world, an award-winning initiative for SES Water and established the world’s largest pipe condition assessment programme through the DMA Asset Health Project. She is a water-industry thought-leader, and regularly collaborates with the sector to drive innovation in data-led smart strategies that improve performance.
Geoff Darch
Head of Strategic Asset Planning, Anglian Water
Geoff leads the teams responsible for supply-and-demand forecasting and monitoring (including the water balance and leakage), supply-side and demand management strategy and resource trading. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Water Resources East, the regional, multi-sector membership organisation pioneering new approaches to managing water resources. Prior to joining Anglian Water in 2017, Geoff spent 16 years in consultancy, advising on infrastructure climate risks and adaptation for international finance institutions, government departments, environmental agencies and utility companies. Geoff has a PhD in hydro-climatology from UEA, is a Chartered Scientist, and a Fellow of CIWEM and the Royal Meteorological Society.
Dilraj Dhillon
Director, Crowder Consulting
Dilraj is a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager and a Chartered Environmentalist with more than 25 years’ experience in the water sector. He joined Crowder Consulting as a graduate engineer in 1999 and has since advanced to his current role as a company director. Dilraj is responsible for overseeing several UK and international water operators by managing a range of water network consultancy and professional services contracts, in addition to those for the Netbase Water Network Management System. He leads teams that successfully deliver consultancy, field, data and software services on these contracts. His areas of expertise include upstream networks, hydraulic modelling, asset management, water balance reporting and leakage management.
Ian DunsmoreTechnical Team Manager – Strategic Water Infrastructure, Scottish Water
Ian is a seasoned civil engineer with more than two and a half decades’ experience in the water industry, and has spearheaded numerous projects across Scotland and New Zealand. As the Technical Team Manager at Scottish Water, he crafts strategic plans for Scottish Water’s strategic infrastructure, focusing on enhancing network reliability and resilience. Ian’s proven track record in managing intricate technical projects and optimising efficiency has led to significant improvements in water infrastructure. His comprehensive knowledge and proactive problem-solving approach have consistently enhanced service reliability while prioritising environmental stewardship. Ian’s leadership and unwavering commitment to innovation guarantee the provision of safe, high-quality water to the communities of Scotland.
Tim Evans
Lead Water Network Scientist –Research, Development and Innovation, Thames Water
Tim has worked at Thames Water for 16 years as a research scientist, innovation lead and technical specialist in water networks. He brings a scientific approach and detailed eye to a portfolio of mains deterioration, failure and intervention topics, including pipe condition assessment, monitoring and leakage. He collaborates extensively across the water industry through UKWIR, water network specialist groups and Ofwat Innovation Fund projects. Before joining Thames, he gained a PhD from the University of Bristol, where he worked on early development of the pipe cleaning technique, ‘ice pigging’.
Dr Tim Farewell
Director, MapleSky
Tim helps decision-makers in water companies gain the clarity they need to better manage their networks. He is an environmental data scientist, who has spent much of the last 20 years studying the interactions between soil, weather and infrastructure failures. He helps water companies model the effects of climate change to their networks so they can demonstrate the scale of the coming challenges to regulators and their investors, and focus their short-term resources more efficiently to maximise long-term resilience. Tim is passionate about helping leaders change their organisations for the betterment of the people they serve – now and in the future.
Dr Katrina Flavell
Technical Specialist, Clean Water Networks, Yorkshire Water
Katrina represents Yorkshire Water’s Innovation team, delivering cutting-edge projects to enhance performance within the clean water network. She has a background in water quality in clean water production and networks. Katrina has a PhD in materials chemistry and is a Chartered Chemist. Prior to joining Yorkshire Water, she spent time working in academia. Her combination of academic and industry experience means she is well-placed to support innovation within the water sector.
Jeremy Heath
Innovation Manager, SES Water
With more than 30 years' experience in the water industry, and a background in mechanical engineering and database applications, Jeremy is responsible for the management of innovation within SES Water. He has a keen interest in innovations that will transform how we manage our water networks – in particular, smart metering, smart networks, artificial intelligence and IoT communications. In addition to his role at SES Water, Jeremy is also the lead for the UKWIR national zero leakage project and is responsible for driving the UK leakage research programme.
Michael Hurley
Technical Director, Tetra Tech RPS
Michael has more than 22 years’ experience in the water industry. A background of work at Southern Water in leakage reporting and data logging led to consultancy work with Tetra Tech RPS in field team management, trunk main balancing, DMA/PMA optimisation, leakage reporting and consumption analysis. In recent years, Michael has increased his technical expertise and followed a leadership programme to lead the clean-water consultancy team in England and Wales, with over 60 staff working on technical project delivery, hydraulic modelling, analytics and industry-leading software solutions. Michael has also worked on, and now leads, UKWIR projects to keep the industry up to date on the big questions facing the sector.
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. He is responsible 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 in the future as part of the water resources management plan and business plan submissions.
Stephen Jenkins
Senior Operations Manager, Morrison Water Services
Steve has more than 20 years’ leakage experience and has worked with many different clients across the UK and for several well-established suppliers. He is skilled in leakage strategy, data analytics and operations. Currently accountable for all leakage-related activities across the North of England for Morrison Water Services, including end-to-end services with key client Yorkshire Water, notably Varisim Delta (Digital Twin), FYLD (Real time dig-and-fix solution) and DMA ownership. Steve loves collaborating with clients and supply partners to provide intelligent strategic services and smarter ways of working.
Dr Natalie Lamb
Innovation Delivery Manager, Spring
Natalie oversees all innovation projects at Spring, and leads various innovation projects across diverse topics and locations. With over a decade in the water sector, her experience spans the supply chain, water utilities and academia (she has a PhD and MSc from the University of Sheffield and Cranfield University). Natalie’s passion for innovation and communication extends to her role as a visiting researcher at the University of Sheffield. She also champions young professionals as Chair of the International Water Association UK YWP, National YPN Chair for the Institute of Water and YWP Chapter Coordinator on the Global IWA Committee.
Justine Leadbetter
Head of Demand Management, WRc
Justine specialises in leakage management and strategy, where her technical expertise and background in GIS and data analysis enables her to approach water networks comprehensively. She focuses on managing complex projects that align with regulatory, environmental and client demands, particularly addressing leakage reduction. Recognised for her achievements with awards such as the Utility Week Rising Star Award, Justine’s holistic understanding and people-focused management style support effective and innovative solutions for leakage and other industry challenges.
Karma Loveday
Editor, The UK Water Report
Karma Loveday is the founder and editor of The UK Water Report, a publication that focuses on policy, regulation and finance in the UK water sector. She is a specialist journalist and has covered water alongside other regulated industries since 1998. Karma also works as a water advisor to the Major Energy Users' Council, a membership body for industrial and commercial water and energy users.
Stuart Mawditt
Managing Director, SME Water
After founding SME Water in 2019, Stuart has built a team of engineers and data analysts with a wealth of experience in hydraulic analysis, leakage and modelling. As a chartered engineer and member of CIWEM, Stuart enjoys sharing his experience with others and is always looking for opportunities to develop his knowledge. He is excited about the challenges the water industry currently faces and proud to be part of such an innovative and fast-moving industry.
Ronnie Mills
Business Implementation Manager – Smart Assets & Pressure Management, Yorkshire Water
Ronnie is in his 21st year at Yorkshire Water after starting as an apprentice engineer. After moving through various engineering roles and gaining a BSc in Civil Engineering, he now manages a team of engineers looking to lead the clean networks into a smarter, calmer and more resilient future. He has a passion for asset management and believes the real time data now available through advances in technology will give Yorkshire Water the opportunity to improve the way in which they operate and maintain their assets.
Joe Mitchell
Account Director, FYLD
Joe is an account director at FYLD, where he oversees growth in the global water sector. With a background in technology from Uber, he specialises in bringing innovative products to market in traditionally slower-moving industries. Over his four years at FYLD, Joe has played a key role in helping customers solve complex challenges. Recently, he has worked closely with Yorkshire Water and Southern Water to drive safety and operational improvements across their clean water and waste water networks, while connecting utilities with their supply chains for real-time visibility of operations.
Glen Mountfort
Director of 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 in the industry, 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, he provided technical assurance to a number of UK water companies in their 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.
Ian Pemberton
Principal Engineer – Asset Management and Operational Resilience, Ofwat
For the last eight years, Ian has been Principal within Water Engineering Science and Technology at Ofwat. He has a wide role providing technical input to Ofwat’s monitoring of company performance, environment team, enforcement and casework, outcomes (including performance commitments) and price review. Prior to joining Ofwat, Ian held positions in a number of engineering consultancies, including WSP, Utilitec, Atkins and Amey. Recently, he has been part of the Ofwat team tightening the technical specification for leakage performance commitments in the UK. He has keen interest in the definition of leakage/unaccounted for water and non-revenue water, and in being able to draw meaningful international comparisons. Ian is a graduate of Lancaster University and has been a Chartered Engineer since 1994.
Luke Ronayne
PhD student, University of Southampton
Luke is a third year PhD student in the Engineering Materials research group at the University of Southampton, where he focuses on the fracture mechanics and electrochemical performance of cast iron pipe materials. He previously completed his MEng in Mechanical Engineering, where he specialised in corrosion and material failure.
Dr Joe Sanders
Senior Technical Director, Tetra Tech RPS
Joe has more than 18 years’ experience in the water industry as an academic, water company employee and consultant. His areas of expertise include asset management, leakage, water resources and network optimisation. He has extensive knowledge of leakage assessment, reporting and calculation techniques. Before moving to Tetra Tech RPS, he held a number of positions at Affinity Water and Artesia Consulting, where he focused on leakage and network asset management. Joe is still involved in academia, and assists in primary research on a number of projects. He co-authored Water UK’s A Leakage Routemap to 2050, setting out the needs of the industry for the next 25 years. He is a Chartered Engineer, Scientist, Environmentalist and Water and Environmental Manager. Joe is a Fellow of CIWEM and is Vice-chair of their Engineering Standards Committee.
Alex Spivey
Project Manager, Yorkshire Water, Chairman of Expert In-Situ Lining Group (EILG), Yorkshire Water
Alex has worked at Yorkshire Water for nearly 10 years in various roles, starting as an apprentice in programme delivery. He currently manages a substantial clean water infrastructure programme that is driving to reduce leakage with a wide range of solutions. Innovation is widely considered and driven into his programme. In-situ spray lining is an innovative clean water renewal method that Alex has been using to drive efficiencies and improve network resilience on his projects. Alex is currently chair of the Expert In-situ Lining Group and is keen to present the benefits of lining with AMP8 just around the corner.
Bob Taylor
Chief Executive Officer, Portsmouth Water
Portsmouth Water has a 160-year history of providing water services on the south coast of the UK, and today 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 has embarked on the first major reservoir project to be built in the UK since privatisation. Prior to joining Portsmouth Water, Bob was Operations Director – Drinking Water Services for South West Water, part of the FTSE-listed Pennon Group.
Paul Taylor
Assurance Manager – Leakage, Severn Trent Water
Paul has more than 20 years’ experience in the water industry with Severn Trent Water, where he specialises in water loss management, water demand and leakage operations. He has held various roles in Severn Trent, mostly 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 AMP8 leakage strategy. Paul also chairs the Water UK Leakage Network and is on the Public Interest Commitment on Leakage steering group.
Luke Thornton
Business Development Director, Technolog
uke is Business Development Director for Technolog and Utilitec Services. He has worked in the water industry for 30 years and been actively involved with the operations and management of multiple pressure management and leakage detection contracts in the UK and Ireland. During his career, he established a Leakage Managers’ Meeting for the industry, which began in 1999. This later became the UKWIR Leakage Practitioners Group and now, in its 15th year, is the Pressure Management & Control Forum. The forum provides an open and honest discussion group for the industry and attracts delegates from the majority of the UK’s water companies on a quarterly basis.
Stuart Trow
Consultant, HWM Invenio
Stuart has worked in the UK water industry for nearly 50 years, most of which have seen him 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 and Irish Water. He was Ofwat reporter for Anglian Water and was the Leakage Reviewer for WICS and Scottish Water from 2009 to 2022. Stuart is currently employed as a consultant by HWM Invenio and is Project Director for the Ofwat-funded Managing Background Leakage Initiative.
Katy Walker
Leakage Data Manager, United Utilities
Katy has many years’ experience in leakage and water network management at United Utilities and at Yorkshire Water in leakage strategy, analysis, detection and repair. She currently leads United Utilities’ Upstream Leakage task team.
Charlie Whitelegg
PhD student, University of Sheffield
Charlie’s research investigates the use of controlled hydraulic transients in drinking water networks to detect and locate leakage. His research aims to explore how using hydrants as the access points for inducing transients affects the profile of transient signals and the consequent impact on transient-based leakage detection methods. Before starting his PhD, Charlie studied civil engineering at the University of Sheffield. Charlie’s PhD is sponsored by Scottish Water via the Water Infrastructure Resilience (WIRe) Centre for Doctoral Training.
Mikal Willmott
Leakage Assurance Analyst, Severn Trent Water
Mikal is a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager. He was recently elected by his peers to the International Water Association’s Waterloss Management Specialist Group. With more than 20 years at Severn Trent, starting from their graduate scheme, Mikal has honed his expertise in water loss management, water demand understanding and flow monitoring. He recently led a study on the accuracy of clamp-on flow meters for large diameter pipes.
Daniel Wilson
Project Manager, Northumbrian Water
Over the last 20 years, Daniel has managed capital construction projects, including primary filtration systems, treated water pumping stations, large diameter pipelines and raw water reservoirs. Daniel worked as the Asset Manager (Water) for Northumbrian Water in 2016 before returning to project management in 2018. His current projects include AMP7 enhancement schemes with Northumbrian Water and the National Leakage Research and Test Centre (NLRTC), where he represents a number of UK water companies, universities and research institutes on this Ofwat Innovation funded scheme. Daniel is a Chartered Project Manager with the APM.
