Bob Taylor has 39 years’ experience of the global water industry and is currently Chief Executive Officer of Portsmouth Water. Owned by Ancala Partners, Portsmouth Water has a 160 year plus history of providing water services on the south coast of the UK, today serving a population of around 800,000. The Company has a well established reputation as one of the consistently best performers in the sector and has recently embarked on the first major reservoir project to be built in the UK since privatization. Prior to this Bob was Operations Director – Drinking Water Services for South West Water, part of the FTSE listed Pennon Group. Bob joined South West Water in 2016 following Pennon’s acquisition of Bournemouth Water in 2015 where he held the positions of Managing Director and Director of Operations. Prior to this Bob was Business Development Director with Singaporean group Sembcorp, responsible for development of the municipal water and wastewater business within most countries outside Asia with a specific focus on the Middle East, South America and India.  

Bob holds a B.Sc. (hons) in Civil Engineering from the University of Wales, Swansea, an M.Sc.in Public Health Engineering from Imperial College, London and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of West London. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management, and National President of the Institute of Water. He is married with two children.

Richard is a Senior Executive, Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Institute of Water. He has over 30 years of experience of Engineering, Construction and Operations across both Water and Wastewater treatment and infrastructure. In addition, he was National Chairman of the Pipeline Industries Guild and a Chief Flying Instructor in the Royal Air Force Reserve, flying over 4500 sorties on conventional and powered gliders.

Civil Engineer specialised in Hydraulics in University of Porto – Faculty of Engineering, with 10 years of experience in Water Supply Systems Management, Water Loss, Non-Revenue Water, Water Safety & Security and Integrated Water Cycle Management.

He is currently the Water Supply Manager of Águas e Energia do Porto, since the end of 2018, being responsible for several strategic projects of the utility, making it one of the best and most recognized utilities at national and international level in the water sector. He was until then responsible for the Water Meters Unit of the same utility.

He holds a postgraduate degree in General Business Management from Católica Porto Business School, and he’s regularly responsible for academic internships & master thesis orientation.

Since 2016 he is the vice-coordinator of the Water Distribution Systems Committee, of Portuguese Water Systems Association, and member of the Specialist Group on Water Loss of the IWA (International Water Association).

Michelle is a chartered civil engineer and a highly driven and experienced management professional, with over 30 years in the water industry. Her key areas of expertise include strategic business planning and asset planning, performance monitoring, collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
Michelle joined WICS in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer. She brings experience of working within regulated companies to the practice of the economic regulator. By drawing on her communication skills and expertise in collaborative working, Michelle works with the water sector stakeholders in Scotland to promote Ethical Business Practice and Regulation and has developed a trust and confidence behavioural model for the sector to operate within in the current regulatory period.
Before joining WICS, Michelle was Head of Network Asset Planning at Bristol Water, where she was responsible for managing the company’s network assets. Prior to this she was seconded from PA Consulting into Ofwat as the Programme Director for the Retail Market Opening Programme. Michelle had previously worked for Black & Veatch, where she led on several strategic business and asset planning assignments. 

David Lonergan is a Chartered Engineer with 25 years’ experience in the water sector. His current role is National Leakage Manager at Uisce Eireann where he has led the Leakage Management team since 2018. This team is responsible for achieving Irish Waters leakage reduction targets via Capital & Operational activities. This team manages all key leakage reduction activities across Ireland such as find & fix, pressure reduction & metering activities. The team is also responsible for planning of the Water Network below ground portfolio including distribution & trunk main replacement. The team manages the use of innovation to continuously drive effectiveness & efficiencies across all leakage programs.

Key projects delivered by David during his time in this team was the delivery of a National Leakage Management System for the Utility in 2019 & achievement of Irish Waters first major leakage reduction milestone of 166 MLD of water saved in 2021.

David previously worked on the Irish Water Program in 2013 which was responsible for setting up the Irish Water Utility, then joining the utility in 2014 as a Data Governance Specialist and later Water Network Asset Planning Specialist. Previous to this David spent 15 years in Dublin City Council & was a member of the Dublin Region Water Conservation Project & following that the Dublin Region Watermain Rehabilitation Project.

Pierre is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (Paris), and holds several Master of Science and Engineering degrees. He joined SUEZ Group in 2005 and has since acquired 15 years of operational and strategic experience in the water sector, his career path ever in sync with innovation.

After starting a career as an operational manager, Pierre joined SUEZ HQ as a project manager within the General Division in charge of research, innovation, institutional relations and coordination of SUEZ Business Units, before supervising from 2013 to 2017 the international technical support and the monitoring of the performance of the Group's water subsidiaries, as a Technical Performance Manager.

Eager to give a digital turn to his career, Pierre joined SUEZ’s SMART SOLUTIONS subsidiary at the end of 2017 as a project manager overseeing the implementation of a new geographic information system (GIS) for SUEZ Water France, with more than 3000 users.

Since mid-2019, Pierre is the "Chief Solutions Officer" of SUEZ’s Distribution Technical Centre, the excellency centre of SUEZ for water networks expertise. As such, he is currently undertaking the transformation of ideas, innovations and technological partnerships into concrete solutions, contributing to the business and technical performance and differentiation of the Group's entities, and translating expertise and innovation in the management of drinking water networks into reality.

Areas of Expertise

• Advanced technological delivery solutions for network, pressure and asset management (namely Calm Network^TM and Netscan^TM)
• Cost-effective and efficient management and maintenance of assets
• Digital solutions and Smart Water technologies

Daniel Harrington is a Senior Project Engineer with Torres Strait Island Regional Council (TSIRC), Queensland Australia. He has worked with TSIRC for over 6 years in areas of operational management and project management, specifically with water and wastewater infrastructure. He has a keen interest in identifying and implementing operational efficiencies, and in designing infrastructure which is fit for in this remote and logistically challenging region.