Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Site Visit
7:00-8:30
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Meet the people you want to meet using our One-to-One networking facility. No more missed opportunities. You arrange it all beforehand and we make it happen.
As a registered delegate to the American Water Summit, you will be able to upload your professional profile, see the list of registered delegates and send requests for structured One-to-One appointments with your target delegates.
8:30-10:00
The needs of North American municipal and industrial end users are beginning to merge: the ability to plan for an increasingly unpredictable climate, to finance and construct reliable and efficient infrastructure, and the foresight to stay ahead of changing regulations are all pushing the water industry toward holistic planning.
The Opening Plenary brings perspectives from the forefront of stormwater planning, industrial operations in a drought ridden climate, and a top-level perspective on federal priorities in water.
Christopher Gasson, Publisher, GWI.
Rana Foroohar, Columnist, Financial Times
Grant Page, CEO, Magna Imperio Systems
Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, CEO, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
Yvonne Forrest, Deputy Director, Houston Water
Matt Barnard, Co-founder and CEO, Plenty
10:00-10:30
Your facility to book key appointments during the American Water Summit
Meet the people you want to meet using our One-to-One networking facility.
10:30-12:00
Insight leaders from across the industry chair tightly focused roundtable discussions addressing the “20 Most Pressing Questions for the American Water Industry”. Every delegate will be able to participate in four 20-minute discussion groups in which they can lend their expertise to drive the discussion or quietly absorb the exchanges between the sharpest minds in the business.
George Hawkins, Founder, Moonshot LLC
He calls it the Moonshot. The idea is to bring utilities together to create a platform to co-develop – with the private sector – the innovations they need to make the dramatic improvements in service and productivity they require. Retired utility leadership rock star and Moonshot LLC CEO George Hawkins gives an update on the plan.
Paul Hasler, America Editor Global Water Intelligence
The past year has seen a $3.4 billion up-tick in capital expenditure by US water and sewer utilities. We need to understand what is driving this and whether it will continue. GWI America Editor Paul Hasler has the answers.
Jim Lochhead, CEO, Denver Water
Jim Lochhead, CEO of Denver Water will discuss the utility’s $500 million lead pipe replacement program across the metropolitan area.
John Durand, President, XRI
Brent Halldorson, Fountain Quail Water Management
New Mexico’s corner of the Permian Basin is one of the fastest growing areas of oil production in the world. It is also one of the most interesting from a water perspective as state regulators open the way for surface discharge and reuse of flowback water. John Durand and Brent Halldorson, President at XRI Blue and CTO at Fountain Quail Water Management, look at opportunities to merge water recycle and midstream capabilities and consider topics such as surface discharge.
Ian Elkins, Editor, Global Water Intelligence
The best way to understand the direction of thinking in the water business is through the mergers and acquisitions market. These corporate transactions offer a visceral exposure of corporate strategy, its ambitions, its successes and its failures. GWI Editor-in-Chief Ian Elkins gives his insight into this fast moving marketplace.
Rade Ray Kljajic, Managing Director, American Public Infrastructure
Governments are increasingly struggling to fund critical water infrastructure, but the emergence of the Asset In-Kind model in US public pension funds is changing the way infrastructure finance can be raised. Rade Ray Kljajic, Managing Director of America Public Infrastructure, explores how water is making a splash in pension funds to bridge the infrastructure gap.
Dora Chiang, Vice President, CDM Smith
These long lasting micro pollutants may be killing us, and state regulators are now outbidding each other in their attempts to eliminate them from the water cycle. Dora Chaing, Technical Strategy Leader for Emerging Contaminants from CDM Smith, gives her view of how this battle will be won from technological front line.
Pat Whalen, CEO, LuminUltra Technologies
Tracking microbial contamination is the single most important responsibility of water utilities (and a key issue for most industrial water users), but until now it has taken days to get answers. It is a delay that has shaped water operations for years. Pat Whalen, CEO of LuminUltra explains the implications of rapid microbial analytics.
Eva Arnaiz, Country Manager, USA, Aqualia
Aqualia’s US Country Manager, Eva Arnaiz draws on lessons learned from arid regions in countries like Spain, South Africa and Singapore and how the US can share in the global dialogue towards a circular approach.
Yair Poleg, CTO, Ayyeka
As yet there is no standard or established ‘one size fits all’ procurement models for either digital solutions (which may encompass everything from software services to hard infrastructure) or utilities. Yair Poleg, CTO of Ayyeka shares how X-as-a-service might steal the show as the water sector judges the path forward in its journey of digital transformation.
Diana Bauer, Senior Technical Manager, U.S. Department of Energy
At last year's American Water Summit the Department of Energy announced its Water Security Grand Challenge, which aims to launch cost-competitive desalination technologies through a new $100 million Energy-Water Desalination Hub. DoE's Diana Brauer discusses the opportunities.
Edward Fanter, Managing Director, National Bank Financial
As privatisations and P3s become more common for water and wastewater infrastructure, Edward Fanter discusses the new trending areas of private equity and infrastructure fund focus: potable water, wastewater, and industrial water treatment.
Bryan R. Bedell, WDBC President, DBIA, Vice President, Division Leader – Water, Haskell
The more collaborative and lower risk procurement model has fast become the preferred alternative to fixed-price delivery for water and wastewater projects in the US. Bryan Bedell discusses the pros and cons.
Amanda Brock,COO, Solaris Midstream
The companies supplying water services to the unconventional oil industry in the Permian basin were worth virtually nothing. Today they have a combined value in excess of $10 billion. Solaris Midsteam COO Amanda Brock will explain why this has suddenly become America’s most valuable water market.
Jay Sheehan, Sr. Vice President, Woodard & Curran
ROI and how to evaluate it remain a major barrier to uptake of new solutions for the digital water space. Woodard & Curran's Jay Sheehan explains how a bench marking framework can quantify the benefits of digital solutions.
Rob Simm, Senior Vice President, Water-Treatment, Stantec
Innovations in indoor farming, on-shore aquaculture, and laboratory grown protein are all creating new demands on water technology. Rob Simm, Senior Vice President of Water-Treatment at Stantec explores how the water industry can feed the appetite for diversifying agricultural supply chains?
Vijay Rengaraju, Segment Business Manager, Power Generation and Water PG, US, Industrial Automation, Energy Industries, ABB
With modern cities under increasing pressure due to rising population, operators need to obtain greater efficiency out of existing infrastructure. Digital transformation can help support this as part of a move towards smart city networks. Vijay Rengaraju, ABB’s Segment Business Manager, will share some insights.
Deane M. Dray, CFA Managing Director, RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Given the premise that all water businesses are not valued equally, equity analyst Deane Dray discusses investment strategies that incorporate a water technology valuation.
Tom Pankratz, Editor, Water Desalination Report
Join Tom Pankratz, Editor of the Water Desalination Report (WDR) as he discusses the latest innovations, trends, and emerging technologies in the desal market.
Ryan Coleman,Director of Process Solutions and Programs, EOSi
It is one of our worst and most visible pollution crises, but causes are largely diffuse and the treatment solutions largely point source. It means that eliminating algal blooms from our rivers, lakes and beaches will require ever more aggressively effective technology. Tom Walkosak CEO of EOSi explains the challenge and the solutions.
12:00-1:30
Your facility to book key appointments during the American Water Summit
Meet the people you want to meet using our One-to-One networking facility.
Use the below menu to navigate to your chosen session and view session description and speakers.
1:30-3:00
If digital systems are a game changer for water, then that game is so fragmented that the scores cannot yet be tallied on a global scale. This session will introduce the findings of a major piece of research on how to accelerate the digital utility launched at the AWS.
Christopher Gasson, Publisher, GWI.
Robert Montenegro, Executive Vice President, Grundfos USA
Roger Bailey, General Manager, Central Contra Costa
Torri Martin, Interim Deputy Commissioner, Office of Information Management, City of Atlanta.
James Reyes, Vice President, Aquatic Informatics
Galit Sasson, Senior Engineer, Mekorot
Improving stormwater management is becoming a top priority to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather and address water quality concerns – and federal and state governments are now beginning to take the issue seriously. However, as an expense that often lacks a revenue stream, bridging the stormwater funding gap requires creative thinking.
Ted Chapman, Senior Director, S&P Global Ratings Municipal Infrastructure Group
Dominique Lueckenhoff, Chair, NCPPP Water Institute
Seth Brown, Storm and Stream Solutions
Kevin Shafer, Executive Director, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Tom Entsminger, Manager of Program Administration, Texas Water Development Board
James Schlaman, Director of Planning, Black & Veatch
Kayed Lakhia, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division, FEMA
Transforming the performance of the water sector requires making change at scale. This session uncovers the opportunities for making more than 50,000 sub-scale utilities safe and successful.
George Hawkins, Founder, Moonshot LLC
Group 1
Chad Rupe, Administrator of the Rural Utilities Services, USDA
Andrew Sawyers, Director, Office of Wastewater, EPA
Sam Wade, CEO, National Rural Water Association
Sarah Buck, Director of Regionalisation, Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP)
Group 2
Brien Sheahan, Commissioner, Illinois Commerce Commission
Rebecca Roose, Federal Environmental Policy Expert , New Mexico Environment Department
Eric Koch, State Senator, Government of Indiana
Group 3
Rade Ray Kljajic, Managing Director, American Public Infrastructure Ltd
Stephen Auton-Smith, Managing Director, Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors, LLC
Chris Shaffner, Senior Vice President, Rural Water and Community Facilities Banking, CoBank
Jeff Baudier, Managing Director, Bernhard Capital Partners
Group 4
Amir Peleg, Founder and CEO, TaKaDu
The LUOW is a global network of the world’s most successful and innovative water and wastewater utilities. Since the initiative’s launch in 2017, 44 Gold Standard utilities have been inaugurated, and now six new nominees will present their outstanding innovations and 5-year plans to be inaugurated into the network. Attend this session to hear the best and brightest international utilities share their success and plans.
Howard Neukrug, Global Water Leaders Group and Leading Utilities of the World
Biju George, Executive Vice President, Operations and Engineering, DC Water
David Johnson, Deputy General Manager of Engineering and Operations, Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority
Martin Adams, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
Lucia Cade, Chair, South East Water, Australia
Joke Cuperus, CEO, PWN
Diane Taniguchi-Dennis, CEO, Clean Water Services
Timothy Thomure, Director, Tucson Water
Randy Hayman, Commissioner, Philadelphia Water
George Theo, CEO, Unitywater, Australia
Michael Markus, General Manager, Orange County Water District
Sue McCormick, CEO, Great Lakes Water Authority
1:30-3:00
Identifying innovation and best practices are becoming essential strategies as industries continuously seek to improve their water strategy performance to create tangible and intangible business value. The complexity and cost of identifying and deploying innovative solutions can be prohibitive, given the rapid pace of innovation, the need to demonstrate the business case, and mitigation of operational risks for deployment.
This workshop session will examine corporate strategies, case studies and how cross sectoral collaboration could be an accelerator and to scale innovative technologies, business models, partnerships and financing.
Terry Mah, Founder, Malabar Group
Vetrivel Dhagumudi, Global Program Leader, Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Jacques Euler, Beauty Division – Manufacturing Sustainability, Procter & Gamble
August Ritter, Program Director, The Sustainability Accelerator, The Nature Conservancy
Will Sarni, Founder and CEO, Water Foundry
3:00-3:30
Your facility to book key appointments during the American Water Summit
Meet the people you want to meet using our One-to-One networking facility.
3:30-5:00
The American water market is being asked to do more with less in the face of contemporary challenges from extreme weather events to micro pollutants. This session will present a flash summary of solutions and share perspectives from the end users adopting them.
Cristina Ahmadpour, President – North America, Isle Ltd.
Scott W. Jellison, CEO, Metropolitan District Commission Hartford, Connecticut
Todd Swingle, Executive Director, Toho Water Authority
Karen Pallansch, CEO, Alexandria Renew Enterprises
Tammy Stone, Consultant, Isle Utilities
America has more proposed desalination plants than any other country in the world according to GWI DesalData, but the market has scarcely grown over the past two decades. The cost of meeting tougher regulations on seawater desalination and the difficulty of disposing of brine inland are the two biggest obstacles. This session brings together project proponents with leading desalters to ask how technology could open out the business.
Tom Pankratz, Editor, Water Desalination Report
Darren Thompson, Director San Antonio Water System (SAWS), Water Resources
Yuliana Porras-Mendoza Desalination and Water Purification Research Program Manager, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, USA
Bob Yamada, Special Projects Director, San Diego County Water Authority
Kyle Frazier, Executive Director, Texas Desal Association
Peter Fiske, Director – Water Energy Resilience Research Institute (WERRI), Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA
Brent Alspach – Principal Environmental Engineer and Director of Applied Research, Arcadis
Transforming the performance of the water sector requires making change at scale. This session uncovers the opportunities for making more than 50,000 sub-scale utilities safe and successful.
George Hawkins, Founder, Moonshot LLC
Group 5
Bill Teichmiller, CEO, EJ Cooperative
Dan Hoins, County Administrator, Sarpy County, Nebraska
Kelly Graplar, Deputy CEO, Iowa Lakes Regional Water, Iowa
Marc Robert, COO, Water Asset Management, LLC
Tad Bohannon, CEO, Central Arkansas Water, Arkansas
Hector Gonzalez, Government Affairs Manager at El Paso Water, Texas
Jim Maras, Executive Director, Association of Regional Water Organizations (ARWO)
David Stanton, President – Utilities, SUEZ North America
Del Patterson, Chairman, South Delaware County Regional Water Authority, Oklahoma
Bryan Peters, Board Member, Heartville Water Coop, Illinois
Kim Adamson, Director, Liberty Utilities
Ted Henifin, General Manager Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Virginia Beach, VA
Josiah Cox, President, Central States Water Resources
What makes the ‘Leading Utilities of the World’ innovation network different is the development of a truly innovative culture within and across utilities. In this session, the speakers from the first innovation session will receive prepared and structured feedback on their presentations from the Advisory Board of the ‘Leading Utilities of the World’ innovation network.
Howard Neukrug, Global Water Leaders Group and Leading Utilities of the World
Biju George, Executive Vice President, Operations and Engineering, DC Water
David Johnson, Deputy General Manager of Engineering and Operations, Las Vegas Valley Water District and Southern Nevada Water Authority
Martin Adams, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
Lucia Cade, Chair, South East Water, Australia
Joke Cuperus, CEO, PWN
Diane Taniguchi-Dennis, CEO, Clean Water Services
Timothy Thomure, Director, Tucson Water
Randy Hayman, Commissioner, Philadelphia Water
George Theo, CEO, Unitywater, Australia
Michael Markus, General Manager, Orange County Water District
Sue McCormick, CEO, Great Lakes Water Authority
5:00-5:30
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5:15-6:30
6:30-10:00
Featuring New York Times Bestselling Author Seth M. Siegel, who will discuss findings from his new book ‘Troubled Water: What’s Wrong with What We Drink’.
Ralph Exton, Chief Commercial Officer, SUEZ
