Jonathan McKeown, Chief Executive Officer, Mekong Water Solutions

Jonathan brings significant experience across water policy and resource management, international and NGO expertise, government liaison, and organisational leadership, to name a few.

As the Chief Executive Officer for Mekong Water Solutions, an eWater Limited branch office in Cambodia in partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Jonathan will be leading a team to provide sustainable and inclusive services, advice and capabilities in water resource management and sustainable irrigation. Jonathan will work with governments, development partners, private sector, and institutions, to strengthen water management in the Mekong Region.

Jonathan has held many distinguished roles over his 30-year career, including Chief Executive of the Australian Water Association, Managing Director of Patria Partners Limited, Non-Executive Director of Eastern States Pty Ltd and Tote Tasmania Pty Ltd, and Executive General Manager of SAGRIC International Pty Ltd (now Coffey International).

Sarah Ransom, General Manager, Australian Water Partnership

Sarah is a former Australian diplomat with a background in international development with DFAT, AusAID, the Asian Development Bank and in the UN system.

As General Manager of the Australian Water Partnership, Sarah leads a multidisciplinary team managing two DFAT grants focussed on supporting climate resilient sustainable water resource management across the Indo-Pacific region.  She engages with AWP’s network of partners across Australia, the region and the globe to support Australia’s role in the critical issues of water for development.

Sarah has a deep connection with Asia, having had postings in Laos and Vietnam and lived in China and Taiwan as a Mandarin-language student. Her technical background is in managing programs on governance, gender and community and civil society engagement, and she has advised government on peacebuilding, human rights and development policy. Sarah is a lawyer by training but a partnership and collaboration specialist by vocation.

Sarah balances her role with AWP with raising her two young sons and loves bushwalking near her home on beautiful Ngunnawal Country in Canberra, Australia.

Mitchell Isaacs has worked in water related roles in the NSW Government since 2009 and from November 2020 as the Chief Knowledge Officer, Water Group, in the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Prior to joining the NSW Government, Mitchell worked as a research scientist in Australia and Japan, and as a project management advisor to the Cambodian Government’s Fisheries Administration.

Mitchell also serves as the NSW Commissioner on the NSW-Qld Border Rivers Commission.

With 25 years’ experience in water resource management, spanning research, policy and planning, and senior executive leadership, Grace brings a wealth of knowledge to the eWater Limited Board.

Grace has led numerous high-profile, complex, multi-disciplinary initiatives that have required significant stakeholder engagement and negotiation within and between state and federal governments.

With a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Monash University, Dr Mitchell has a proven track record in delivering complex policy initiatives and program outcomes, which will benefit the eWater Limited Board and eWater’s government owners, customers, stakeholders, and clients.

Dr Mitchell has been recognised with a number of awards, including an Australia Day Achievement Medallion from the Bureau of Meteorology, and Early Research Career Excellence Award from the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand to name a few.

Kathryn has dedicated her career and time in identifying opportunities to achieve better outcomes for whatever organisations she works with and create change for the betterment of people and planet.

Kathryn brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the eWater Board including her work at the Sydney Water Corporation as Resilience and Climate Changer Adaptation Manager, where is she is leading complex programs of work to support Sydney Water anticipates, prepares, and adapts to changing circumstances. As System and Asset Planner at Sydney Water, she also integrated planning of water/wastewater services to sustainably improve liveability for the growing population of Sydney.

Kathryn is a passionate water professional and has been a member of the International Water Association and Australia Water Association strategic councils, providing advice to their Boards of Directors.

Kathryn was recognised as the youngest International Water Association Fellows in 2020 and awarded the AWA’s Australian Young Water Professional of the Year in 2016 for her impact on the water sector.

Greg has extensive experience within the water industry as well as natural resources management knowledge and expertise, both in Australia and internationally.

He has been recognised at state, national, and international levels for his work in water and associated national resources reforms, in whole of river basins planning and management, and in integrated urban water management.

Greg has been responsible for leading and managing the development of, and providing expert advice about, strategic water policy, water related legislation, whole of basin water resource allocation and management plans, regional and urban water supply strategies, drought and flood response strategies, water infrastructure plans, water information and knowledge strategies and water quality improvement plans, and made significant contributions to national, trans-boundary and international water policies and programs.

Greg has held many board memberships including the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, International Water Centre, COAG Water Reform Committee.

Greg’s extensive experience within the water industry led to him being awarded the Public Service Medal in the Australia Day Honours in 2009, on recognition of his outstanding public service in natural resources and water management.

Deb Brown is the Executive Director, Catchment Waterways Cities and Towns in the Water and Catchments Group of DELWP.

Deb is a trusted and respected water leader with over 20 years’ experience within the public sector. She has broad expertise across water resource management from strategic policy, planning to ‘on the ground’ management.

Deb has specialised in urban water management and conservation, environment and river health improvement, and more recently in improving Traditional Owner inclusion in water management.

In 2020, Deb was awarded the Victorian Water Professional of the Year

Damien Pearson is committed to the application of technology to solve water management challenges.

Damien’s career to-date has focused on technologies to improve water use efficiencies within irrigation areas in the Murray-Darling Basin, the Americas, Central Asia, Northern Africa and Europe. Damien is a systems engineer by training with extensive career experience in hydraulic modelling, software development, embedded systems development, and network distributed measurement and control technologies.

Prior to joining eWater, Damien served for 23-years in a range of roles within Australian water technology company Rubicon Water. Damien’s roles spanned R&D, product development, management of Rubicon’s North American operations and subsequent management of global business development. Damien’s experience includes the implementation of some of the world’s largest integrated control and measurement solutions to precisely manage agricultural water supply networks. This career history has provided Damien with extensive experience in the challenges faced by water users and management authorities, and the provision of tools to facilitate the improved management of water systems.

Michael Wilson, Group Chief Executive, eWater Limited

Michael commenced as Group Chief Executive of eWater Limited in January 2022, having previously served as Chief Executive of the Australian Water Partnership. Michael joined eWater following a 25-year career in international development, national security and sustainable development policy, including as head of the Australian aid program in mainland southeast Asia (2011–14) based in
Hanoi, Vietnam. He then headed practices within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade working on political governance; water resource management, sanitation and hygiene; and the effective delivery of development assistance in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Michael has also worked in the private sector, including as a partner at global development company Palladium International, in management consultancy and as a principal consultant with a global human resources firm.

Michael has worked on development cooperation strategies and programming across Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East. As Coordinator on Gender Equality in the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), he designed and oversaw new initiatives and performance standards aimed at driving gender equity, women’s economic empowerment and women in leadership objectives across the Australian aid program.

Earlier in his career, Michael headed the International Section of the former federal Department of the Environment and Heritage, was a Principal Policy Adviser at the Australian Federal Police, and worked as a policy adviser to federal Ministers in the environment, trade and arts portfolios.

Michael holds a BA (Hons) in Political Science from the Australian National University and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Samira Azadi, Hydrologist

Samira is a water and environmental engineer with over 10 years of research and academic experience in hydrologic and eco-hydrologic modelling, water resources management and environmental impact assessment.  Samira has demonstrated experience in implementing remote sensing data, and advanced spatial analytical techniques to assess the impacts of climatic and anthropogenic disturbances on the ecosystem functionality and land degradation patterns across the remote landscapes in Australia.  She also has developed skills in the use of hydrologic modelling for evaluating the effects of climate change on the efficiency of water management plans across agricultural catchments.

Dr Khalil is a water resources engineer, interested in water resources management, flood adaptation, and water storage.

Dr Khalil has worked with Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), Pakistan and National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NESPAK) on World Bank and Asian Development Bank-funded projects, including the Dasu Dam Project, Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project, and Water Sector Capacity Building of Indus Basin. Dr Khalil has a teaching experience in Water Resources courses at the University of Wollongong Australia.

Dr Khalil holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and a Masters of Hydraulics and Irrigation Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan. Dr Khalil recently submitted his PhD Thesis in Water Resource Engineering at the University of Wollongong, Australia.

Dr Khalil is highly motivated to use his skills and experience to increase economic development through sustainable water resource management.

Dr. Sudeep Nair is a water resources engineer with experience in urban water systems modelling.

Sudeep has been part of projects related to water-energy nexus modelling, sustainability assessment of urban water systems and life cycle assessment. He has advanced skills in simulation and optimisation modelling of integrated urban water systems, which encompass centralised and decentralised water supply systems.  Sudeep is also skilled in data analysis and interpretation using various tools to enable decision making in the water sector. He has strong knowledge and interests in water and wastewater management and agricultural engineering.

Dr Jin Wang is a Senior Hydrologist in eWater.

His combined knowledge and work experience in areas of hydrology, computer science and GIS are unique. He has over 20 years of experience in hydrology, water resource planning and management, and environmental information management.

He is an expert in using hydrological and hydraulic models for flood forecasting, hydrological and hydraulic analysis, stormwater analysis, and water resource assessment. His expertise also includes analyzing large spatial and non-spatial data to provide water/environment-related advice to policy areas within the Australian government agency.

Education  BEng and Meng (Water), MSc(Eng. Hydro), PGDip(IT), PhD

2007 Doctor of Philosophy, Victoria University, Australia

1999 PG.Dip. in Computer Science, Victoria University, Australia

1995 M.Sc. in Eng. Hydrology (First Class Honours), National University of Ireland, Ireland

~1989 M.Eng. and B.Eng.  in Water Resources and Hydrology, Hohai University, P.R. of China

Daxa has eight years of Australian and overseas experience in the IT industry, leading and working with cross-functional teams across various domains, including Accounting, ERP systems, Supply Chain Management, Healthcare, Fleet Management, Logistics, and Oil & Gas. Daxa is experienced in .Net Development for Web Applications, Cross-Platform Mobile Apps, Desktop Applications, Web Services/APIs and Reporting Tools.

Daxa completed a Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology from CHARUSAT University, India.

Tom Roberts is the Desktop Applications Team Leader and Senior Software Developer.  He has worked at eWater for 8 years.

Felicity has worked in office administration for more than 20 years, with 10 years corporate knowledge of eWater and its operations.

She worked previously as Executive Assistant to Gary Jones (Chief Executive), initially with the CRC Freshwater Ecology then eWater CRC.

In her present role as Executive Officer eWater, her goals are to develop a professional and approachable culture, with quality customer service. Her current focus is ensuring that eWater maintains ISO 9001 accreditation.

James has a Bachelor of Business, specializing in Economics.

Throughout his career, James has shown a keen interest in environmental protection, focusing on implementation of sound Economic policies and practices in the field of Environmental protection.

Currently James is pursuing a Masters in Environmental Management Development policy.

Kuan is an experienced Senior Software Developer with a demonstrated history of working in government, research and environmental management industries.  Kuan is skilled in Net Development for Windows Desktop Applications, Web Applications and Web Services, Unit Testing, Agile Methodologies, Software Requirements, and Environmental Modelling. Strong engineering professional with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) focused in Computer Science from the University of Melbourne as well as a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management from the University of Queensland.