Tom Freyberg believes that everyone has a story to tell. An award-winning environmental journalist, he has had articles and comments published in The Times, The Guardian, CNN, the Grocer magazine and a Swedish institute publication, WaterFront. Spending nearly a decade traveling the globe and reporting on projects from Latin America to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, this opened his eyes to the water challenges and solutions available around the world. A graduate of the University of Exeter, Tom founded Atlantean Media in 2018 as a boutique digital content and media company. The company was born out of a need to bring engineering-based content to life and now represents and advises public and private-sector clients across the water and climate-tech space. The mission? To connect people to water through creative content. As well as being the content director for Aquatech Global events, Tom is the co-creator and co-host of The Stream with Will and Tom podcast together with Will Sarni, the host of online talk show QTalks by Qatium, as well as co-founder of KnowH2Ow - a marketing and communication training hub for water professionals.

Will is an internationally recognized thought leader on water strategy and innovation. He has authored numerous books and articles and presented on: the value of water, innovations in digital water technology, the circular economy, and the energy-water-food nexus. He has been a water strategy advisor to private and public-sector enterprises and NGOs for his entire career.

Richard J. Vestner is Vice President in the Industry Solutions Product Advancement Unit of Bentley Systems. He is responsible for Bentley’s urban digital twin solutions covering cities and campuses. Based in Munich, Germany, Richard holds a Dipl.-Ing. and a Dr.-Ing. degree in civil engineering. After his military career, Richard started his professional career as a consultant with his own company. Then he joined a business consultancy for public and corporate real estate management. During the following eight years he led national and international companies within a German infrastructure engineering group as managing director. Before joining Bentley in 2020, Richard served as Group Executive Board Member responsible for the EMEA business and Chief Digital Officer for a Danish tech company.

Newsha K. Ajami is a Commissioner of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She serves concurrently as the Chief Strategic Development Officer for Research in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA) at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). A leading expert in sustainable water resource management, smart cities, and the water-energy-food nexus, she uses data science principles to study the human and policy dimensions of urban water and hydrologic systems. In her role at LBL she is focused on developing and leading interdisciplinary and impact-focused research initiatives at the nexus of water, energy, and climate. Dr. Ajami was a two-term gubernatorial appointee to the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board. She is a member of National Academies Board on Water Science and Technology and serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Dr. Ajami also serves on number of state-level and national advisory boards. Before joining LBL she served as the founding director of the Stanford Urban Water Policy program and as a senior research scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Earlier in her career, she also served as a Science and Technology fellow at the California State Senate’s Natural Resources and Water Committee where she worked on various water and energy related legislation. She has published many highly cited peer-reviewed articles, coauthored two books, and contributed opinion pieces to the New York Times, San Jose Mercury and the Sacramento Bee. Dr. Ajami received her Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the UC, Irvine, an M.S. in Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Arizona, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Amir Kabir University of Technology in Tehran.

​Dr. Mark Fletcher is Director and Global Water Business Leader with Arup. He is responsible for all water and flood risk related business activity across Arup and has advised at a regional, national and trans-national level. Mark was appointed by the RAEng as Visiting Professor in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development until 2008. In 2014 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Bradford University for his work promoting sustainable water management. He is on the Leadership Council of UK Water Partnership. He was also Project Director for the BCIA Award Winning Bradford City Park. He has been responsible for Amp Frameworks with UK water companies from Amp2-Amp6 as well as national frameworks with the Environment Agency. Mark is a Board Director of the Water Industry Forum and is on the Policy Group for the Alliance of Global Water Adaptation (AGWA). AGWA includes the US State Department, the Government of the Netherlands, the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, UNFCCC and Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) amongst its members. He won the Engineering Council Natural Environment Award and the Leadership Award for Outstanding Contribution to Water Efficiency from the World Water Leadership Congress. Mark has presented to senior executives across the Australian water sector on the issue of public and private governance around water. He is also actively engaged in the shaping and messaging of adaptation implementation around the CoP22 agenda.