Oliver M. Brandes
Co-Director, University of Victoria POLIS Project on Ecological Governance

Oliver Brandes joined the POLIS Project in 2003 to lead the Water Sustainability Project. He is a political ecologist with a Master of Economics degree from Queens University and a Law Degree from the University of Victoria and has diplomas in ecological restoration and international relations. He was involved in various environmental and development projects in Costa Rica and Ecuador and has worked in Canada’s north for the territorial judges at the Nunavut Court of Justice. Brandes’ current work focuses on water sustainability, sound resource management, and ecologically based legal and institutional reform. He is a founding member of the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW) and an adjunct at the University of Waterloo's Department of Environment & Resource Studies. He provides strategic water policy advice to all levels of government, as well as numerous national and local non-government and funding organizations. Brandes has authored over 100 academic and popular articles, and major research reports. In 2009, he helped lead the writing of Making the Most of the Water We Have: The Soft Path Approach to Water Management which brought together the results of the first-ever international comprehensive water soft path study.

Bernadette Conant
Executive Director, Canadian Water Network

Bernadette Conant is the Executive Director of the Canadian Water Network (CWN), where she has been working to improve the connection of research to application since 2003. Established in 2001 by Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence, CWN connects Canadian and international water researchers with decision-makers engaged in priority water-management issues. CWN plays a vital role in ensuring that Canada benefits from its investments in research to manage its water resources more effectively and becomes a world leader in water management. Before joining CWN, Conant was involved for more than 17 years in groundwater issues in Canada and the USA. Over that period and in her role at CWN in particular, she has devoted increasing time and energy to improving communication of research findings and their practical implications to both the academic and user communities. Conant has a BSc in Earth Sciences and an MSc in Hydrogeology from the University of Waterloo and holds the Faculty of Science Alumni of Honour Award from that institution. 

Dr. Allen Curry
Director, Canadian Rivers Institute

Dr. Allen Curry has a PhD in Zoology from the University of Guelph, an MSc in Watershed Ecosystems from Trent University, and a HonsBES (Geography and Biology) from the University of Waterloo. He is currently a professor of biology, forestry, and environmental management at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, and holds the Cloverleaf Professorship in Recreational Fisheries. For the last eight years, he has been the Director of the Canadian Rivers Institute. His research interests and publications span a diversity of issues in freshwater sciences with an underlying philosophy that understanding physical and biological processes is critical but societal issues are immediate.

Dr. Robert France
Watershed Management Chair, Nova Scotia Agricultural College

Dr. Robert France is an Associate Professor of Watershed Management in the Department of Engineering at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC), an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University, and an advisor to the Center of Technology and the Environment at Harvard University. France has conducted research in regions from the High Arctic to the tropics, on subject areas from bacteria and algae to whales, as well as on chemistry and environmental theory. He has taught at the universities of McGill, Ca'Foscari Venice, and Harvard. France is an acquisition editor for CRC Press where he runs the series Integrative Studies in Water Management and Land Development, and is also on the editorial board of the independent environmental press Green Frigate Books. He has published over two hundred articles and is the author or editor of over a dozen books of both a technical nature as well as general public interest. France conducts research on the environmental restoration of post-agricultural and post-industrial landscapes, integrated watershed management and water sensitive planning and design, the use of stable isotope analysis to trace material flow in aquatic foodwebs, the impacts of clearcutting on land-lake linkages, landscape modifications at the suburban-agricultural interface, agricultural urbanism, environmental biography, and immersion into historic agricultural and utilitarian landscapes.

Wayne Galliher
Project Manager, City of Guelph Water Conservation Program

Wayne Galliher is Project Manger of the City of Guelph Water Conservation Program. As Project Manager, Galliher lead development of the City’s 2009 Water Conservation and Efficiency Strategy and is responsible for all operational and program activities under the City’s Water Conservation Program. He has worked within the Ontario municipal water sector since 2003, over which time he has held positions within water treatment operations, water infrastructure planning and water demand management.  Galliher also serves as Chair of the Ontario Water Works Association Water Efficiency Committee.

Dr. David Lobb
Senior Research Chair, Watershed Systems Research Program, University of Manitoba

Dr. David Lobb has been named as Senior Research Chair in the Watershed Systems Research Program at the University of Manitoba. He is currently a professor in the Department of Soil Science in the faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University.  He received his BSc (1987) in Physical Geography from the University of Toronto and his MSc (1991) and PhD (1998) in Soil Science from the University of Guelph.  Lobb’s research, teaching and outreach activities are in the areas of soil erosion and sedimentation, soil and water conservation, and sustainable agriculture.  His expertise in soil erosion and conservation has been sought by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in addition to provincial and federal agencies across Canada. Lobb and his colleagues at the University of Manitoba are well-positioned to address the issues of water quality, water policy and protection.  

Johann Manente
Co-Chair, Canadian Municipal Water Efficiency Committee

Johann Manente is the Past-Chair of the National Water Efficiency Committee (NWEC) with the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA).  She served a two-year term as Chair for 2009 and 2010. Prior to the Chairmanship with NWEC, she was Secretary for three years and in 2008 received a Honourary Membership from the organization for outstanding contributions to water conservation policies and programs. Currently Manente serves as Co-Chair for the newly forming Canadian Municipal Water Efficiency Committee (not-for-profit status pending). The committee mission is to conduct water efficiency research and technology improvement, and promote programs and legislation that ensure the efficient and sustainable use of water resources.

Merrell-Ann S. Phare
Executive Director & Legal Counsel, Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources

Merrell-Ann Phare is the Executive Director and Legal Counsel to the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), and has been with the organization in these capacities since its inception in 1994. In addition to her management role at CIER, Phare has engaged in research and policy assessment regarding Aboriginal water, environmental, and other rights, climate change, environmental assessment, and sustainable development. Phare holds economics and law degrees from the University of Manitoba. Her Masters degree in Law explored the impacts of international trade and NAFTA on Aboriginal freshwater rights. Previous to her work at CIER, Phare practiced law privately in the areas of Aboriginal, labour, and corporate law. She has served on numerous advisory committees and consultation bodies, including the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and Regulatory Advisory Committee (RAC) of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and Manitoba's Lake Winnipeg Task Force. She has been a member of Canada's delegation to the United Nation's Commission on Sustainable Development, and represented the Assembly of First Nations on Canada’s delegation to the first meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP 11/ MOP 1).

Dr. Luc Vescovi
Director of Operations, Réseau Environnement

Dr. Luc Vescovi’s professional career in Environment spans tens years, with notable work in several fields related to water resources, climate change as well as sustainable development. In addition to publishing many articles, either as lone author or contributor, Vescovi held the position of “Integration” Specialist and Project Manager with the OURANOS Consortium on Adaptation to Climate Change. He has also worked in collaboration with several organizations, including the Council of Science and Technology in Québec, as well as many environmental organizations, both Canadian and international, including the International Secretariat for Water. Vescovi has also served as the Director of Operations for the UQAM Chair for Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. He holds a PhD in Water Science from the Université du Québec, INRS-Eau; a Masters Certificate in Environmental Engineering from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne; as well as a DEUG B, Licence (BO) and Masters (BOP) in Biology and Natural Science from the Université de Franche-Comté.

Dr. Anthony Watanabe
President & CEO, Innovolve Group

Widely recognized as a thought leader in the business of sustainability, Dr. Anthony Watanabe is the founder of the Innovolve Group. With offices in Toronto, Montreal and New York, Innovolve seeks scale impact by working with leading multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Royal Bank of Canada, Bayer, Kraft, Molson Coors and Alcan Packaging on sustainability strategy, communications and implementation. Under Watanabe’s direction, Innovolve has played an important role in global initiatives such as the International Zero Energy Housing Project started under the Asia Pacific Partnership, and the World Green Building Council. He also set the strategic wheels in motion that saw Innovolve become an important stakeholder in the evolving “Canadian Water Story”. Watanabe’s firm now runs an annual water summit in Canada and produces water intelligence reports for lenders and government agencies alike, all with a view to helping Canada lead a sustainable water future both at home and abroad. In addition to publications and interviews in mainstream and trade media, he is an accomplished speaker having delivered presentations on sustainability to business, government and universities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe. Watanabe also makes regular radio and television appearances in both French and English to talk about the business of sustainability.

Dr. Howard Wheater
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security, University of Saskatchewan

Dr. Howard Wheater is a world expert in hydrological science and sustainable water resource management. He has extensive international experience in studying and advising on flood, water resource and water quality issues. He is also vice-chair of the World Climate Research Programme’s Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment, and leads UNESCO’s arid zone water resources program.  Before assuming the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security, Wheater served as Professor of Hydrology and Director of the Environment Forum at the United Kingdom’s Imperial College London. Wheater holds a PhD in Hydrology from Bristol University and a first-class degree in Engineering Science from the University of Cambridge. He was President of the British Hydrological Society and is a Fellow of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the American Geophysical Union. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and six books, and has won several academic awards, including the prestigious Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. Wheater has probed global water issues as diverse as the impact of pulp mills in Argentina, dams in Hungary, and a proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada. His current research interests are focused in hydrology and water resources, with wide-ranging applications, including in surface and groundwater hydrology, and water quality and waste management.