Board of Trustees

WaterAid in the UK is governed by a UK Board of Trustees, who are responsible for ensuring that the charity is well managed in line with its vision and mission, and that it abides by its charitable objectives.

WaterAid in the UK currently has 13 Trustees who all give up their time and energy voluntarily to ensure that WaterAid is compliant with the legal and statutory requirements of a UK charity and registered company.

Trustees are recruited through an open application process to ensure that we have the professional skills and experience needed for WaterAid to operate effectively. While retaining representation from the UK water industry - reflecting our origins - we actively encourage people with international development experience and those of African and Asian origins to apply. We will also continue to strive for a diverse and gender-balanced Board.

Trustees are elected for a three-year term that may be renewed for another three years. In occasional circumstances the term may be extended beyond this to retain specific skills.

For information about the WaterAid international (WAi) Board of Trustees, please visit the WaterAid international page.

WaterAid Trustees' Manual

The WaterAid Trustees' Manual has been put together as a resource for new and existing Trustees. It aims to explain clearly and simply the role of a WaterAid Trustee, the structure of the Board of Trustees and its four sub-committees and the relationship between the Board of Trustees, the Chief Executive and WaterAid. The manual also serves as an introduction to WaterAid and its ethos.

Download the current Trustees' Manual ( PDF File 306KB)

Memorandum and Articles of Association ( PDF 122KB)

Chair, Board of Trustees

Jeremy Pelczer

Jeremy was elected Chair in October 2007. He has a financial background and is a qualified accountant. He moved into the water industry in 1996 and was appointed President of American Water in Sept 2003 and became CEO and President of American Water in February 2004 until December 2005. He became the Chief Executive of Thames Water in November 2005 until its sale was completed in December 2006.

Jeremy attended Harvard Business school in 2002 and was a Board
member of the Business Environmental Programme until June 2007.

He is a keen cricket player, being a member of both the Marylebone
Cricket Club and the Somerset Cricket Club.

Trustees

Paul Batchelor

Paul joined the Board in October 2009.

He is the non-executive chairman of Crown Agents. He is also non-executive chairman of Oxford Policy Management and a member of the UK and International Advisory Councils of Transparency International. From 1974 to 1982 Paul was an economic consultant with Coopers & Lybrand.

He was a partner in C&L/PwC from 1982-2004, holding various UK, European and global management positions. From 1969-72 Mr Batchelor served the Swaziland Government as an economist (ODI Fellow) and was senior economist for the Malawi Government (UNDP/OPAS) 1972-74. He graduated from, and undertook postgraduate studies in development economics at Cambridge University.

Hugh Belshaw, OBE

Hugh is WaterAid's Honorary Treasurer and has been a member of the Board since December 2006. He qualified as a chartered accountant with a small London partnership in 1962 and spent some years as a management accountant before joining Oxfam in 1970 as finance director. Oxfam grew rapidly over the following decades and the job developed accordingly.

He retired in 1996 and was awarded an OBE. He served as trustee and treasurer of Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group -ITDG) until 2006 and served as a trustee on two other smaller charities.

His hobbies include volunteering with his wife on practical projects both abroad and for the National Trust and RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) in the UK. Hugh's spare time is taken up with gardening, canoeing and family.

Clarissa Brocklehurst
 
Clarissa was elected to the Board in October 2011. She studied Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto and started her career working on the water and sanitation needs of aboriginal communities in Canada and the US. 

She then managed water and sanitation projects in Togo and Sri Lanka before becoming the Country Representative for WaterAid in Bangladesh in 1996. In that capacity she worked on a mix of rural and urban programmes, building up what was, at the time, WaterAid's largest program in slums. 

Clarissa then became the Regional Urban Specialist for the World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) at their office for South Asia in New Delhi, India, returning to Canada in 2001 to take up a consulting practice. 

In April 2007, Clarissa was appointed Chief of UNICEF's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Section in New York. In this role she led the team that advises and provides technical support to the more than 100 country programs that make up UNICEF's global WASH program. Clarissa also played a role in development of strategy and advocacy for the global water supply and sanitation sector; in particular, she was very involved in the establishment of the new Sanitation and Water for All partnership.

Rosemary Carr

Rosemary was elected to the Board in October 2011 and is an independent consultant who specialises in brand, marketing and business planning.

Rosemary graduated from Oxford University and spent 23 years working in a variety of commercial and marketing roles in the footwear industry. She was Brand and Marketing Director of Clarks International from 1995-2011 and during this period Clarks grew rapidly to become the world's leading shoe brand.

Rosemary has been involved in a range of national charity projects and currently leads a number of local community initiatives. 

Richard Flint

Richard was elected to the Board in October 2011.  He was appointed Chief Executive of Kelda Group and Yorkshire Water Services Ltd in April 2010. Prior to that he was the Chief Operating Officer of Yorkshire Water (2008-2010) and Director of the company's Water Business Unit (2003-2008).  He is Chairman of Kelda Water Services and a member of the Water UK Board. 

Richard's career has had a heavy focus on leading change, including introducing competitive market working practices into the regulated water business, the real-time automation of the Yorkshire Water production platform and innovations in service experience and delivery.

He has recently led a major reorganisation of Yorkshire Water to ensure the company's 4.8m customers continue to benefit from industry-leading levels of service and environmental excellence.

Gregory Hodkinson

Gregory was Chair of WaterAid in America from 2007 to October 2011 and joined WaterAid's Board of Trustees in February 2008. He is Chairman of the Europe Region of Arup, a leading global engineering and consulting firm responsible for some of the world's most innovative building, transport and civil engineering projects.

By profession a Transport Planner, Gregory has 35 years' experience planning, designing and managing transport and infrastructure projects,
with particular experience in the aviation industry, and has worked on projects throughout the world.

His appointment extends Arup's ongoing commitment to WaterAid. With the establishment of the Arup Cause in 2006, Arup embarked on a global initiative that pledged the energy, expertise and resources of the firm's 9,000 staff to WaterAid's mission. Through this partnership, Arup has supported pilot projects in Zambia, Bangladesh and Madagascar and sought overall to provide lasting value to WaterAid through the creativity and knowledge of its members.

Agnes Kalibbala

Agnes joined the WaterAid Board of Trustees in December 2006. She currently holds the position of Ambassador / Head of department on North Africa, Middle East and the Rest of Africa (NAMERA) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Uganda.
 
Prior to this she was the Country Program Representative of ADD (Action on Disability and Development) for Uganda and also supported ADD work at regional level in Tanzania, Ghana and Burkina Faso. She has worked on many housing projects in Uganda and has obtained post-graduate degrees and diplomas from universities in Uganda, UK and the Netherlands in this field. Agnes has been on the board of several national and international institutions.

Sandeep Katwala

Sandeep joined the Board in October 2009, and is the managing partner of the India Practice at the global law firm Linklaters. He also sits on the Asia Executive Committee of Linklaters. He has been active in the Indian market since the early 1990s and has been involved as legal counsel on a number of major transactions into and out of India.

Sandeep started his professional career in 1983 in corporate finance with NatWest International and subsequently joined Linklaters in 1990, qualifying as a solicitor in 1992. He has worked on a wide variety of Mergers and Aquisitions, Corporate and energy/infrastructure transactions over the past 20 years, with a focus on emerging markets and, in particular, India.

He studied law at the University of Kent at Canterbury and also holds an MBA from the City University Business School.

Tony Kelly

Tony has been the Chair of WaterAid in Australia since its inception in 2005 and joined the UK Board in October 2006.

Tony, a civil engineer, has spent nearly 30 years in the Australian water industry with extensive experience in planning, design and construction as well as key roles in strategic planning, major utility reforms including water authority mergers, corporatisation, pricing, business process redesign and contracting out.

Since joining Yarra Valley Water Ltd at its inception in 1995, Tony has held four general manager positions including chief engineer, corporate strategy, marketing, business strategy and customer operations.

Tony was appointed managing director of Yarra Valley Water in January 2003. Tony also chairs the Victorian Water industry Association's
Sustainability Task Group that produced the Triple Bottom Line Reporting Guidelines for the Victorian water industry in 2002. Tony is also Deputy Chair of "Savewater", a not for profit alliance promoting water conservation.

Helen Pankhurst

Helen joined the Board in December 2006. She is currently the senior technical advisor for the water team in CARE which she joined after three years as the Country Representative for WaterAid in Ethiopia - the country she has was born in, spent half her life in, and feels a strong affinity for.

She has also worked as head of international programmes in WOMANKIND Worldwide, a women's rights and development organisation and as the
regional manager for the Horn of Africa at the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD).

Helen's academic background has been varied, starting in a French school then an international one before attending University both in Britain and America where she was a visiting scholar at Vassar. She has trained in auditing and financial management and has a social science PhD (Economics, Anthropology, Sociology and Politics). Helen is also a trustee of FARM Africa.

Peter Millward

Peter joined the Board in September 2010, having previously served for a year as an external member of the Audit Committee. He assumed the Chair of the Audit Committee in August 2011.

Having graduated in Electronic Engineering, he initially worked in the automotive industry before changing career and becoming a chartered accountant. He spent 35 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers and was a partner from 1984 to 2007, specialising in utilities. He was leader of the firm's services to the water industry for many years and advised global companies on financial reporting and corporate governance.

He is a non-executive director of a UK regional water company and chairs its audit committee. He is also a trustee of several charities and has a passion for sustainability issues.

Christiane Wuillamie 

Christiane was elected to the Board in October 2011. She was the founder and Chairman of CWB Systems Ltd, a financial services IT and management consultancy with offices in London and New York from 1994 to 2001.

Christiane is a recognised expert in IT infrastructure management, technology management and business solutions in the financial services industry. She was Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year finalist.

Christiane is also a serial entrepreneur having set up and run several executive recruiting firms. She is also a partner in The Principia Group, a consulting firm specialising in strategy execution and culture change.