WaterAid America announces new board chair and treasurer

Posted by
Jeff Greene
on
11 January 2023
In
Individuals, Employees and companies, East Africa, West Africa, India, Bangladesh, Colombia, United States, United Kingdom, Nepal, Water, Education, Hygiene, Girls and women, Health, Maternal health
Ansh fills water cans with his mother from a tap installed on a street of a multi at Shyam Nagar, Bhopal, India. December 2019
Image: WaterAid/ Srishti Bhardwaj

January 11, 2023 (New York, NY) — WaterAid America is pleased to announce the appointment of a new board chair and treasurer effective January 1, 2023.  

Andrew Towle has been on the WaterAid America Board of Directors since 2018 and now steps into the role of board chair. He has spent his professional life creating value for some of the world’s best-known consumer packaged goods companies including Procter & Gamble, Heinz, Georgia-Pacific, and Kellogg’s. He was the CEO of private equity owned Urnex Brands, which was sold in 2017, and he is a partner at NGN Investment Partners. Towle succeeds Marc Robert, who served as board chair since 2012.  

I spent my childhood in India witnessing firsthand the struggles that communities face without access to clean water and toilets. Leading the Board of Directors allows me to help this global organization carry out its important work, which is ensuring access to the building blocks of a healthy, prosperous life. I hope to continue former chair Marc Robert’s outstanding work and help our CEO, Kelly Parsons, and the rest of the WaterAid America team achieve its ambitious goal to reach everyone, everywhere with sustainable and clean water, sanitation and hygiene.
Andrew Towle, WaterAid America Board Chair

Nam Hee Kim, who has also served on the board since 2018, will now serve as board treasurer. She brings years of investment banking experience and expertise, including the management of debt issuance for U.S. municipal governments secured by water, sewer, and utility system revenues for the Public Finance division of Lehman Brothers in New York. She also advised corporate clients on fixed income products as Director of the Investment Banking Division of Barclays Bank in Hong Kong. 

Since joining the board, I have been inspired by the commitment and passion of all those at WaterAid America and the global WaterAid Federation to achieve water, sanitation, and hygiene services for all. I look forward to working closely with all our talented staff to support the mission that has become more pressing due to climate change and its impact on the most marginalized communities.
Nam Hee Kim, WaterAid America Board Treasurer

At WaterAid, our mission is to transform the lives of the people who have been left behind by improving access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The scale of the crisis calls for a monumental shift in ambition and approach.  

The leadership and guidance from our board members is critical as we begin our ambitious 10-year global strategy to reach 400 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene by 2032. I’d like to thank outgoing board chair Marc Robert and treasurer Sarah Ryerson for their years of service and invaluable contributions to our organization. I have full confidence that Andrew and Nam Hee are the right people to help us reach our goals.
Kelly Parsons, WaterAid America CEO

WaterAid is an international nonprofit working to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene a reality for everyone, everywhere within a generation. WaterAid works in more than 30 countries to change the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people. Since 1981, WaterAid has reached 29 million people with clean water, 29 million people with decent toilets and 28 million people with good hygiene.

Visit WaterAid to learn more

Statistics

  • 750 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home.
  • Two billion people in the world – almost one in four – do not have a decent toilet of their own.
  • Around 310,000 children under five die every year from diarrheal diseases caused by poor water and sanitation. That's around 800 children a day, or one child every two minutes. 

Every $2 invested in water and toilets returns an average of $8 in increased productivity.

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