Speakers
Dobromir Simidchiev
Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works
Dobromir Simidchiev has a Masters degree in Water treatment from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy and a MBA diploma.
In 2011 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works in charge of water. Previously he was director of "Engineering services and assets" of Sofiyska voda AD, where he took part in drafting the plan, with which the Sofia Municipality applied for ISPA funding.
He is also member of the Bulgarian Water Association.
Christopher Gasson
Publisher, Global Water Intelligence
Christopher is an authority on water finance and markets. After a degree in politics and economics at Oxford University, he worked as a financial journalist and in corporate finance, before acquiring Global Water Intelligence in 2002. He is a regular speaker at water-related conferences, and conducts confidential consultancy assignments on request.
Radoslav Russev
Radoslav Russev is manager of Dobrich Water and Sewerage Company and currently is focused on the improvement of the company's operating, commercial and financial status. He has gained operations and management experience in the water sector for a period of about 10 years at Sofiyska Voda (the company providing water and waste water services on the territory of the Municipality of Sofia) in different aspects of the business - network operations, asset management, customer service and others, as well as wider business areas such as regulation, tariff modelling and investment planning. In 2011 and 2012 Radoslav is an advisor on environment and water projects in the regional consulting company NECA (New Europe Corporate Advisory). In 2012 he is part of an expert team which developed a program with recovery measures for the stabilization of Dobrich Water and Sewerage Company. Radoslav took over the implementation of these measures in November 2012 and became Managing Director of the company.
Jean-Patrick Marquet
Jean-Patrick MARQUET is the Director of the Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The department comprises some 50 bankers and specialists of municipal utilities covering urban transport, district heating, water, wastewater and solid waste projects located in Eastern Europe, the CIS, Turkey and Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The municipal department of the Bank has invested almost €5 billion across 300 projects in the region, culminating in a record year in 2011 with 39 projects signed for €596 million of direct EBRD investment in municipal utilities, both private and public sectors.
Jean-Patrick MARQUET joined the EBRD in January 2001 and worked till 2007 in the Natural Resources sector covering oil and gas and mining projects before being appointed in 2008 as head of the Municipal and Environmental Infrastructure department. Before the EBRD, he was a project finance specialist with Crédit Lyonnais in Paris and London. His academic background includes an MSc in Management from the HEC school of management and a master of laws from the Pantheon-Assas University in Paris.
Ricardo Guimarães
Ricardo Guimarães is coordinator of the Network Monitoring Unit at EPAL in Lisbon, the largest company in water distribution in Portugal, in addition to undertaking consultancy work for Non-Revenue Water and distribution network monitoring projects. He is a specialist in metering, telemetry, DMA management and leak detection. His experience in the water sector covers 15 years at EPAL, including different aspects of the business such as network operations, asset management and customer service management amongst others. Since 2008 his principal role has been to co-ordenate the DMA monitoring and network segmentation project in Lisbon, a highly successful project which has seen the company reduce NRW by two-thirds to 8.7% in 2012, enabling the company to join the elite group of the most efficient European utilities in terms of water losses.
Francisco Machado
Francisco Machado is, since 2009, Managing Director and Board Member at Sisaqua, Consulgal’s subsidiary company for the environment sector, managing its Engineering and Operation & Maintenance activities in Portugal and abroad. Previously, he was Director of Business Development at EDIFER – a construction company -, where he was responsible for developing new business areas and diversify contracts’ portfolio. He worked for Degrémont Portugal, from 1992 to 2007, where he started as Senior Engineer specialized in Drinking Water, prior to become Services Director, developing the O&M business, and then Commercial Director, responsible for Design-Build contracts .
Francisco is graduated in Wastewater Engineering and has an MBA from IE Business School.
Shai Goren
Shai has been with Miya since June 2008, serving as Director of Business Development and at a later stage also as Regional Director for North America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining Miya, Shai worked closely with Shlomo Shmeltzer as Business Development Director at the headquarters of Shlomo Group. Prior to that, Shai spent more than six years as a commercial lawyer at Meitar, Liquornik, Geva & Leshem
Shai holds LL.B. in Law and Business from the IDC and an MBA from IDC.
Bambos Charalambous
Bambos Charalambous holds a BSc degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) registered with the UK Engineering Council, a Corporate Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), a Fellow of the Institution of Water and Environmental Management (UK) and a Fellow of the International Water Association.
His experience in water related areas spans over 30 years and has worked on many projects in Europe, Africa, Asia, United Arab Emirates and Cyprus. From 1995 to 2012 he was heading the Technical Services of the Water Board of Lemesos, a public water utility in Cyprus, with responsibilities over all technical matters, including planning, operation and maintenance of the water supply system.
He has published numerous papers on issues related to the management of urban water supply and of water sources and taken part in many research projects, conferences, seminars workshops and debates. Bambos is Past Chair of the International Water Association’s Water Loss Task Force and is currently the Secretary General of the European Water Resources Association.
Atanaska Nikolova
Atanaska Nikolova serves as deputy mayor in EU affairs and ecology in the Burgas municipality since August 2009.
From June 2008 to July 2009 she was Director of the European Integration Department at Burgas Municipality and was responsible for attracting and effective absorption of Structural and Cohesion Funds of the EU as well as for the international relations and partnerships of the municipality.
Since 1999 she's been working with the NGO sector as a project manager or an expert on environmental management and sustainable local development. Under her guidance over 30 international and national projects have been successfully completed. Consultant to local authorities in the Black Sea region in the development of Municipal development strategies, Community programs for waste management and municipal environmental protection projects. Member of the consulting team that developed the Regional Development Plan of the Southern Bulgarian Region. Member of the consulting team that prepared the National Report "The Objectives of the Millennium, Bulgaria 2008", author of Chapter 7 - "Ensuring Environmental Sustainability".
Education
Higher education in Biotechnology and Engineering ecology, MSc degree in Environmental protection and sustainable development, additional qualifications in Strategic planning guidance, Development of environmental policies, Development of strategies for sustainable local and regional development. Further educational qualifications, obtained in Belgium, Netherlands, UK, USA, Hungary, Russia, etc.