Dan Bena

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LinkedIn

Company: PepsiCo (previously)

Dan Bena founded his Corporate Purpose and ESG consultancy after a long career with PepsiCo, where he served in leadership roles as Corporate Water Steward, Head of Sustainable Development, Food Safety and Quality specialist, and Head of the company’s first-ever corporate function for Occupational Health and Safety. In addition, he is Senior Consultant for Antea Group USA, and Chair of their Strategic Advisory Board, Advisor to Grimley Capital, Honorary Professor for Glasgow Caledonian University, and Board Trustee of its New York College, which houses the Center for Social Impact and Innovation. Bena advocates for the power of the private sector as a force for good in society. He was recently Senior Advisor to Paul Newman’s charity, Safe Water Network, and serves/has served on the Water Leadership Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD); Steering Board of World Bank’s 2030 Water Resources Group; Steering Committee of the United Nations CEO Water Mandate; the Global Agenda Council on Water Security of the World Economic Forum; US Water Alliance; and Creative Visions Foundation, a non-profit whose signature program, Rock Your World, engages middle and high school students from over 70 countries in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

He serves on the Board of the United Nations Association Westchester Chapter, and on the Advisory Boards for Conrad Challenge, SuperYou Fundation, Artistic Circles, Environmental Leader publications group, and the journal, Water Security. Bena was selected as a mentor for the ThreeDotDash.org Global Teen Leader program; a judge for the University of Notre Dame Corporate Adaptation Prize; and the Penn State Sustainability Case Challenge. He delivered the keynote address at the Swedish Royal Gala, the Our Food, Our Future Summit, in Dublin, Ireland, provided testimony to the US Senate, spoke at the United Nations NGO Conference, “”Sustainable Societies; Responsive Citizens,” and keynoted the United Nations Youth Assembly to over 1,000 youth delegates from over 100 countries. He received the Light Up the Night Award for youth advocacy and engagement, was honored to have October 24th proclaimed “Dan Bena Day” in New York State; and was recently named a “Global Goals Local Leader” by the UN Association for his role in the partnerships which have provided over 55 million people with access to safe water.

Learn more: www.Linktree.com/danbena and www.danbena.com

Steve Bender

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LinkedIn

Company: Earth X

Location: California / Texas / Panama

I am an experienced and successful leader in non-profit development and have founded or served on the boards of more than fifteen organizations and volunteer initiatives. I not only have the vision to recognize opportunities to help others, but I understand the business side of establishing sustainable volunteer organizations from charter creation to fundraising to marketing. It has been my pleasure to focus on needs in my local Newport Beach community and find ways to export our successful models to other communities both in the United States and internationally. Causes I support include:

◆ Community and business development

◆ Sustainability and conservation (I’m a certified Naturalist Volunteer with Orange County)

◆ Dental and health care for those in need

◆ Veterans

◆ Special Olympics

◆ Education

A realtor with twenty-five years’​ experience, I use the same skills that have brought me professional success to envision, create, develop, and expand these local and international non-profit organizations. My most ambitious project is the “Doc-in-a-Box”​ series, which sends affordable health care microclinic facilities to countries in need. I serve as President of the Newport Beach Rotary Club.

Ramzi Bouzerda

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LinkedIn

Company: Droople SA

Location: Switzerland

Today, we are still completely blind to what happens after the main water meter in any residential, commercial, or industrial building. It’s not about metering water for billing but actively catching all the ways we use water on the last mile of the grid. This will change how we understand, value, and manage water. To do so, Droople is the Internet of Water connecting 100+ billion water-based assets “off radar” today worldwide. Using our Water Intelligence Solutions, sanitary ware, water treatment systems, appliances, and many more are interconnected in an IoT network to deliver fine-grained, in-context, time relevant insights. In fact, our AI-based systems accurately measure and analyze water usage data at any point of use, which allows service providers, facility managers to monitor them, predict their maintenance and enable water and energy savings.

Bryony Bowman

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LinkedIn

Company: University of Birmingham

Location: Manchester, UK

Previously I was a process engineer in the UK water industry, specialising in wastewater treatment, I spent over 10 years designing, commissioning and troubleshooting wastewater treatment plants including testing and developing new technologies. Currently I am completing a PhD with a focus on systems thinking and the use of visualisations and futures analysis in decision making to support environmental justice in the water industry.

Nick Braun

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LinkedIn

Company: Cloud Water Filters

Location: San Diego, CA

Current co-founder at Cloud Water Filters. Angel investor. Previously founded PetInsuranceQuotes.com (acquired by Petco). Before that, spent time in venture capital, insurance and banking.

Justin Bzdek

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LinkedIn

Company: Symbios Technologies, Inc.

Location: Fort Collins, Colorado

Justin is a teambuilder and entrepreneur whose career has focused on maximum impact on existential and biosphere sustainability problems at the nexus of energy, water, food/agriculture, climate, ecosystem/human/animal health, and social justice. He is presently CEO of Symbios Technologies, Inc. and VP Business Development of Czero, Inc. driving technology R&D and innovation at the water-energy nexus to reduce emissions and decarbonize energy conversion/storage/use, transportation, agriculture, water treatment, and manufacturing.

As a collaborative executive and board director Justin built companies and nonprofits reducing net CO2 and carcinogen emissions by millions of tons while generating more than $200 million in revenues and creating jobs. Justin has built many talented teams and deep product, finance, project, and business development pipelines across renewables and cleantech verticals toward a net-zero future. He is a Hach (now American Chemical Society) Scholar.

Justin Bzdek

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LinkedIn

Company: Symbios Technologies, Inc.

Location: Fort Collins, Colorado

Justin is a teambuilder and entrepreneur whose career has focused on maximum impact on existential and biosphere sustainability problems at the nexus of energy, water, food/agriculture, climate, ecosystem/human/animal health, and social justice. He is presently CEO of Symbios Technologies, Inc. and VP Business Development of Czero, Inc. driving technology R&D and innovation at the water-energy nexus to reduce emissions and decarbonize energy conversion/storage/use, transportation, agriculture, water treatment, and manufacturing.

As a collaborative executive and board director Justin built companies and nonprofits reducing net CO2 and carcinogen emissions by millions of tons while generating more than $200 million in revenues and creating jobs. Justin has built many talented teams and deep product, finance, project, and business development pipelines across renewables and cleantech verticals toward a net-zero future. He is a Hach (now American Chemical Society) Scholar.

Jes Chosid

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LinkedIn

Company: NixieDip, Inc

Location: New York City, NY

Since I was little, I was always making “stuff”.

My background involves the coming together of art and science. Engineering, Science and Art classes should be taught together. It’s a mistake to separate them.

Jes is the founder of NixieDip. NixieDip scales and automates water sampling by turning drones into flying water robots. It slashes costs up to 90% and speeds up surface sampling by 75%.

Jes Chosid

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LinkedIn

Company: NixieDip, Inc

Location: New York City, NY

Since I was little, I was always making “stuff”.

My background involves the coming together of art and science. Engineering, Science and Art classes should be taught together. It’s a mistake to separate them.

Jes is the founder of NixieDip. NixieDip scales and automates water sampling by turning drones into flying water robots. It slashes costs up to 90% and speeds up surface sampling by 75%.

Katie Evans

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LinkedIn

Company: Woodard & Curran

Location: Phoenix, AZ

As an energetic, highly motivated Senior Communications Strategist, I chart corporate communications vision to handle internal and external communications. I make organizations shine and position them as trusted, respected, and valued community members. I have a track record of assembling critical data, resources, and people to accomplish overarching goals. Now, I am ready to use this ability as a member of a board of directors where I can add value to conscientious, forward-thinking startups and established companies.

Through the years, I have established new sustainable departments for my employers. This includes generating $1M+ in annual sales, bringing in top talent, overseeing program and project execution, and getting communications up and running.

My expertise includes organizational vision, cross-functional leadership, strategic communications, public speaking, writing, leadership training, and robust knowledge of water regulatory compliance.

► ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT & COMMUNICATIONS LEADERSHIP

I am an enthusiastic member of a steering committee as well as a communications committee. At the same time, I serve in the formal mentorship program and oversee executive training. People quickly notice my strategic thinking, positivity, and ability to create cohesiveness between individuals and groups with polar opposite opinions.

A highlight of my career is when I created consensus between multiple San Diego-based water agencies. They had been given $16M in funds and needed to agree on what parts of the city should get the money. I charted a plan involving five-day workshops and a list of topics for the groups to spark an impartial discussion. In the final analysis, they agreed unanimously on using the funds to improve water supply and quality throughout the county.

► SELECT HIGHLIGHTS

✓ Built and grew multiple departments, brought in new staff, developed a strategy for internal and external communications, and mapped a plan for customer, shareholder, and government relations.

✓ Boosted efficiency and cut costs for Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), prompting its board of directors to issue the organization’s first-ever proclamation for a departing employee in recognition of my leadership.

✓ Overturned a negative public opinion regarding a $50M design-build project to bring drinking water up to code by initiating workshops, presentations, and a social media campaign highlighting the positive impact on the community.