Biographies

Peter Gleick

Dr. Peter H. Gleick is co-founder and President of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California. His research and writing address the critical connections between water and human health, the hydrologic impacts of climate change, sustainable water use, privatization and globalization, and international conflicts over water resources. Every two years The Pacific Institute prepares The World’s Water biennial report that details the most significant trends and events and up-to-date data on water resources and their use. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert and was named a MacArthur Fellow in October 2003 for his work. In 2001, the British Broadcasting Corporation dubbed Gleick a “visionary on the environment”. In 2006, Dr. Gleick was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Maude Barlow

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization, and the founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water. She serves on the boards of the International Forum on Globalization and Food and Water Watch and is a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of six honorary doctorates, the 2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship Award, and the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”) for her global water justice work. She is also the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including Blue Gold, The fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water and Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, to be released in February 2008.

Erik D. Olson

Erik Olson recently joined Senator Barbara Boxer's Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW) as Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel. Previously, Olson served as Director of the Advocacy Centre and Senior Attorney of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). As one of the nation's top experts on water safety, Olson educates the public, politicians and business leaders on issues such as global warming and the safety of our food and water. In the past Olson steered successful campaigns to remove lead from school water fountains, tougher pesticide protection standards and NRDC's work with environmental groups to ensure state and federal officials responded to public health threats from Hurricane Katrina. Previously, Olson previously worked at the National Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Protection Agency, and chairs the Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water, a coalition of more than 300 groups, and is author or co-author of more than a dozen studies on drinking water, pesticides and related issues.

William E. Marks

William E. Marks, author and speaker, is a renowned advocate of water. To experience America's waters, he undertook a two-year, 7000 miles horseback trek from San Diego to Maine, living outside full-time. He visited North Africa, Europe, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, and Australia to study historical water management. He also traveled the Negev Desert in Israel and the Petra region of Jordan to study irrigation projects from Biblical and Byzantine times. Marks is also founding publisher and of Martha's Vineyard Magazine & Nantucket Magazine. He founded Martha's Vineyard's first state-certified water testing lab and Vineyard Environmental Research, Institute. He is author of books, The History of Wind Power on Martha's Vineyard, and the widely acclaimed book the Holy Order of Water, Healing Earth's Waters and Ourselves and has a new book entitled, Water Voices from Around The World. Marks is a recipient of several awards, including the Citizen Activist of the Year Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency; the Groundwater Guardian Award; the Water Hero Award, as well as the World of Poetry Gold Medal of Honor, and is an inductee into the Homer Honor Society of International Poets.

Dr. Ashok Gadgil

Dr. Gadgil is a Senior Staff Scientist in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and teaches at UC Berkeley. His research has focused on solar energy, energy efficiency and indoor air pollution. In mid 1990s Dr. Gadgil invented an affordable, effective and robust water disinfector, which is also fail- safe, low-maintenance, energy-efficient and easy to operate. In this invention UV-light effectively destroys the DNA of pathogenic micro-organisms in water, such as bacteria, viruses and protozoan cysts that cause cholera, typhoid, polio, diarrhea and dysentery. WaterHealth International has implemented the invention on a turn-key basis in several countries. Based on this invention, more than 500,000 rural Indians now obtain their drinking water after it is triple-filtered, carbon-treated and disinfected, for 2/10th of a U.S. cent per liter. Mr. Gadgil is developing affordable methods to remove arsenic from drinking water in Bangladesh. He also leads a team to develop and implement a fuel-efficient stove (the "Berkeley-Darfur Stove") to improve the lives of the displaced people of Darfur. Dr. Gadgil is a recipient of several awards and honors.

Tyrone Hayes

Tyrone B. Hayes, developmental endocrinologist and professor of integrative biology at UC-Berkeley along with his colleagues reported that atrazine, at levels often found in the environment, demasculinizes tadpoles and turns them into hermaphrodites - creatures with both male and female sexual characteristics. Dr. Hayes’ research attracted worldwide attention when it demonstrated a significant correlation between atrazine in the environment and reproductive deformities in frogs. Atrazine, a white, crystalline, solid organic compound, is the second-most heavily used herbicide in the United States. According to its main manufacturer, the Swiss corporation Syngenta, atrazine is used on two-thirds of all cornfields and sorghum fields in the United States, on 90 percent of sugar-cane fields, and on residential lawns, golf courses, and Christmas-tree farms. Dr. Hayes was recently chosen as one of nine "visionary explorers" by National Geographic. His findings have been published in numerous publications, newspapers and scientific journals.

Shri Rajendra Singh

Shri Rajendra Singh, a much-honored Indian leader in rainwater harvesting and water conservation, is known as ‘the waterman of India.” In 1985, Mr. Singh, along with the NGO he led, Tarun Bharat Sangh, traveled to Alwar, one of the poorest provinces in India. Water was scarce, cattle were dying in large numbers, the land was parched, and declared an irredeemable Black Zone by the Indian Government. Upon advice of a local village elder, Mr. Singh began organizing villagers to repair and deepen old johads (water harvesting structures). Today, over 20 years later, a total transformation has taken place in the region; 8600 johads in 1058 villages spread over 6500 sq.km. The men and women he trained have gone from village to village inspiring others to help themselves by creating their own watersheds. Mr. Singh has received numerous awards; 2005 Jamnalal Bajaj Award from the Jamnalal Jajaj Foundation, and on August 31, 2001, Mr. Singh was presented with one of India’s most prestigious awards, the Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.

Ronnie Kasrils (Former Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry)

Ronnie Kasrils was a fierce fighter against the apartheid government of South Africa and an important member of the ANC. Kasrils has been a Member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) since 1987. He has written several books on Bertrand Russell, poetry, and articles on Politics, Defense, Water and Forestry issues. His autobiography is Armed and Dangerous: From Undercover Struggle to Freedom (1993). Kasrils is the Minister for Intelligence Services since 2004.

Jim Schultz

Jim Schultz is founder and Executive Director of the Democracy Center based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Founded in 1972, The Democracy Center works globally to advance human rights. Schultz has served as staff to the California Legislature, as an advocate with Common Cause and Consumers Union, and taught public policy and public administration to undergrad and grad students at San Francisco State University. As executive director of The Democracy Center, established in 1992, he founded the California Budget Project and trained and counseled thousands of citizen activists on five continents. He is the author of two books, The Democracy Owners' Manual (Rutgers University Press, 2002) and The Initiative Cookbook - Recipes and Stories from California's Ballot Wars (The Democracy Center, 1996). His articles on democracy and public affairs regularly appear in newspapers across the U.S., Canada and the UK.

Michel Camdessus

Michel Camdessus (Managing Director, IMF (January 1987-February 2000) assumed office as Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1987. After serving as Financial Attaché to the French delegation at the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1966 to 1968, he returned to the Treasury and went on to become Assistant Director in 1971, Deputy Director in 1974, and Director in February 1982. In November 1984. Mr. Camdessus was appointed Governor of the Bank of France, serving in this post until his appointment as Managing Director of the IMF. Mr. Camdessus was the 7th Managing Director of the IMF, and retired from the IMF in 2000.

Gerard Mestrallet

A graduate of the prestigious French engineering school, Polytechnique, and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA), Gérard Mestrallet joined Compagnie de SUEZ in 1984 as Vice-President, Special Projects. In 1986, he was appointed Executive Vice-President, Industry and then in February 1991, Executive Director and Chairman of the Management Committee of Société Générale de Belgique. In 1995, he became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Compagnie de SUEZ and in June 1997, Chairman of the SUEZ Lyonnaise des Eaux Executive Board. On May 4, 2001, Gérard Mestrallet was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SUEZ. He is also the Chairman of the Association Paris Europlace, and on the Board of the Institut Français des Administrateurs.

Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, prominent environmental activist, editor and author. Ms. Shiva is the Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy, was among those at the forefront of the movement to shut down Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Kerala, India, and she’s written, spoken out and protested against Suez, the world’s largest water company, from privatization efforts around the Ganges. In India, Vandana Shiva has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmer’s rights. She is the author of 13 books and over 300 published papers. She serves as ecology advisor to several organizations, including the Third World Network and the Asia Pacific People's Environment Network, as well as the International Forum on Globalization. Ms. Shiva was awarded the 2001 Horizon 3000 Award of Austria in recognition for her defense of Human Rights, the 2000 Pellegrino Artusi Award in Italy, and in 1993, The Right Livelihood Award from Sweden, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”

David Hemson

Dr. Hemson is a research director in the Urban, Rural and Economic Development Research Program at Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa (HSRC). As field researcher, Hemson discovered that while the post-apartheid government has expanded water service, the water price increase is beyond reach of many rural South Africans, driving the poor to cholera-laden rivers or lakes to fetch water. More than 18,000 people in South Africa die from diarrhea or dysentery every year, costing the country approximately 4 billion rand every year to treat and cope with the effects of water-borne diseases. Hemson has published widely in the fields of dock labor, social history, literary analysis, gender analysis, public-private partnerships and water delivery. He has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Warwick.

Jim M. Olson

Jim Olson is the senior principal of the firm, Olson, Bzdok & Howard and has over 25 years of legal experience. Olson is the lawyer for the case of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation vs Nestle Waters North America. Olson has lectured at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Leadership Institute, and at numerous professional associations, universities, and other organizations in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. He has written and published several books, one on Michigan Environmental Law, and numerous articles on environmental and land use subjects. Olson is a member of the American Bar Association and the Environmental Law Section, State Bar of Michigan, and is a member of the Grand Traverse-Leelanau-Antrim Bar Association.

Patrick McCully

Patrick McCully is the executive director of IRN, (International Rivers Network) and IRN's Campaigns Director from 1994 to 2005. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the UN Environment Programme's Dams and Development Project, of the World Commission on Dams Forum, and oversaw the establishment of the World Commission on Dams. Mr. an advisory board member of EcoEquity, and of two Indian organizations, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People and the Manthan Research Centre. Mr. McCully has written numerous articles, reports, and the book, Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams.

Jean-Luc Touly

The former administrative manager at Veolia Water, Mr. Touly was dismissed in March, 2006 by the Ministry of Labor, reportedly for having co-authored a book, "Multinationals and Water, The Unspeakable Truth" with Roger Lenglet. A frequent lecturer on water issues, Mr. Touly is President of ACME, the French branch of the Association for a World Contract on Water - www.acme-eau.org. ACME works to resist the privatization and influence of business on water management by multinational corporations, and fights for the right to drinkable water for all. Mr. Touly is a member of several ANTICOR associations fighting corruption in public procurement. He’s also a member of the Scientific Council of Attac, as well as a trade unionist and a labor arbitrator in the department of Créteil. Additionally, Mr. Touly and Roger Lenglet co-authored the book "Vivendi Water" in November, 2003.

Holly Wren Spaulding

Holly Wren Spaulding is a writer and a founding member of Sweetwater Alliance, a direct action organization opposed to the corporate control of the commons. Her work has appeared in The Ecologist, Clamor, Z Magazine, The New Internationalist, alternet, and We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism (Verso Press, 2003). Ms. Spaulding is currently working on a book for AK Press about the water commons. She teaches creative writing to college students, and lives near Lake Michigan on the Leelanau Peninsula.