All water award entries will be put through a rigorous two-stage judging process, reviewed by our panel of independent experts.
2022 judges include:
Steve Kaye
Chief executive - UKWIR
Steve is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and has worked in the water industry for around 30 years. His career started in manufacturing sector. Later working in the water utility industry, Steve held key roles in Engineering, Operations, and Innovation. He has supported read more
Sarah McMath
CEO - MOSL
Sarah has vast experience of the water industry, having worked in a variety of roles across a number of technical, asset management and operational teams at Thames Water. Sarah was previously Managing Director of Water at Thames, before becoming Managing Director read more
Phil Beach
Chief executive - Energy & Utility Skills
Phil joined the company in September 2020, bringing with him a breadth of experience in the regulatory and education sector. In his previous role as Executive Director for Vocational and Technical Qualifications at regulator Ofqual, Phil led the reforms for read more
Ceris Van de Vyver
Head of Technology and Training - Isle Utilities
Ceris is a water industry professional with over 20 years proven scientific expertise in clean water, wastewater and an in-depth knowledge of public health and water quality. She has held senior management positions in several water companies, was an Inspector read more
Marcus Rink
Chief inspector - Drinking Water Inspectorate
Marcus Rink is the Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, appointed in August 2015. He has worked in the Department of Environment, (DEFRA), in various roles for over 20 years. As Chief Inspector he provides independent scrutiny of the water industry read more
Dr. Ana Soares
Senior lecturer in biological engineering - Cranfield Univeristy
Dr Ana Soares is a Professor of Biotechnology Engineering specialised in environmental water protection and resource recovery currently working at Cranfield University in the UK. She holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Lund University, in Sweden and a MEng read more
Hayley Monks
Founder - Women's Utility Network (WUN)
Hayley is highly motivated, inspirational and energetic individual. An excellent speaker with a strong commercial acumen and creative thinking, she thrives on driving and delivering transformation by creating effective follow-ship. Having worked in senior executive roles and with a ‘can read more
Martyn Hopkinson
Managing director - MH20 Consultancy
Now an Independent Consultant Martyn has some 40 years experience in the water and wastewater industry, progressing from early site based supervisory roles to holding senior operational management and ultimately board positions with contracting organisations delivering water and wastewater services read more
Lila Thompson
Chief executive - British Water
Lila is responsible for British Water’s strategic direction. Lila was formerly responsible for the delivery of British Water’s international services leading scoping visits to a wide range of markets including Saudi Arabia, Libya, Morocco, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, China and India. read more
Steve Youell
Chair - Institute of Water
Steve has worked in the water industry for 20 years, originally joining Portsmouth Water as a Laboratory Technician, and holding a number of other roles including Water Quality Scientist and Distribution Project Manager. He joined DWI in 2014 as an read more
Susan Robinson
Fellow - Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
I am a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (FIMechE) and a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (FCIWEM) - and am delighted to have recently become chair of the IMechE water and wastewater industry read more
Paul Hickey
Managing director (RAPID) - Ofwat
Paul Hickey is the Managing Director of RAPID (Regulators Alliance Progressing Infrastructure Development) – a regulatory partnership between Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate. RAPID’s goal is facilitate the coordinated delivery of a programme of strategic water read more
Shaunna Berendsen
Client programme director - Spring
Shaunna is the client programme director for the establishment of Spring, the UKs first water innovation centre of excellence. Spring is to dedicated to accelerating UK water sector transformation through innovation and collaboration. She has previously worked in commercialisation, marketing and IP read more
Tom Stephenson
Pro vice chancellor, research and innovation - Cranfield University
Professor Tom Stephenson is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at Cranfield University. He leads relationships with research funders, including strategic partnerships with industry. Responsibilities for innovation encompass exploitation of intellectual property (IP), encouraging start-ups and business incubation through Cranfield Eagle Labs, a partnership with read more
Sue Longstone
Director of Operations (North) - Environment Agency
I am Director of Operations (North) at the Environment Agency where I have an incredibly varied role leading delivery across Greater Manchester, Merseyside & Cheshire, Cumbria & Lancashire, Yorkshire and the North East. I am the Operations portfolio lead for read more
Trevor Bishop
Director - Water Resources South East (WRSE)
Trevor has been Director at WRSE since January 2019. As Organisational Development Director for WRSE Trevor’s key responsibilities include strategy/policy, engagement and business management. Trevor is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. Prior to his current role read more
Bevita Mattu
Mechanical Engineer - Welsh Water Capital Delivery Alliance
Bevita is a Mechanical Design Engineer for Welsh Water’s Capital Delivery in the Engineering Delivery Team. She has been in the water industry for 5 years, starting at Welsh Water as a Graduate, where she worked alongside Alliance Partners and read more
Leo Carswell
Principal consultant – technology and innovation - WRc
Leo leads the Technology business area at WRc. He is passionate about the role new technology has in industry to enable change. In this role Leo is responsible for WRc’s activities in the development, assessment and implementation of a wide read more
Omolara Cordle
Customer relations team leader - Welsh Water
Omolara joined Welsh Water in 2018 as part of the leadership graduate scheme, after spending a year working at Southern Water. Omolara entered the water industry without a background in STEM, and instead an interest in humanities and a degree read more
Nicci Russell
Managing director - Waterwise
Nicci has been Managing Director of Waterwise since March 2017. From 2013 to 2017 Nicci was a Director at Ofwat, where she led Ofwat’s work on resilience and independent regulation and its relationship with the UK and Welsh Governments and with read more
Lee Horrocks
Deputy Chair - Waterwise
Lee has worked in the water sector all of his career, for major contractors and professional consultants, at all levels including MD and CEO. He was an NED of British Water for 15 Years, and is currently an NED of read more
Tony Conway
Director - Conway Water Consulting
Tony is a former Executive Director of United Utilities and has led Asset Management, Operations and Engineering functions, as well as business transformation programmes. As Strategic Asset Planning and Engineering Director he led the creation of the company's systems thinking read more