Ozwater Water Leaders Forum 2026
The Water Leaders Forum is a C-Suite invite only session that brings together 150 leaders and partners from across the Australian Water Association (AWA) network.
Today’s Decisions for Tomorrow – Intergenerational Equity
How can today’s leaders ensure the water sector leaves a stronger, fairer legacy for the generations that follow? This year’s Water Leaders Forum invites leaders to pause, reflect, and examine the long-term equity implications of our decisions. Grounded in the theme of intergenerational fairness, the session blends storytelling, provocation, and collaborative discussion to surface the values that guide our sector. Together, we will explore how to cultivate a future-ready workforce, ensure sustainable funding, and resilient solutions that honours both current and future communities. Your insights will contribute directly to AWA’s Strategy 2030 and help define the outcomes we want future generations to inherit.
When: 10.50am - 12.40pm, Tuesday, 26 May 2026
commences after morning tea
includes a networking lunch
Sponsored by:
This session will feature two keynote presentations followed by interactive table discussions centred on the key theme of intergenerational equity. Speakers include:
 Stephen Slessor, Chair, British Water |
Stephen is CEO of the RSE Group of Companies, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Stephen leads the full spectrum of operations and strategic initiatives aimed at advancing RSE’s position as a leader in water technology solutions. Stephen serves as Chair at British Water, is a Non-Executive Director for the Scottish Futures Trust and is a former President of the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors. Additionally, Stephen is a Strategic Advisor to OFWAT on the £56Bn RAPID programme. His career includes significant roles as Divisional Managing Director at FTSE250 Galliford Try, where he was pivotal in driving investment programmes of work from AMP5 to AMP7. |
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 Dr. Katrina Wruck, 2025 Young Australian of the Year |
Dr Katrina Wruck is a Lecturer in Chemical and Sustainable Process Engineering at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her research specialises in green chemistry technologies for industrial and environmental applications, integrating circular economy principles through weaving Traditional knowledges with Eurocentric scientific approaches. |
Ozwater Directors Forum 2026
The Directors Forum is a C-Suite invite only session that brings together board directors from across the Australian Water Association (AWA)’s network.
The Water Transition: Governing Risk, Productivity, and Resilience
Australia’s water sector is entering its own transition – from resilience investment to affordability pressures, from aging assets to climate shocks, from risk aversion to risk‑enabled transformation. This Directors Forum will explore how boards must recalibrate their risk appetite to steward the sector through this transition. Drawing lessons from energy, finance, and community expectations, directors will engage in structured discussions to shape the governance models needed for a sustainable water future.
When: 1.40pm - 3.10pm, Tuesday, 26 May 2026
commences after lunch
Sponsored by:
This session will feature a panel session, featuring the following speakers:
Kate Simmonds, Director of Operations for Water (ANZ), Jacobs |
Facilitator: Kate has held senior roles across both Australia and New Zealand, giving her a deep understanding of the sector’s regulatory, cultural, and climate‑-driven challenges. Her work focuses on strengthening organisational resilience, improving productivity, and enabling teams to respond to shifting customer and community expectations. At Ozwater’26, Kate represents Jacobs and facilitates the Directors Forum, “The Water Transition: Governing Risk, Productivity, and Resilience.” She brings experience in guiding teams through periods of transition and is committed to supporting the sector to navigate its shared responsibility for “Our Water. Our Tomorrow.” |
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 Lucia Cade, Director, Urban Utilities |
Lucia has a professional engineering and commercial executive background and has been involved in the water industry for over 30 years, as a director, executive and specialist engineer working across the sector in water utilities, construction, engineering and professional services and research. Over the past 20 years her directorship career has spanned utilities, infrastructure, advanced high-tech manufacturing, waste recycling, energy research and investment in the private, listed and government sectors. She is currently the Chair of Infrastructure Victoria and Paintback and is a non executive director of Urban Utilities, TasWater, The Environmental Group and Hancock Victorian Plantations. |
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 Eric de Rooy, Director, Hunter Water |
Eric de Rooy is a water industry professional with more than 40 years of experience, predominantly with Sydney Water, ensuring the delivery of essential water-related products and services to more than five million people. He operated as a key member of the Sydney Water executive team, and was directly accountable for the organisation’s commercial, customer-focused operations and compliance outcomes. Eric has extensive experience and skills in asset management/investment, strategic business planning, business development and risk management. Eric holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), a Master of Business Administration and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. |
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 Leeanne Bond, Non-Executive Director, One-Basin CRC |
Leeanne Bond is an Independent Non-executive Director, Engineer and Board Advisor focussed on major infrastructure and project governance, sustainability, energy transition and decarbonisation, innovation and entrepreneurship. Leeanne has held board roles in water for 20 years including as Chair of Brisbane Water, a director of Seqwater, the Australian Water Recycling Centre of Excellence and Snowy Hydro and is currently a director of One Basin Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). Leeanne's board portfolio also includes Chair of Future Forgeworks, Deputy Chair of FPR Energy and Director of Aurecon and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE). |
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 Alex Robson, Deputy Chair, Productivity Commission |
Professor Robson has a broad range of experience in academia and the public and private sectors, most recently as Associate Partner at EY (Ernst and Young). Prior to that, Professor Robson served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He also served as Senior Economic Adviser and Chief Economist to the former Australian Prime Minister, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull, and has held a number of other positions, including Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director at Deloitte Access Economics; Director of the Economic Policy Analysis Program at Griffith University; Lecturer in Economics at the Australian National University; and as a graduate economist at the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra. |
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