Water Solutions 2

Patrick Atwater

Patrick Atwater serves as project manager for the California Data Collaborative, a coalition of water utilities working together to share metered water use data and ensure water reliability.  He has worked as a consulting data engineer for a multi-million dollar venture backed startup, ran the numbers for the State Water Contractors on Governor Brown’s Delta Fix project and co-authored the feature June 2015 American Water Works Association article on how data science can help water utilities adapt to climate change.  As part of Team ARGO, his civic data science work has been featured by the Knight Foundation and Fast Coexist.  He studied mathematics and PPE at Claremont McKenna College, holds a master’s degree in urban informatics from NYU CUSP, and completed the Coro Fellows program.  He currently serves on the board of the Los Angeles Education Partnership and has written extensively on California, technology and the future of government operations.

Charles Wilson

Charles Wilson serves as Executive Director and CEO of the Southern California Water Committee, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public education partnership between cities, counties, business, industry, agriculture and water agencies dedicated to securing reliable, affordable, quality water for Southern California.

Clint Collins

Currently responsible for the Irvine Companies California Office portfolio consisting of over 550 buildings, 30 million sq. ft. of landscape, 12 million sq. ft. of turf and over 50,000 trees.

Responsibilities include selection of landscape contractors, bidding out portfolios, awarding contracts, managing contractor’s performance and landscape water use. Clint is also a lead for the corporate cross procurement committee (D2D) where he represents all Irvine Company divisions on cross divisional landscape projects and serves on the Irvine Company Corporate Drought Committee. He oversees a staff of eight in the landscape department.

Matt Collings

Matt Collings is the Assistant General Manager of the Moulton Niguel Water District, which provides water, wastewater and recycled water services to approximately 170,000 people in South Orange County.  During his ten-year tenure at MNWD, Matt held positions in the Engineering Department before being promoted to the Director of Engineering and Operations, where he successfully integrated the two divisions.

Prior to MNWD, Matt worked as an engineer in the private sector designing water and wastewater systems for various public agencies.  Matt is a registered professional engineer in the State of California and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering.

Diego Rosso

Diego Rosso is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and is the Director of the Water-Energy Nexus Center at UCI. Since 2000, he has been investigating the water-energy-carbon nexus and water reclamation and reuse processes. His research portfolio has been supported by federal and state funding, and from a variety of industrial sources. He is a Chemical Engineering Laureate from the University of Padua in Italy and earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from UCLA. He is Ambassador of Labdoo.org and of the Water Environment Federation.

Sally C. Gutierrez

Sally C. Gutierrez is the Director of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Technology Innovation Cluster Development and Support Program within the Office of Research and Development (ORD).  This new effort seeks to advance environmental protection in tandem with economic development through the formation of public private partnerships. She has been leading EPA’s efforts to leverage its research and development capability in Cincinnati, Ohio with community based assets to establish the region as a water technology innovation hub and is leading an effort to network water innovation clusters across the U.S. (http://www2.epa.gov/clusters-program).

Prior to this new appointment, she was the Director of the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) in Cincinnati, Ohio for 8 years.  NRMRL is one of three Federal research laboratories within the USEPA’s ORD and consists of 400 scientists and support staff.  The Laboratory is responsible for conducting engineering and environmental technology research to support the Agency in policy and regulatory development and implementation.

She was the Director of the Water Supply and Water Resources Division in NRMRL before becoming its Director and was responsible for leading a national technology demonstration program for control of arsenic in drinking water.  Before coming to EPA she was responsible for administering water programs for the State of Texas environmental agency in the areas of drinking water, water monitoring, wastewater permitting, dam safety, water rights and utility rates.

As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she holds the highest career rank in the Federal government.

Henry L. Giclas

Henry L. (Hank) Giclas has worked for Western Growers since 1990 concentrating on the science and technology issues facing agriculture. Science and Technology addresses food safety programs, pesticide and chemical registration, policy issues and environmental programs including water and air quality issues. Under Hanks leadership WG works to ensure sound science and useful technology drives industry advancement, solutions and government policy. Since August 2003, Hank has directed strategic planning for the association.

Today, Hank serves as Senior Vice President Strategic Planning, Science and Technology for Western Growers and is actively developing association leadership in the areas of sustainability, food safety, food security, crop production and protection as well as assisting in the implementation of the association’s strategic plan.

David Nahai

David Nahai is a founder and managing member of AQORA Capital Management Company, LLC, a growth capital firm focused on the sustainability space.  He is also the President of David Nahai Consulting Services, LLC, which advises public and private entities in the environmental, water, renewable energy, and energy efficiency sectors.  Nahai is also a partner at the Lewis Brisbois law firm and co-chair of its water, energy, and real estate practice areas.  Nahai is the former Commission President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).  Nahai led an overall transformation of the utility.  His administration greatly expanded LADWP’s renewable energy portfolio, achieved multi-fold increases in energy efficiency levels, attained record reductions in water consumption, and launched infrastructure repair and reliability programs.  Nahai is also the former Chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, where he served in the administrations of 3 California governors.  Nahai served on the Board for 10 years and was Chair for 4 terms.  He currently sits on the boards of the California League of Conservation Voters, Heal the Bay, Los Angeles Business Council, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, LAANE, Climate Resolve and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.  Nahai has also served as a Senior Advisor to the Clinton Climate Initiative.

Ned Bader

Advisory Engineer – IBM Analytics – ECM Content Case Engine, Master Inventor, and Smarter Water Champion

Ned is an advisory engineer with the Hybrid Platform Team at the IBM’s Costa Mesa site.   He has been with IBM for over 10 years specializing in various aspects of Agile software development.  Additionally, he has worked on a number of water and sustainability projects at IBM, and recently has been appointed as an IBM Master Inventor.

Steve Delson

Steve Delson, CEO and co-founder of Gate 5 Energy Partners, Inc., brings more than three decades of engineering, consulting, business, and management experience to Gate 5.  Early in his professional career, as a project manager for Jack G. Raub Company, Steve led the design, entitlement, and construction of a community-wide water reclamation system (including a tertiary wastewater treatment plant, seasonal storage, operational storage, and a distribution system) for the Santa Margarita Water District. Mr. Delson is a developer of Gate 5’s patented technology.

For a 15-year period prior to Gate 5, he founded and grew successful consulting, real estate development, and utility service companies.  Prior to that, Steve was an Executive Vice President of one of the nation’s largest and most successful community developers, Mission Viejo Company (MVC). Steve’s tenure with MVC began in 1974. Steve earned his bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from California State University, Long Beach.

Formed in 2011, Gate 5 has developed an innovative sustainable energy infrastructure that eliminates sewage sludge and other organic waste that can contaminate the environment; transforming these residuals into 100% usable products, including clean water and renewable energy without using fossil fuel or grid electricity.

John Bednarski, P.E.

Saied Delagah, P.E.