Hydropower Sustainability Governance Committee

CHAIR

Senior Sustainable Hydropower Advisor, WWF

Prof. Dr Jian-hua Meng is a senior sustainable hydropower advisor for WWF International. He is working on sustainable water infrastructure, specifically on hydropower, both at the technical and policy level, and through field support for WWF freshwater programmes.

He is a member of the Governance Committee of the Hydropower Sustainability Council since 2011. Before joining WWF in 2008, he worked as an engineer and project manager with a consulting group in Germany, planning and implementing water and urban infrastructure projects, river restoration, flood protection, and energy projects. Prior to that, he was a lecturer and research member at Technische Universität Berlin.

Dr Meng holds a PhD in civil engineering. He is a Professor of water resources management, hydraulic engineering and spatial planning at the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz / Germany.

ALTERNATE

Director of Global Water Programme, IUCN

James Dalton is the Director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Global Water Programme. His work focuses on advancing water governance and management for people and nature.

Dr Dalton sits on the governance committee of the Hydropower Sustainability Council, the Board of the Alliance for Water Stewardship, and as a Technical Advisor to Climate Bonds Initiative.

He first joined IUCN in 2009 as the Water Management Advisor. Previous to this, he was based in Fiji at the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SPC-GSD) working as the Integrated Water Resource Management Adviser.

Dr Dalton is an irrigation engineer and holds degrees in rural development, science and politics, irrigation engineering, and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering focusing on groundwater management in the Aral Sea Basin. He has worked on water management for 20 years in over 25 countries worldwide, with extended periods working in the Pacific, Central Asia, East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

CHAIR

General Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Sawarak Energy

Mr Jiwari Bin Abdullah is the General Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Sarawak Energy, an energy utility corporation to the State of Sarawak, Malaysia. The department under him covers three major functions which consist of social investment and community development, sustainability and community relations.

He has extensive experience in community engagement and consultation with rural indigenous communities in Sarawak especially those who are affected by the hydropower development projects. He leads the corporation to play its important role in community engagement and consultation in particular for the communities who are impacted by projects and operations. The hydropower project-affected communities were successfully resettled. He continues to facilitate the livelihood restoration efforts with the implementation of the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for these communities. He emphasises on continuous support in socio-economic aspects with the community investment initiatives and development such as literacy programmes, handicraft and entrepreneurial development, education for young people, technical skills for rural youths and many other sustainable CSR initiatives and supports.

Under his stewardship, Sarawak Energy has produced sustainability reports for the past years, the first utility company in the country that produced sustainability reports that evidently show the journey of embedding sustainability practices, the progress towards an energy utility company in adopting sustainability and good practices in business and operations.

ALTERNATE

Senior Partner, Trinity International

Stéphane Brabant is the Senior Partner of Trinity International AARPI (Trinity Paris). Previously, Stéphane was a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills and held global key roles, including co-Chair of the Africa practice, Chair of Global Mining, Co-head of Business and Human Rights group and Head of the Crisis Management group for Africa.

Stéphane has over 30 years of experience as a projects and transactional lawyer, primarily in the mining and energy sectors in Africa, with a particular focus on the structuring of complex investments between multinationals and States, crisis prevention and management and dispute resolution (including arbitration).

Stéphane has also built a strong practice advising businesses on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies and how they can align their activities with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He was one of the experts advising John Ruggie (former UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises) on the human rights capacity building obligations and responsibilities of States and multinationals. He has also built a strong understanding of Blockchain and its value in enabling traceability in supply chains.

CHAIR

Renewable Energy Engineer, Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO)

Mwape is a Renewable Energy Specialist and World Bank/Federal Ministry of Education and Research scholar (masters in Renewable Energy Engineering), with 20 years of experience in manufacturing and energy industry (private power producers and government) design, project implementation, commissioning, human resource training, policy analysis, hydropower finance mobilization, rehabilitation and uprating of hydropower systems and wastes to energy research. He is currently working for the National Power Utility Company in Zambia (Zesco Limited) as an Engineer in the Renewable energy unity that is charged with the responsibility for mapping national renewable energy resources (Wind, Hydro, Solar, Biomass) and project initialization & implementation.

He spent two years at the International Center on Small Hydro Power (ICSHP) in Hangzhou China (under the auspices of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and China’s Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Commerce), where he worked as a senior programs officer in the Technical Cooperation and Development division with responsibility of creating a network and finance/human resource mobilization for small hydropower development in developing countries. He also worked as the vice board chairperson for a water Utility Company (Chambeshi Water Company Limited) under the government of Zambia.

He is currently a recognized senior expert at the SolarImpulse Foundation where he has helped the achievement of 1000+ clean and profitable solutions.

ALTERNATE (May 2021-May 2022)

Director of National Research Center for Resettlement, Hohai University

Since 1993, Professor Shi has been the Director of National Research Center for Resettlement of Hohai University. He is one of the main creators and a board member of the International Displacement and Resettlement Network (IDRN) in 2000. He is a senior resettlement adviser of TGP and SNWT Project, World Bank, ADB since 1993. He was engaged in more than 30 large scale hydropower dam projects in China and globally.

He is the Chair of Membership Committee and Member of Boarding Committee (2010-2012) of IWRA. He is a member of the Sustainable Hydropower Council and Chamber of Emerging and Developing Countries Committee of International Hydropower Association (IHA). He is also International Member of the Committee of Expert of Turkey’s Ilisu Dam and HEPP Project from 2007 to 2009, the International Panel Member of Dasu and Tabeila 4th Hydropower Project in Pakistan since 2012. He is a senior adviser of Resettlement Development Bureau of Three Gorges Dam Project Construction Committee under State Council since 1993, Adviser of World Bank, Asian Development Bank since 1994, Member of IASFM, Founding Chairperson of Resettlement and Migration Committee of Chinese Sociology Association (CSA), Vice-Chairperson of Resettlement Committee of Chinese Hydropower Engineering Association (CHEA), etc.

He received BA and MA in Hydraulics Engineering in 1982 and 1989 in Hohai University China.

ALTERNATE (May 2022-May 2023)

Senior Hydropower Engineer, Ministry of Energy, Government of Nepal

Sunil Poudel is a Hydropower Engineer working for the Government of Nepal, where he has worked for the last 12 years. He has more than 15 years of experience in policy formulation and project implementation of Hydropower and Water Resources projects development. Prior to joining the Government of Nepal, he worked in the private sector in different capacities and in several aspects of Hydropower Development. He has also been involved in the policy formulation and implementation of larger Hydropower Projects in Public Private Partnership (PPP) modality. He has a wide range of Experience in Hydropower Development.

Sunil holds master’s degree in Hydrology from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India and Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Institute of Engineering, Nepal.

CHAIR

Program Manager for Infrastructure Financing, Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs

Since 2010, Mr Menebhi is a Program Manager for Infrastructure Financing in the division for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). He is responsible for energy projects, since 2017 in Ghana and previously in cohesion, in developing and transition countries, including Bulgaria, Kosovo, Jordan, Romania and Ukraine.

Since 2011, Mr Menebhi is a representative of Switzerland in the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) and in particular, member of the Sub-Committee for the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Program (SREP) for low-income countries.

Since 2017, Mr Menebhi is the Chair of the Chamber for Advanced Economy Governments for the Hydropower Sustainability Council and member of the Hydropower Sustainability Governance Committee.

Previously, Mr Menebhi was internationally active in various positions within the ABB group as business development manager, VP for strategy and investments, company president and country manager in the Middle East and Africa region; founder and managing director of an e-commerce startup in North Africa and assignee of management-on-time functions.

ALTERNATE

Senior Adviser at Department for Climate, Energy and Environment, NORAD

Mr Hermansen is currently engaged in the sustainability work of the IHA, as a member of the Governance Committee for the Hydropower Assessment Protocol. Previously, he has previously worked with water resource management, hydropower licensing and energy market regulation issues in the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

He has a law degree from the University of Oslo.

CHAIR

Water Resources Specialist, World Bank

Kimberly is a Water Resources Management Specialist with the global unit of the World Bank’s Water Practice. She works on bringing good international practice to World Bank projects on hydropower, dam safety, and water security. She is formerly the coordinator for the Bank’s Hydropower and Dams Global Solutions Group, a technical community of practitioners working on projects relating to dams.

During her time at the World Bank, she has worked on using the Hydropower Sustainability Tools for capacity building in Vietnam, Bhutan, Costa Rica, and the Zambezi River Basin as well as internally among World Bank staff. Before joining the Bank, she worked on policy research on environmental services at World Wildlife Fund US and the World Resources Institute.

She has over 10 years of experience and holds a master’s degree in Development Economics and International Environmental Policy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

ALTERNATE

Senior Environmental and Social Professional, New Development Bank

Ms Elisa Xiao is working for the New Development Bank (NDB), the Multilateral Development Bank established by BRICS countries for financing of infrastructure and sustainable development projects.

She has 20 years of environmental and social consulting experiences at corporate and project levels for both public and private sectors, covering over 30 countries around the world. She is specialised in identifying and managing risks through practical solutions for her clients in power, infrastructure, oil and gas and mining sectors.

Prior to joining NDB, Ms Xiao has worked with Environmental Resources Management for 15 years and as an independent consultant for three years.

CHAIR

Advisor to the Board of Directors, EDP Produção

Mr Sirgado is an Advisor to the Board of Directors at EDP Produção in Lisbon. From 2016 to 2018, Pedro acted as Corporate Environment and Sustainability Manager in EDP Brasil. Prior to that, he was the Executive Director of the Instituto EDP, which is a platform for relationship with the company stakeholders in the environmental and social areas.

He participated as a Brazilian delegate in several Conferences of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (2006-2017) and as a NGO observer in one Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Pedro was a Social and Environmental Councilor for the Espírito Santo em Ação Business Movement (Espírito Santo State) and from 2009 to 2011 was President of the Ethics Council at the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development.

He is an Environmental Engineer from the New University of Lisbon and holds an MBA from the Catholic University of Lisbon.

ALTERNATE

Environmental and Social Group Head, Energo-Pro

Catherine is the ES Group Head of Energo-Pro, a hydropower company based in the Czech Republic. She has over 35 years of experience in Environmental and Social Sustainability. She has worked both in site operations and at the corporate level bringing a vast experience to the role. She has worked in Latin America, Africa and more recently in Eastern Europe and Turkey.

Catherine holds a Masters of Environmental Management in the field of Conservation and Natural Resource Management from the University of Queensland and a Masters of Business Administration from Carleton University in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility.

CHAIR

Head of Sustainability, Voith

Dr Jürgen Schuol has been the Head of Sustainability at Voith Hydro since 2014. Prior to that, he was the Manager Environmental Engineering at Voith Hydro in Heidenheim (Germany) since 2008.

He has worked with various business associations like the International Hydropower Association (IHA) as well as VGB PowerTech Hydro and served as Secretary-General of the Hydro Equipment Association (HEA).

He was a member of the IHA Protocol Reference Group that supported the hydro sector representatives in the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Forum and joined the Council chamber “Hydropower consultants, contractors or equipment suppliers” from the very beginning.

Dr Schuol graduated in Environmental Engineering as well as in Water Resources Engineering and Management from the University of Stuttgart (Germany) in 2003 and received his doctoral degree in Environmental Sciences from the ETH Zürich (Switzerland) in 2007.

ALTERNATE

Vice President Hydropower Asia, AFRY

Knut Sierotzki holds a M.Sc. in Rural Engineering and Water Management of the Swiss Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ, Switzerland). He has worked as lecturer at the Swiss Institute of Technology and for the Swiss Development Corporation mainly in Africa before joining the hydropower department of AFRY, previously Electrowatt Engineering, 30 years ago.

Mr Sierotzki has a long experience in hydropower planning and rural development projects, and during his career, has worked for projects and resided in more than 50 developing countries in Africa, South America and Asia-Pacific. He is a representative of his company in several business associations like the International Hydropower Association and ICOLD.

Mr Sierotzki has participated in all phases of the implementation of hydropower projects especially in the interaction between the technical requirements in the changing environment and social needs of hydropower projects. He has intense interaction with all stakeholders in ongoing hydropower projects to improve the understanding and management of the complex frameworks of sustainable planning for hydropower projects.

He holds currently the position of Vice President in AFRY responsible for AFRY’s hydro business in Asia Pacific and resides in Bangkok.