The Water Integrity Network says farewell to Frank van der Valk, our Executive Director. Frank joined WIN as Programme Manager in 2013 and was quickly tasked with setting up WIN as an independent organization, of which he became the first Executive Director at the beginning of 2014. We are grateful to Frank for leading us in building up our profile, expanding our network and successfully positioning WIN in the global water and development community over the last five years. With the Global Strategy 2017-2011: Engaging Partners for Change, Frank set WIN’s strategic direction in a consultative process with our members and partners, and we will continue to work along the path he provided. We wish him all the best in his next adventure, which is taking him to Myanmar with WWF.
Today, WIN is excited to announce the appointment of Barbara Schreiner as our new Executive Director. Barbara brings with her a wealth of experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors, and we look forward to the new opportunities she will create, and paths she will forge. No doubt WIN will prosper under her guidance. Presently, Lotte Feuerstein (Programme Manager, Regional Coordinator – East Africa) is the Acting Executive Director until Barbara settles in early 2019.
Barbara says of her new appointment: ‘I am delighted to be taking up the position of Executive Director of the Water Integrity Network, an organisation which plays an important role tackling issues of integrity, transparency, and accountability in the global water sector. Ensuring reliable supplies of good quality water is one of the greatest challenges facing countries across the globe as we move forward into the Anthropocene and the vagaries of climate change. Corruption eats away at the resources available to meet this challenge, imposing burdens on individual households, companies and national economies as water security is undermined. This is a major and pervasive challenge that needs to be addressed.
I am looking forward to working with the members of the WIN team, and the extensive network of partners, and to finding ways to increase the impact of the organisation so that WIN and its partners can contribute powerfully to the drive for good governance in the water sector. I am looking forward to helping to steer this work in the years to come’.
Barbara brings an extensive background in the water sector to the position. Most recently she was Executive Director of the Pegasys Institute, and Director at Pegasys Consulting. She has held various Board positions, including as a member of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) Board, Deputy Chairperson of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park and Chairperson of the Water Research Commission of South Africa. She has over 20 years’ experience in the water and natural resources management sectors in developing countries. Her work has focused particularly on the contribution of natural resources management to equitable and sustainable socio-economic development and poverty eradication. Barbara has also worked in senior management in the public sector – as an advisor to the Minister of Water Affairs, and in the Department of Water Affairs in South Africa.