Rithesh Shetty

Rithesh is a Partner at BCG's Singapore office and a core member of the BCG X practice. As an accomplished leader in innovation, product strategy, and digital transformation, he brings 20 years of experience delivering impactful results for Fortune 500 companies. His work focuses on enhancing organizational capabilities and advancing the intersection of AI and human-centricity to unlock new possibilities in product and digital transformations.

Ben Furmage

Ben is the founding CEO of Water Sensitive Cities Australia, continuing his work from his time as CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC), where he also served as the Chief Operating and Finance Officer. He leads multidisciplinary projects on water-sensitive city approaches. Before CRCWSC, Ben spent ten years on Melbourne Water’s executive team, handling water resource and sewerage system planning, regulation, customer service, public affairs, and research and development.

Erik Spiro-Larrea

Erik is a senior project lead for TNC’s Nature for Water Facility, a specialist team that helps local programs analyze, develop, and execute NBS for water security. Erik led Nature for Water’s first project and has since directly supported 15 NBS programs worldwide with various detailed analyses. As a trained economist, he typically focuses on return on investment, economics, sustainable finance, and governance, as well as developing “program intelligence” analyses and dashboards. Before joining TNC, Erik worked at Pegasys, a management consultancy based in Cape Town.

Ellis Penning

Dr. Ellis Penning is an expert on Nature Based Solutions, aquatic ecology, and eco hydraulics at Deltares (Delft, The Netherlands). She has over 21 years of experience and a Ph.D. in Ecohydraulics. Ms. Penning heads the strategic research line on Nature Based Solutions within Deltares. Ms. Penning focuses her work on the interaction of vegetation in rivers and lakes with water quantity and water quality processes and the innovative monitoring and management of this vegetation, using remote sensing and innovative monitoring techniques.

Ijaz Kashif

Mr. Ijaz-ul-Hassan Kashif is PMO Barrages for the Punjab Barrages Rehabilitation Project with the Punjab Irrigation Department in Pakistan. He has 36 years of professional experience in the field of water resources development and operation, watershed management, project management, procurement, contract management, and administration of World Bank and ADB projects. He holds a BSc and MSc in Civil Engineering and Water Resources Engineering.

Ahmed Kamal

Mr. Ahmed Kamal is the Chief Engineering Adviser and Chairman Federal Flood Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Pakistan. He has over 30 years of professional experience in the field of water resources management, flood control planning and management, DRR, flood forecasting and warning systems, and disaster risk insurance. He has worked on the implementation of National Flood Protection Plans II & III, and Flood Protection Sector Projects, I & II. Mr.