Desalination and Reuse Market Manager at Aquatech. Giancarlo “GC” holds a BSc. in chemistry from Universidad de Chile and a PhD in chemistry from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Early in his career he got involved selling projects and equipment for Culligan, Voltea and FEDCO in Chile and Peru. He has hands-on experience in design, commissioning and troubleshooting of RO plants for Industrial, Agriculture and Haemodialysis applications. Dr. Barassi joined the pump and ERD manufacturer, FEDCO, in September 2017 where he collaborated in Sales and Business Development in the Western Hemisphere until 2021. He was appointed the co-chair of the Young Leader Program at the International Desalination and Reuse Association for the 2019-2022 term. In 2022 he was voted board member of CaribDA. He currently works for Aquatech International LLC as the Desalination and Reuse Market Manager. He is based in Tampa, FL, USA.

Antonio Casanas holds a MSc in Chemical Industrial Engineering, with several masters in water treatment, water desalination and environment. He also holds a degree in Risks Prevention. He began his career working with the Australian multinational Hardie Irrigation and later with ESSO. He joined Dow Chemical in 1989, being initially the technical-commercial responsible for the Liquid Separations business in the Canary Islands and actually the Account Manager for Dow Liquid Separations for Spain and Portugal. He has been directly involved in the design of the largest R.O. projects of Dow worldwide and has given the technical assistance during the start-up of the main Spanish desalination plants like Ceuta, El Atabal, La Tordera, Javea, Lanzarote IV among others. He has participated as a teacher in the Desalination Master organized by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and in the most important desalination courses organized in Spain and has presented works in several international congresses and for several national and international magazines. He belongs to the AEDyR board of directors being actually its secretary and the AEDyR representative in the IDRA board.

He has conducted systematic studies on the synthesis of basic raw materials, large-scale preparation of composite membrane materials, and engineering applications ultimately, based on significant needs of national seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization of water resources. He has made outstanding research achievements in membrane preparation technology and industrialization, water processor design and engineering, etc. Among various types of membrane products developed, desalination of brackish water and anti-fouling membrane products have been successfully applied in multiple industrial water treatment systems and reclaimed water reuse systems in China, achieving gratifying results in water recycling and wastewater resourceful treatment, with the realization of a scale of over 15 million tons/day. His relevant scientific research achievements won the first prize of Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award in 2017, the first prize of Environmental Protection Science and Technology Award in 2022, as well as the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Award from the Natural Resources Science and Technology Award Committee in 2023. He has published 15 SCI-indexed papers, obtained 31 authorized national invention patents, and led the compilation of 2 national standards.

Mr. Salibi joined Future Pipe Group in 1995 as Sales and Marketing Engineer at the manufacturing facility in Dubai, UAE. In 1998, he became the Regional Sales and Marketing Manager and shifted to Lebanon where he was responsible for the Sales and Marketing activities in the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Libya). From July 2010-June 2012, Mr. Salibi relocated to Future Pipe Industries-KSA with the mandate to lead the Sales and Marketing Activities in the Kingdom. As Mr. Salibi is skilled in defining clear business objectives to enable the development of profitable relationships with end users, consultants, contractors and distributors, and in addition to his extensive knowledge of both Middle Eastern and international markets, he was shifted in 2012 to Europe to lead the Marketing and Sales activities in Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS Countries. Mr. Salibi has solid experience in: oil and gas (onshore and offshore), petrochemicals, renewable power, desalination, district energy, infrastructure, water & waste water. Mr. Ziad Salibi holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Olga Villa Sallangos is a Colombian Civil Engineer with more than 34 years’ professional experience in the water treatment field with extensive knowledge in membrane water systems. She started her career working at CHM for the 6.0 m3/sec Aburra water Treatment Plant in Colombia from 1985 to 1988. She then moved to Metito Overseas Ltd where she participated in a large number of projects between 1988 and 1995. Since 1995 she has been working for Caramondani Desalination Plants Ltd. Olga is a member of AWWA, ASTM and ETEK and is the Vice President of the European Desalination Society and Representative to the IDRA. Olga has worked in virtually every phase of the water treatment process from Structural Civil Design, Process Design, Project Management to Commissioning Engineer and Operations Manager. Caramondani Desalination Plants Ltd is a company belonging to the Caramondani Group with operations in 5 countries and exports worldwide. Caramondani Desalination Plants Ltd and its affiliate Osmo Sistemi S.r.l. are focused on providing Water Treatment Plants andMembrane Water Plants for Drinking, Agriculture, Industrial and Water Reuse purposes using the latest available technologies.

Mr. Greg Wetterau is a Vice President with CDM Smith in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where he works with the planning and design of membrane filtration, potable reuse, and desalination projects around the globe. He has been involved with membrane technologies since 1992, completing his Master’s thesis at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign modeling fouling and hydraulics in an ultrafiltration system. Before joining CDM Smith, Mr. Wetterau worked at Economic and Engineering Services (now part of HDR), where he designed and permitted the first municipal membrane plant in the Pacific Northwest in Aberdeen Washington. He joined CDM in 1999 and has worked on over 60 membrane treatment facilities, ranging in size from the 375,000 m3/d Sulaibiya Advanced Water Treatment Facility in Kuwait to the award winning 3,000 m3/d Emergency Water Supply in Cambria, California. Mr. Wetterau serves as Treasurer of the American Membrane Technology Association Board of Directors and is past Chair of the American Waterworks Association Water Desalting Committee, where he led the development of the first edition Manual of Practice on Desalination of Seawater (M61). Mr. Wetterau holds a Masters and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois, and a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College.

Dr. Masaru Kurihara is Senior Scientific Director of “Mega-ton Water System”, Funding Program for World Leading Innovation R&D on Science & Technology, Japan, and Fellow of Toray Industries, Inc. He graduated from Gunma University, Technical Department, Applied Chemistry in 1963 and completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Tokyo in 1970. He joined Toray Industries, Inc. in 1963, working in polymers research at Basic Research Laboratory. Since then, he has held several positions in research and water treatment technology within the company. Dr. Kurihara is a member of numerous organizations, including the American Chemical Society, Japan Chemical Society, Japan Polymers Society and Japan Membrane Society. He is President of the Asia Pacific Desalination Association (APDA) and Vice President of the Japanese Desalination Association (JDA). He has received numerous awards in recognition of his work including a Lifetime Achievement Award from IDRA, presented in 2011.

Work History: 2011 – Present Chief Executive, PUB 2007 – 2011 Chief of Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy 1986 – 2007 Various positions within the Navy Education: 2002 Master of Science (Management), Stanford University, United States 1990 Bachelor of Engineering (1st Class Honours), Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, United Kingdom 1987 Awarded the Singapore Armed Forces Overseas Scholarship

Mr. Fayyaz Muddassir Mubeen is presently working as a RO Specialist and international consultant. He has been working in the RO and MSF fields for the last 30 years at managerial positions and has been involved in the design, installation and commissioning of many of the world’s large Seawater Reverse Osmosis desalination plants such as Al Dur II (Bahrain), Jeddah III, Shuqaiq (Saudi Arabia), Palm Jumeirah (UAE), Shuwaikh (Kuwait), Al-Birk, Ras Tanajib, Safaniya, and Dhahran Aramco Drinking Water Plant. His experience includes RO Expert GDF Suez, General Manager Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, Senior Manager, Desalination Division ACWA POWER; Technical Adviser (RO), Doosan, Seoul, Korea; Senior Desalination Engineer, Jubail SWRO Plant, SWCC, Jubail, Saudi Arabia; and Engineering Coordinator/Plant Manager, Al-Kawther Industries, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He also worked in the SWRO Department of Research and Development Center of world’s largest desalination organization namely, Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) of Saudi Arabia. In addition, Mr. Mubeen served as Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, NED University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan. He is an advisor to many engineering universities and technical institutes of Pakistan on materials and desalination projects and has guided more than 100 students on desalination-related projects. He is the author of two books on desalination including Desalination by Questions and Answers. He is a regular contributor to Desalination and Water Reuse, IDRA’s quarterly magazine. He also writes an article, “Materials for Desalination Processes” in the same magazine and worked on the ASTM Project “Glossary of Reverse Osmosis Technology”. Mr. Mubeen has been a member of the International Desalination and Reuse Association (IDRA) for nearly 30 years. In addition to serving on the IDRA Board of Directors, he has been a member of the IDRA Research Committee and member of IDRA Publications Committee. He is President of the Pakistan Desalination Association (PakDA) and President of the Pakistan Metals Society (PMS). He is also a very active member of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC). He established the Pakistan Desalination Association (PakDA) in 1994 and obtained Affiliation for PakDA in the International Desalination and Reuse Association. Mr. Mubeen holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan and an MS degree also in the same discipline from the University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia with specialization in desalination and materials. He has a post graduate diploma from the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy. His research is focused on the computer modeling of effects of ultrasonic vibrations on the flow pattern in Reverse Osmosis Membranes.

Ali received his B.Sc degree in Mechanical Engineering fromAleppo University,Syria, followed by a Masters Degree in Management of Information Technology fromSunderland University,UKand a Higher Diploma in Water Engineering from An Foras Forbartha Institute,Dublin,Republic of Ireland. His professional experience was associated in the early days (1980-1983) with the Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) inBahrain, where he was responsible for the Operation and Maintenance of the Water Network. He was assigned later as a Project Engineer, followed by Operation Engineer, responsible for the execution and operation of Ras Abu Jarjur R.O Desalination Plan during 1983-1986. During the period 1986-2005, Ali was assigned as Manager of Addur RO Desalination Plant and was then appointed as Director Water Transmission, responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Water Transmission Network including storage and SCADA control systems. He also led the EWA team that acted as the IWPP consumer and resource broker for all water production units in Bahrain. Ali has recently retired from EWA and is currently engaged as the Executive Director of the Water Sciences and Technology Association (WSTA), an IDRA affiliate, after serving the association in the capacity of President for four years. He has also acted as the WSTA representative on the IDRA Board of Directors since 2003. He is a member of the Bahrain Society of Engineers and has published many papers in international conferences with special emphasis on RO desalination technology and plant operation.

Javier Romero Sanz is the expert Advisor of the Water Found FCAS of the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation AECID of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, European Community and International Development of Spain. He also serves as Water and Sanitation Senior Expert at the Spanish Public Company Grupo Tragsatec. Prior to this role, Mr. Romero was serving as International Business Development Manager in GS Inima for seven years and served as a Country Manager for some countries in Latam. Previously, he had been working for the OHL Water Division serving in the Construction Direction as a project manager and becoming Head of the International Construction Department for longer than seven years. Mr. Javier Romero Sanz started at Vitaqua Water Treatment as a project engineer. He is the Vice President of the ALADYR Latin American Association of Water Desalination and Reuse for the term 2022-2026 and also serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the same term 2022-26. Prior to this, he also served as a Member of the Board of Directors of ALADYR for the term 2018-2022. Mr. Romero received his Engineer degree from the University Polytechnic of Madrid, Spain. He also received a post-graduate degree in Strategic Marketing at the IE Business School of Spain; a post-graduate degree in Wastewater Treatment and Sanitation at the University Polytechnic of Catalunya, Spain; a post-graduate degree in Water Desalination and Water Reuse at the University of Alicante, Spain; the post-graduate degree in Drinking Water Treatment and Water Utilities Management at the UPC School Politechnical University of Catalunya, Spain.