[1]Convener
Brings the Think Tank together, provides scientific assurance and holds the group to its question and its long-term purpose. Challenges and guides; does not vote.
See who → [2]Core members
The deliberative body. They hold the direction, decide what the Think Tank works on and carry the work between sessions, taking part as individuals rather than as delegates of their organisations.
See who → [3]Advisory network
The outer circle. Brings evidence, expertise, scrutiny and peer review, as a matter of course and when core members ask. Advisory: it does not vote. Open to new people as the work develops.
See who → [4]Facilitators
Design and steward the process, capture what the group produces and play it back, and author the final report on behalf of the core members. Hold the process, take no position on its content.
See who → [5]Environment Agency programme team
Convenes and funds the programme, provides evidence and logistics support and trained facilitators, and holds one seat among the core members. Does not direct the conclusions.
[6]Wider ecosystem
Everyone beyond the programme with a stake in the water–land system: other initiatives, organisations, communities and individuals who would be affected by what the Think Tank proposes or have something to feed in.
Helen Wakeham
Water and environmental regulation; national water policy and delivery.
Environment Agency, Director of WaterHelen has spent more than thirty years in environmental policy and regulation, starting in 1990. Her work has covered incident management, European directives, agriculture and land policy, flood risk and water quality, and she chairs the national group that coordinates the response to drought. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. She holds the seat the convening body has among the core members.
Paul Shaffer
Stakeholder engagement; independent review; environmental governance.
CIWEM, Director of Policy, Projects, Innovation and DeliveryPaul is a director at the professional body for people who work in water and environmental management. For twenty years before that he ran the sustainable drainage programme at CIRIA, the construction industry's research body, including The SuDS Manual (2015), the BeST benefits tool and the susdrain community. He now leads work on professionalising property flood resilience.
Joseph Holden
Integrated catchment management; hydrology and flooding; freshwater systems.
University of LeedsJoe is a professor of physical geography and directs a large interdisciplinary water research centre. He leads a Yorkshire programme that turns catchment research into practice with water companies and councils, and is the national research champion for freshwater quality for 2022 to 2027. His research covers peatlands, runoff, land management, carbon and flooding.
Ana Mijic
Integrated water–land systems; systems modelling; catchment management.
Imperial College LondonAna is a professor of water systems integration and a civil engineer by training. She built an open-source model of the whole water system, from rain to rivers, pipes, treatment and people, and leads the systems work on a national programme on integrated urban water management for London. She contributed evidence to the London Climate Resilience Review.
Pete Barbrook-Johnson
Systems thinking; policy evaluation; participatory methods.
UCL / University of OxfordPete is an academic working on systems thinking, policy evaluation and participatory methods. His research looks at how complex systems can be mapped and understood with the people inside them, and how that understanding is used in policy.
Nigel Watson
Water governance; institutional design; integrated environmental policy.
Lancaster UniversityNigel is an emeritus professor with about thirty-five years in water management across the UK, Europe and North America. He studies how institutions and multi-party collaboration work for catchments and river basins, including long-running comparative work on Ontario's conservation authorities and Oregon's watershed councils. He has been a member of the Office for Environmental Protection's College of Experts since 2023.
Tim Hess
Water and food systems; agricultural engineering and land resource management.
Cranfield University (emeritus)Tim is an emeritus professor of water and food systems. A geographer turned agricultural engineer, he spent his career at one university from 1981, with research on irrigation, agricultural water footprints, drought resilience and the resilience of the food system. He has advised regulators, government and retailers on water in farming and supply chains.
Kevin Collins
Water governance; systems thinking; behavioural and social science.
The Open UniversityKevin teaches and researches systems thinking in practice. Since 2001 he has worked on European and UK projects on social learning for catchment management, water governance and climate adaptation, and drought early warning. He is an expert member of the OECD Water Governance Initiative and an associate editor of the Journal of Flood Risk Management.
Catherine Kelly
Blue space and wellbeing; environmental equity; community engagement.
University of BrightonCatherine is a geographer who researches blue space and wellbeing, access to the sea and the blue economy in tourism. She wrote Blue Spaces: How and Why Water Can Make You Feel Better (2021), sits on a national forum on people's access to water for wellbeing and on the board of a UNESCO biosphere, and led the UK Beach Access Project with ParalympicsGB.
Andrew Moores
Water and energy systems; infrastructure strategy.
RWE, Technical Head, Water and EnvironmentAndy is a chartered engineer who has worked on water for an energy company since 2002, after earlier roles as an analyst at Thames Water and an engineer at Ford. He wrote the electricity industry's projections of water use in power and hydrogen production to 2050, which government's future water-demand scenarios adopted.
Charlie Edmonds
Built environment; regenerative design.
Civic Square, co-leadCharlie is a systems designer and co-lead of a neighbourhood-based community interest company in Birmingham working on the built environment and regenerative design, including neighbourhood retrofit. He co-founded Future Architects Front, a grassroots organisation of architectural workers and students, and writes and lectures on the history and future of architectural labour. He is a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Paul Leinster
Water policy and regulation; governance; water resources strategy.
Water Resources East, ChairPaul was Chief Executive of the Environment Agency from 2008 to 2015, having joined as Director of Operations in 1998 after twenty years in industry. He now chairs a regional water resources planning group for eastern England and a government-appointed group on water scarcity and growth in Cambridge, and is a non-executive on the board of the Office for Environmental Protection. Former Professor of Environmental Assessment at Cranfield. CBE.
Cassie Robinson
Systemic design; participatory innovation; socio-ecological transitions.
Wealth Design, co-directorCassie is a systems and strategic designer who co-directs a studio focused on how wealth is designed and redistributed. She spent seven years in philanthropy, designing and setting up the Emerging Futures programme at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and leading Innovation, Policy and Practice at The National Lottery Community Fund. She co-founded Stewarding Loss and The Point People, and holds an MSc in Applied Positive Psychology.
Chris Clark
Working farmer. Agricultural systems; farm economics; sustainable production.
Nethergill Associates; Nethergill FarmChris has farmed Nethergill Farm, a hill farm in the Yorkshire Dales, since 2005, reducing stock numbers while restoring hay meadows and blanket bog. A former farm tenant and farm manager, he is a partner in a farm business consultancy and co-authored the 2019 report Less is More on hill farm profitability. He served as a commissioner on the North Yorkshire Rural Commission.
Indy Johar
Systems governance; regenerative economics; institutional innovation.
Dark Matter Labs, DirectorIndy is an architect by training. He co-founded an architecture practice and a lab working on systems governance, regenerative economics and institutional innovation, and seeded the open-source ventures WikiHouse and Open Desk. He was a RIBA trustee from 2017 to 2020, a member of the UNDP Innovation Facility advisory board, and Graham Willis Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.
James Wallace
Environmental advocacy; public policy; systems change and accountability.
River Action, Chief ExecutiveJames is chief executive of a charity campaigning on river pollution and accountability of polluters and regulators. He co-founded and led the Beaver Trust, where he set up the Woodlands for Water farm payment scheme, and co-founded the Nekton Foundation. Earlier he founded ventures in renewable energy, ecotourism and green finance. He holds a BSc in Archaeology and an MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College.
Andrew Staines
Strategy, foresight and change; economic regulation.
OfwatAndrew leads environment strategy at a national regulator. He was previously Head of Strategic Foresight at Norfolk County Council and has held roles at Norwich City Council, the Cabinet Office, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. He holds a PhD in European environmental law and interdisciplinarity and an MSc in environmental wastewater management, both from Abertay University.
Victoria Cherrier
Wastewater policy; environmental law and regulation.
Water UK, Deputy Director for WastewaterVictoria leads wastewater policy at the water industry's trade body. Her background is in environmental law and policy: she holds a Master of Laws, worked at the Institute for European Environmental Policy, and was a senior consultant on environmental policy and regulation at Amec Foster Wheeler.
Mark Ledbury
Water and environment policy.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsMark works at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Rachel Gowdy
Land use strategy.
United UtilitiesRachel Gowdy works on land use strategy at a water company in the north west of England. Her work covers how the land a water company owns and manages is used, and how that relates to water.
Guy Standing
Environmental economics; commons governance; blue economy.
SOAS University of LondonGuy Standing is an economist with a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He worked at the International Labour Organization for many years, was Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, and co-founded the Basic Income Earth Network. His books include The Precariat, The Blue Commons, on the sea and the commons, and The Politics of Time.
Keri Facer
Futures thinking; temporal governance; collaborative systems change.
University of BristolKeri Facer is a professor of educational and social futures. Her research looks at how ideas about the future shape the present, and how universities and communities learn together to bring about ecological and social change. She was on the writing team for the UNESCO Futures of Education Commission, held a visiting professorship in climate change leadership at Uppsala University, and is joint editor-in-chief of the journal Futures.
Sean Ashworth
Aquatic ecology; water quality; catchment science.
Southern WaterSean Ashworth is an aquatic ecologist. He studied ecology at Wolverhampton and Exeter, worked at the Environment Agency for 14 years and was Deputy Chief at Sussex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority. He now works on strategy at a water company in the south of England, and was appointed chair of trustees of Sussex Wildlife Trust in 2019.
Tom Ormesher
Agriculture and land management; catchment management; water stewardship.
Southern WaterTom Ormesher works on catchment delivery at a water company in the south of England. He studied environmental science at Wye College, worked in environmental consultancy on water abstraction and transfer schemes, and from 2013 was environment and land use adviser for the NFU in South East England. As a 2018 Nuffield Farming Scholar he studied farmer coordination and water stewardship in Australia, the United States, Spain, the Netherlands and Israel.
Tim Stephens
Catchment partnerships; agricultural water quality; diffuse pollution.
Wessex WaterTim Stephens studied agriculture at the University of Edinburgh and worked in fresh produce and agricultural education before joining a water company as a catchment adviser, working with farmers on nutrient management and diffuse pollution; he is BASIS and FACTS qualified. As a 2017 Nuffield Farming Scholar he studied how farmers in ten countries reduce diffuse pollution while keeping farms profitable. He now leads sustainable operations at the same company.
Amy Coulthard
Water policy and regulation; environmental markets; strategic water–land governance.
Wessex WaterAmy Coulthard is head of policy at a water company in the south west of England. Her work covers water regulation and sector reform, and how structural, cultural and operational change in the sector is sequenced and resourced. She has also been market development director at EnTrade, an environmental markets platform that runs catchment markets such as the Bristol Avon Catchment Market.
Daniel Johns
Water resources planning; environmental policy; climate adaptation.
Water Resources East, Managing DirectorDaniel Johns leads a regional water resources planning body in eastern England. He was a senior civil servant at Defra, working on low carbon policy and flood defence funding, and at the Climate Change Committee led the first statutory climate adaptation report to Parliament and the 2017 UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. He has also worked at Anglian Water and chairs the National Flood Forum.
Konstancja Woźniacka
Water quality and aquaculture; coastal systems; blue economy.
SeafishKonstancja Woźniacka is a researcher on ecosystem services in the seafood sector. Her work looks at how farmed bivalves such as mussels and oysters remove nitrogen and phosphorus from UK coastal waters, and what that service is worth. She wrote the 2024 report Ecosystem Services of Commercially Important Bivalves in the UK, produced with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, and a follow-up on nutrient removal case studies.
Diane Mitchell
Agricultural water management; catchment systems; flood and water resilience.
NFU, Chief Environment AdviserDiane Mitchell is chief environment adviser at a national farming organisation. She holds a degree and a PhD in soil science from the University of Aberdeen and was a researcher at Cambridge University Farm. She has led policy work on the Environment Act 2021, nutrient neutrality and water quality, and was vice-chair of the environment working group of COPA-COGECA, the European farmers' body, for six years.
Nik Perepelov
Water policy; technical water management.
Water UKNik works on water policy and sustainable development for a body representing the water industry. He was previously Senior Policy Adviser at RSPB England and Vice Chair of Blueprint for Water, part of Wildlife and Countryside Link, with a focus on reforming water regulation to support nature recovery. Before that he worked in Defra's marine policy team and at RenewableUK on energy regulation.
Sarah Jenner
Integrated water management; regional planning; nature-based solutions.
United UtilitiesSarah leads integrated water management at a water company in the North West of England. Her work covers regional planning and nature-based solutions.
Emma Goddard
Systems practice; strategic transformation.
South East WaterEmma is Head of Environment at a water company in the south east of England and a Chartered Environmentalist. Her work includes a 25-year environment plan covering climate adaptation, wetlands and pollution, and the management of protected sites. She argues for joined-up thinking across water and farming, with farmers treated as stewards of the landscape.
Philip Tovey
Nature-related risk; systems resilience; futures.
University of ReadingPhil was Head of Futures at Defra, where he directed foresight research on subjects ranging from ecosystem collapse to AI. He is a visiting research fellow at a university school of biological sciences and leads work on nature-centric approaches to systemic risk for a research network. He holds an MSc by Research and is a former Royal Marines Commando.
David Smith
Catchment management; peatland restoration; nature-based solutions.
South West WaterDavid manages natural resources and catchment work for a water company in south-west England. He has led the Upstream Thinking programme, which works with farmers and land managers across more than 140,000 hectares to improve river water quality, and has spoken on the water industry's role in peatland restoration.
Kate Speke-Adams
Agriculture; water resources; water quality.
Herefordshire Rural Hub, Managing DirectorKate is managing director of a rural business support organisation in Herefordshire, where she has been a director since 2018. She previously spent eight years at the Wye & Usk Foundation, building a team of farm advisers and securing funding for projects that helped farm businesses act for water and wildlife.
Henry Leveson-Gower
Green finance; nature-based solutions; environmental governance.
Climate Farmers; Promoting Economic PluralismHenry is an ecological economist and policy analyst with three decades' experience in agricultural and environmental policy, regulation, green finance and environmental markets. He founded an organisation promoting pluralism in economics and edits its magazine. He is a qualified chartered accountant, a Research Fellow at CECAN and a Fellow of the RSA.
Ben Andrews
Floodplain farming; landscape recovery; agricultural water management.
Farmer, HerefordshireBen is a fourth-generation tenant farmer on an organic mixed farm in north Herefordshire, on the banks of the River Arrow. The farm grows vegetables and arable crops and rears beef cattle, and is part of Wyescapes, a Landscape Recovery scheme covering 5,000 hectares across 50 holdings. He is a 2025 Nuffield Farming Scholar studying agriculture's role in flooding and diffuse pollution.
Cat Drew
Systemic design; infrastructure innovation; policy design.
Design Council, Chief Design OfficerCat is chief design officer at a national design body, where she has developed the practice of systemic design and authored the Systemic Design Framework. She co-founded the UK Government's Policy Lab and held leadership roles at Uscreates and FutureGov. She has ten years' experience in government and an MA in graphic design.
Jenna Lines
Water–energy nexus; infrastructure planning; net zero transition.
UniperJenna works on environmental compliance and water at Uniper, an energy company. She was a lead contributor to a 2023 Energy UK Joint Environmental Programme review of water use for hydrogen production, and co-authored a 2019 protocol on modelling cooling water discharges from power stations into transitional and coastal waters.
John Slaughter
Housing development; sustainable design; water management and built environment policy.
IndependentJohn has worked on housing and built environment policy for most of his career. He was Director of External Affairs at the Home Builders Federation, covering planning, sustainability and zero carbon homes, after earlier roles in the energy sector and the civil service. At the Future Homes Hub he led the water neutrality group and work on water efficiency standards for new homes.
Joseph Hillier
Nature recovery; social and environmental systems analysis; sustainable water systems.
Natural EnglandJoseph works on nature recovery at a national conservation body. His work covers social and environmental systems analysis and sustainable water systems.
Rachel Steller
Climate adaptation; performance monitoring and evaluation; environmental target setting.
Climate Change CommitteeRachel works on climate adaptation at a national advisory body. Her work covers performance monitoring and evaluation and environmental target setting.
Ali Morse
Water policy and holistic management; catchment resilience; funding.
The Wildlife TrustsAli is a water policy manager at a federation of wildlife charities. She writes and advises on water reform, the Water Framework Directive, Environment Act wastewater targets, nutrient neutrality and catchment plans such as the River Wye. Her work argues for holistic management of rivers and catchments, including wider river banks and nature-based approaches to flooding.
Lou Sykes
Catchment partnership; collaboration; nature-based solutions.
Southern WaterLou works on catchment partnerships and nature-based solutions at a water company. He was previously Senior Catchment Officer at South East Rivers Trust, where he chaired the Loddon and Cuckmere and Pevensey Levels catchment partnerships, and a River Restoration Officer at Thames21. He holds an MRes in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from UCL and a BSc in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Kent.
