CHINA WATER RISK - Key Persons
As the US retreats, Asit Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada explore how China is becoming the world's leading soft...
Job Titles:
- Business Engagement Lead
- Business Unusual Lead
Business Unusual Lead Dawn McGregor recounts how joining CWR helped find her mission and why she is looking...
Dawn leads CWR's engagements to help companies and sectors navigate the fast-evolving risk landscape. With a decade at CWR, she has not only helped build the brand but has amassed a deep understanding of the complex, interlinked and compounding water risks. Her access to global water leaders, CEOs, IPCC lead authors also gives her unique insights into the challenges in ensuring water security under climate change. She has helped Asian conglomerates, global fashion brands and food MNCs unpack and assess water risks as well as advised them on risk mitigation and stewardship strategies, including achieving water neutrality. Her research to help brands and Chinese manufacturers move towards a clean and circular future has even inspired the fashion industry to create a new wastewater tool.
Dawn is a frequent keynote, panelist and moderator and her work can be found in publications by the UN and the International Journal of Water Resources Development, among others. She can also be found on Channel News Asia as well as the SIWW Water Leaders Interview Series where she steers the high-level conversations on the future of water. Prior to CWR, Dawn worked at a global investment bank. She is a global citizen that was born and bred in Hong Kong and now based in Singapore where she can often be found out on the water doing standup paddling, wing foiling and more.
Debra heads the CWR team and has steered the CWR brand from idea to a leader in the water risk space globally. Reports she has written for and with financial institutions analyzing the impact of water risks on the Power, Mining, Agricultural and Textiles industries have been considered groundbreaking and instrumental in understanding not just China's but future global water challenges. One of these led the fashion industry to nominate CWR as a finalist for the Global Leadership Awards in Sustainable Apparel; another is helping to build consensus toward water risk valuation. Debra is a prolific speaker on water risk delivering keynotes, participating in panel discussions at water prize seminars, numerous investor & industry conferences as well as G2G and academic forums.
Before venturing into "water", she worked in finance, spending over a decade as a chartered accountant and investment banker specializing in M&A and strategic advisory. Debra left banking to pursue her interest in photography and also ran and organized philanthropic and luxury holidays for a small but global private members travel network She has lived and worked in Beijing, HK, KL, London, New York and Singapore and spends her spare time exploring glaciers in Asia.
Job Titles:
- Finance Engagement & Water Risk Valuation Lead
Dharisha hails from the finance industry and leads CWR's engagements related to Water Risk Valuation. She joined the team as she believes that climate and water factors are downplayed by the financial sector. Since joining she has published reports with Manulife Asset Management, the Asia Investor Group on Climate change, and CLSA on how water and climate risks could impact investment portfolios and how to take action to tackle these before it's too late. She has also spoken at multiple finance conferences and conducted meetings with investors on water and climate risks in Asia. Dharisha hopes to help build consensus on how to value water risks, bridge the gap between finance and science, and engage with investors to incorporate these risks. This could also lead to innovative Green Finance instruments becoming more prevalent.
Prior to joining CWR, Dharisha worked in the investment team of a long-only public equities fund. She has also worked in the impact investment space in London and Singapore, where she provided technical assistance to social enterprises, helped them raise equity investments, and managed a debt portfolio.
Job Titles:
- Member of the OECD Initiative on Water Governance and Juror for the Finnish Academy 's Euro One Million Millennium Technology Prize
- Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy, NUS
Dr Tortajada is a leading international authority on urban water & wastewater management. She currently focuses on ensuring water future in terms of food, energy and environmental governance and ensuring water security through coordinated policies, which include water and natural resources management and water reuse. Cecilia has advised major international institutions like FAO, UNDP, JICA, ADB, OECD, IDRC and GIZ, and has worked in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America plus Europe. She received the prestigious Crystal Drop Award and has been the only woman President of the International Water Resources Association during its 50 year history.
Cecilia is currently a member of the OECD Initiative on Water Governance and juror for the Finnish Academy's Euro One Million Millennium Technology Prize. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Water Resources Development; Associate Editor of Water International; member of the Editorial Boards of the Internatio nal Journal of Water Governance, Journal of Na tural Resources Policy Research, and Urban, Planning and Transport Research Journal; plus Editor of book series with Routledge, Springer and Oxford University Press. Cecilia has also authored and edited over 40 books by major international publishers. Her work has been translated into multiple languages.
Low heads CWR's geospatial analysis work, which is being used to identify risk hotspots to plan better resilience. His 3D… #CWR Team
Job Titles:
- Chairman of SynTao Green Finance
Job Titles:
- President 's Office, Energy Foundation China
- President of the Energy Foundation ( EF ) China
Dr. Lijin Zhong is the Special Assistant to the President of the Energy Foundation (EF) China, coordinating strategy development, President…
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Syntao Green Finance
Dr. Guo Peiyuan is the Chairman of SynTao Green Finance and co-founder and General Manager of SynTao. As one of…
Former Waternomics lead Feng Hu shares how a small & idealistic team has 'distilled' the water conversation to...
Having previously led CWR's work on water-nomics, Feng now sits on our advisory panel to help us push the conversation… #Advisory Panel
Job Titles:
- Finance Association Launch
What is the Hong Kong Green Finance Association and how can it aid China's Belt & Road Initiative?...
Job Titles:
- Director of the Beijing
- Founder, IPE
Ma Jun is the director of the Beijing-based NGO, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), and a well-known…
Sophie had graduated from the University of Exeter in the UK with a BA Honours Geography degree. At CWR, she's using her GIS knowledge to examine the impact of rising sea levels and extreme weather events on the critical infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region. She is also working on CWR's Re-IMAGINE HK initiative to help catalyse transformative adaptation to protect Hong Kong against future coastal threats.
Sophie hopes her work at CWR will facilitate better resilience planning and the management of risks presented by the challenges of climate change. She is also interested in food security, climate justice and ocean pollution.
Sophie has recently graduated from the University of Exeter in the UK with a BA Honours Geography degree. Her final…
Yisih contributes to CWR's research and publications and hopes that her work will help create more sustainable solutions and healthier… #CWR Team