Sanitation Ventures’ Advisory Group contains experts from the sanitation, business, financial and development sectors, who provide objective guidance to help ensure that we have the greatest possible impact on sanitation for poor communities in developing countries.
Members help identify opportunities, recommend approaches to technical challenges, discuss key findings and next steps, and monitor performance against objectives. As well as contributing to concept generation, they advise on the feasibility of lead concepts and channels for commercialising project outputs.
The Venture Development Committee is a sub-group of the Advisory Group, whose members assess applications for our Venture Development Grants to help businesses bring our innovations to market.
Andy Bastable (Chair), Head of Public Health Engineering, Oxfam GB
Andy Bastable has over 20 years of emergency and development field experience in the water and sanitation sector.
After working for various local developmental organisations Andy joined Oxfam in 1990 and has been involved in responding to humanitarian crises since then, as well as in-house research and development work into new emergency response equipment, methodologies and approaches.
Andy took over the leadership of Oxfam’s Public Health Engineering team in 2002. He was responsible for the second version of the WASH Chapter in Sphere (the manual of agreed standards in emergencies) and has spent considerable time promoting new innovations in the field of water and sanitation.
Ajeet Oak Director, Primove Consultants
Ajeet Oak is a civil engineer specialising in water resources and supply, sanitation, roads and construction.
He is currently director of Primove Consultants and Secretary of RedR India (Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief). He has over 20 years’ international experience in rural and urban infrastructure projects – mainly on water supply, sanitation and sewerage, and water resource development.
He has worked with NGOs, governments and the UN, and has particular experience with decentralised saniation and sewage treatment work. He has worked extensively in a support and capacity-building role to government departments and NGOs.
Alix Peterson Zwane Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Alix Peterson Zwane is a Program Officer in the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, working on the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Initiative.
Previously, she was a programme manager at google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, where she managed the health and water component of an initiative to use information to improve public services for the poor. Alix was previously a member of the department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, where her research covered international trade, development and environmental economics.
She gained her PhD in Public Policy from Harvard and has published research in leading development and environmental journals. She remains a non-resident affiliate of Harvard’s Center for International Development.
*Venture Development Committee member
Deborah Carter
Deborah Carter, Knowledge Transfer Manager, LSHTM Deborah Carter has been involved in technology transfer in both the private and public sectors for over 17 years. She is experienced in the strategic management, development and commercialisation of a wide variety of technologies and has negotiated over 100 major licences and collaborative research projects. She has been instrumental in the formation of a number of spin-out ventures, including the pharmaceutical company Piramed.
Deborah has also delivered courses on topics such as intellectual property and negotiation techniques for post-graduate researchers. She gained a PhD in Pharmacology from Kings College London and after her post-doctoral research went on to study a Masters in the Management of Intellectual Property at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London. She has also completed electives within the MBA programme relating to new venture development at the London Business School.
*Venture Development Committee member
Neil Macloed Head of Water and Sanitation, Durban
Neil Macloed has more than 35 years’ experience in the water and sanitation sector. His fields of expertise include water supply, sanitation (sewage collection and treatment, and solid waste management), tariff design, public-private partnerships and strategic management in the water sector. He has been Head of Water and Sanitation for the Durban Metropolitan region since 1992.
Neil has a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering and an MBA, and is currently completing a PhD on the sustainable provision of water services to poor urban communities. Among his many roles, Neil is a Senior Fellow of the Water Institute of South Africa, Director of Johannesburg Water (Pty) Ltd, Director (and currently Chairman) of Building Partners for Development in Water and Sanitation, and Chairperson of the National Free Basic Water Services task team, implementing free basic water services and sanitation in South Africa.
Neil Parry Science Area Leader – Biotechnology/Bioscience, Unilever
Neil runs Unilever’s Biotechnology and Biochemistry activity, coordinating both internal and external teams, whose output increasingly offers a range of business opportunities through the development of scientific understanding, insight generation, new technologies and product offerings.
Neil’s areas of expertise include enzymology, protein biochemistry and engineering, open innovation and bio intellectual property rights. He has a PhD in Enzyme Biotechnology and has worked in several EU labs and industry groups. Among various roles in Unilever’s Biorecognition and Life Sciences divisions, he jointly established a spin-out company with Unilever Ventures for applications of biomolecules in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries.
In leading Unilever’s Biotechnology science area, Neil actively promotes closer business and open innovation partner interactions.
Richard Carter Head of Technical Support, WaterAid
Richard Carter has wide knowledge of community water and sanitation, irrigation and water resources, from the perspectives of natural and social science, engineering and management.
He is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University and Chair of the Rural Water Supply Network. He manages institutional development and capacity-building activities, consultancies, research projects, and education and training programmes in many aspects of the water sector, working in numerous developing countries.
Richard is currently Head of Technical Support at WaterAid and has published more than 100 papers and reports in the field of water management
Sandy Cairncross Professor of Environmental Health, LSHTM
Dr Sandy Cairncross specialises in environmental interventions for disease control, including technical and policy aspects. Much of his career has been spent in developing countries implementing water, sanitation and public health programmes.
At the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) his work includes operational and policy aspects of low-cost sanitation and hygiene. He has advised many agencies on water and environmental health, including WHO, Unicef and the World Bank.
Sandy is Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Global Sanitation Fund, Research Director of the SHARE Consortium for sanitation and hygiene, and Deputy Director of the African SNOWS Consortium to build six African universities’ research capacity in water, sanitation and environmental health.
William B. Rosenzweig Managing Director, Physic Ventures
William B. Rosenzweig has spent more than 20 years integrating the practices and perspectives of an entrepreneur, venture investor and educator. He is co-founder and Managing Director of Physic Ventures, LP, the first venture capital firm dedicated to investing in keeping people healthy by providing capital and expertise to science-based, consumer-driven health and sustainable living companies.
Based in San Francisco, the firm capitalises on major economic, social and political trends shaping the rapidly evolving landscape of personal and planetary health.
Will was formerly founding CEO of The Republic of Tea, an award-winning specialty tea company, and has played key leadership roles at diverse organisations, from the TED Conference to Winetasting.com.
*Venture Development Committee member
