With a wealth of global experience in large-scale business transformations, Chris leads our
organisation to deliver world-class innovation and product development, and water-related
solutions for our development and business customers in support of our city’s growth and
development, and our high-profile and complex commercial transactions. 

Since joining Sydney Water in 2016, Chris has held a number of senior leadership roles that
support Sydney, Wollongong and the Blue Mountains' growth and help deliver the NSW
Government’s vision of 3 sustainable, productive and liveable cities.

Before joining Sydney Water, Chris was a Director at Booz Allen Hamilton, Booz & Company
and PwC, specialising in strategy, business transformations and commercial transactions
in asset intensive and government sectors. He has a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Commerce.

Alex is one of Australia’s leading Earth Observation experts.

Under his stewardship as Director of the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation, Alex has overseen
the establishment of the new radar satellite NovaSAR-1 as one of Australia’s newest national
research facility; leads the development of innovative science in remote sensing and drives the
development of spatial technology and data analytics to support sustained Earth observation
and measurement of our planets eco-systems.

Alex is the Director, Earth Observation Infrastructure and also leads the newly formed CSIRO
AquaWatch Australia Mission – a mission in development - which aims to establish an integrated
ground-to-space national water quality monitoring system using data from bespoke Earth
observation satellites and aquatic based sensors. This Mission seeks to improve the management
of our precious water resources using purpose- built space technology – and support growth across
Australia’s high-tech space sector. 

In early 2021, and in global recognition of his work, Alex recently received the COSPAR Harrie Massey
Award for “outstanding contributions to the development of space research in which a leadership
role is of particular importance”, being the first winner of this award from the southern hemisphere. 

Among Alex’s other distinguished work in steering national and international science policy, he served
as Co-Chair of the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites Strategic Implementation
Team (CEOS SIT) for 2 years (2020-2021) and spearheaded the award-winning delivery of the Sentinel
Hotspots program (2002–2006), which is still used to support bushfire response activities in Australia. 

Dr Terri Janke is of Meriam and Wuthathi heritage, and is the owner and Managing Director of Terri Janke
and Company, an award winning legal and consulting firm founded in 2000.

The team at Terri Janke and Company strive to empower Indigenous people to manage their culture and
attain their business goals - the key to Indigenous self-determination is being able to control and manage
their own future.

Terri is an international expert on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Her book True Tracks: Working
with Indigenous Knowledge and Culture was recently published in July of 2021 and is now available for purchase.
Terri is also the Co-Chief author of the State of Environment Report 2021.

Associate Professor Sera Young | Anthropology & Global Health, Northwestern University, Illinois USA

Sera Young is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Global Health at Northwestern University in
Chicago, Illinois. She has dedicated her career to understanding how women, especially in low-resource
settings, cope to preserve their health and that of their families by drawing on her training in medical
anthropology, international nutrition, and public health.

These days, ASsociate Professor Young’s work focuses on quantifying human experiences with water
insecurity, using the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales (www.hwise.org). The WISE Scales generate
high-resolution, globally comparable data that bring the human perspective to conventional water
indicators. The WISE Scales are being implemented globally by >100 governmental, research, &
development organizations including USAID, Gallup World Poll, UNICEF, and the Government of Mexico.
She has co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications; awards include an Andrew Carnegie
Fellowship, the Margaret Mead Award from the Society for Applied Anthropology and the Kretchmer
Memorial Award from the American Society for Nutrition.

High-resolution, globally comparable, gender-disaggregated data have been extremely helpful for
understanding and intervening in a range of phenomena related to human well-being, e.g. the UN’s
Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Insecurity Experiences Scale. However, experiential data
have not existed for water. To fill this gap, Associate Professor Young has led a large multi-disciplinary team
to develop the first cross-culturally equivalent way of measuring water access and use (hwise.org). These
scales have been implemented by more than 100 governmental, policy, research, and civil organizations in
more than 50 countries.

In this talk, Professor Young will give a brief overview of the Water Insecurity Experiences Scales, and then
discuss how they shape our understanding of health, well-being, and policy development. 

Associate Professor Young’s work focuses on quantifying human experiences with water insecurity, using
the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales (www.hwise.org). The WISE Scales generate high-resolution,
globally comparable data that bring the human perspective to conventional water indicators. The WISE
Scales are being implemented globally by >100 governmental, research, & development organizations.