Profiles of the members of the Steering Group and the Secretariat of the Knowledge Platform on Water for Development

Steering Group

Jacqueline Barendse (Steering Group member)

Ms. Jacqueline Barendse has over 20 years of experience in finance and business development for micro- to large enterprises in different sectors (industry, ICT, financial sector, infrastructure). In the early years of her career she was product and business development manager for Philips Electronics, where she developed business plans for new businesses for (cable) television. As investment manager for ING Bank she was responsible for finance and investments (risk capital, subordinated loans, and equity participations) in a great variety of companies.

She represented shareholder Triodos in the Board of Banks and financial institutions in, among others, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, Mongolia, and Russia. She has appraised banks and non-bank financial institutions for micro finance and SME development in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Africa.

 Sybe Schaap (Steering Group member)

In 2012, Prof. Sybe Schaap has been appointed as Chair of the Netherlands Partnership (NWP). However, he has already been active in the water sector for years. Before being appointed as Chair of NWP, Schaap was Dikereef and the Association of Regional Water Authorities. In addition, he has been involved in several international water-related projects in Indonesia, Ukraine, Czech Republic and Romania. Aside of his position at NWP, Sybe Schaap is Professor in Water Policy and Governance at TU Delft as well. Moreover, he is Senator representing the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, VVD.

For more actual information on the ViaWater steering group, see: http://www.viawater.nl/en/who-are-we/steering-group

Secretariat

Titia Wouters (Program manager secretariat)

‘My ambition is to create a Knowledge Platform that seizes opportunities, dares to think out of the box and manages to bring knowledge and science closer to policy and practice.’

Titia Wouters started in November 2013 as Programme Manager of the Knowledge Platform for Development. Previously she worked in Brussels and at Senter International (now RVO, Netherlands Enterprise Agency) assisting the countries of Central and Eastern Europe with their accession to the European Union. After that she held different positions at Rijkswaterstaat, Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. She was a senior policy advisor on international affairs of the Director-General of Rijkswaterstaat, mostly working in the Asian region. After that, she occupied different management positions as head of the Director’s office and head of the road safety department. She concluded her period at Rijkswaterstaat as projectleader of the international strategy.

For more actual information on the ViaWater Secretariat, see http://www.viawater.nl/en/who-we-are/the-team