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About Us

 

Water is Solvable

The future of water is often framed in the negative. Scarcity. Waste. Worry.

We imagine something different.

Because the problems surrounding our planet’s most precious resource—water—can be solved by our most precious human resources: ingenuity, commitment, and action.

We approach water issues with optimism, curiosity, and entrepreneurial grit. That’s because we’ve seen what’s possible as solution seekers and builders. When we back the best entrepreneurs in water, we go all in—from idea to implementation. We’re creating a more connected, effective water sector that attracts more dreamers, doers, and dollars.

From there, anything is possible. More access, more equity, more community. Better health, and better lives, for people around the world. We see that future clearly, and we can make it real. In fact, we’re already building it: every entrepreneur, every startup, and every new solution gives us another way forward. And we can do this at scale. Today, our entrepreneurs provide water solutions to over 1.1 billion people and counting. 

It’s time to transform the future of water. Let’s do this.


Our Team

Scott Bryan
Scott Bryan

Scott Bryan

Scott Bryan

Scott is responsible for leading Imagine H2O in its mission. He initially volunteered with Imagine H2O’s launch team in 2008 before joining as its first employee in 2010. Since then, Imagine H2O has supported over 150 startups and expanded its programming internationally. Scott serves on the National Alliance for Water Innovation’s (NAWI) Innovation and Commercialization Council and is an advisor to the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Prior to Imagine H2O, Scott developed ESG and cleantech investment strategies for institutional and private clients at Royal Bank of Canada and Piper Jaffray. He has a BA in Economics from the Colorado College.

Scott Bryan
Nimesh Modak

Nimesh Modak

Nimesh leads Imagine H2O Asia (Limited), the organization’s Singapore hub and Asia-Pacific accelerator. Since 2015, Nimesh has served as a startup advisor for Imagine H2O portfolio companies and led the organization’s global program development. Prior to Imagine H2O, Nimesh worked with economic consulting firm, Nathan Associates Inc. (Singapore & Washington, DC), and more recently worked in strategy and operational roles with Danone’s Sustainable Development team and WaterHealth Ghana Ltd. He also serves on the advisory board of Burnt Island Ventures, an early-stage water venture fund. Nimesh holds a MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

John Curry Headshot 2
John Curry

John Curry

John Curry Headshot 2

John leads Imagine’s H2O’s internal operations, where he is responsible for managing the organization’s financial management, operations and human resources. Prior to working at Imagine H2O, John directed the internal operations and finances for an international consumer and environmental advocacy organization. He also spent a decade at a large urban foodbank, where he managed the procurement and distribution of over 40 million pounds of food annually. John has an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and a BA from Wesleyan University.

John Curry Headshot 2
Taylor Evans

Taylor Evans

Taylor supports Imagine H2O’s startup sourcing, mentor-based programs, and pilot funding activities. Prior to Imagine H2O, Taylor earned a masters degree in Sustainable Water Management. Taylor began her career at Makena Capital where she focused on natural resources investing and helped lead the launch of the firm’s ESG initiatives, including a review of the portfolio’s $19B in holdings. Taylor holds an M.S. from Tufts University and a B.A. from Vanderbilt University.

Simarpreet Khanijou headshot
Simarpreet Khanijou

Simarpreet Khanijou

Simarpreet Khanijou headshot

Simarpreet supports Imagine H2O Asia’s startup advisory activities, accelerator program operations and the organization’s regional Ecosystem Partners Network. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, she worked as a process engineer for water and wastewater treatment system integrators, namely Envipure, Hager+Elsaesser Asia and Ovivo Singapore. Simarpreet managed key process engineering deliverables from designing plant logics to performing technical assessments during on-site commissioning and operations. She recently focused on the treatment of wastewater from semiconductor facilities.  Simarpreet holds a B.Eng (Hons) in Environmental Engineering from Nanyang Technological University.

Simarpreet Khanijou headshot
Nidhi Menon headshot
Nidhi Menon

Nidhi Menon

Nidhi Menon headshot

Nidhi leads the operations of Imagine H2O’s Accelerator program, including startup outreach, communications and the organization’s global mentors network. She is a graduate of the Water Leadership Institute and presently a steering committee member. Prior to Imagine H2O, she served as a sustainability intern at Olam Spices and a research assistant at the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at Berkeley. Nidhi holds a B.S. in Environmental Science & Environmental Economics, and a minor in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley.

Nidhi Menon headshot
Annamarie Martin

Annamarie Martin

Annamarie manages Imagine H2O Asia’s water technology pilot funding programs in the region in collaboration with public and private sector partners. Since 2020, she has helped the organization design and fund deployments across 8 countries for utilities, businesses and government agencies seeking solutions to water and wastewater challenges. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, Annamarie worked at the Singapore Ministry of National Development’s Centre for Liveable Cities where she conducted research on district-level sustainability best practices within Singapore. Annamarie graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Yale-NUS College where she wrote her undergraduate thesis on Singapore’s water innovation economy.

Sonora Hill
Sonora Hill

Sonora Hill

Sonora Hill

Sonora supports Imagine H2O’s ecosystem through the development of Imagine H2O’s Alumni Program. Sonora’s career has been focused exclusively in the water sector, with experience as an engineer in both the private and municipal sectors. Immediately prior to joining Imagine H2O, Sonora was an engineer at the San Diego County Water Authority where she supported the design of municipal capital improvement projects, with a focus on nexus of energy and water. As a water engineer at the American Water Works Association, Sonora advised technical committees on strategic initiatives to amplify and progress the drinking water sector’s most critical challenges. Sonora also has experience in industrial wastewater treatment, specifically commissioning of an industrial wastewater treatment facility in the energy sector. Sonora holds a M.S. in Engineering & Technology Management and B.S. in Chemical Engineering both from the Colorado School of Mines.

Sonora Hill
Mayci Hicks Headshot
Mayci Hicks

Mayci Hicks

Mayci Hicks Headshot

In her role as Associate, Mayci supports Imagine H2O’s marketing, communication, and business development. Mayci has a decade of nonprofit experience prior to joining Imagine H2O, most recently at Youth INC, where she led community building and communications to a collective of 80 early-stage nonprofits. Mayci has a MS in Global Environmental Governance from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a BA in International Studies from the University of Denver.

Mayci Hicks Headshot
Chloe Kuan

Chloe Kuan

Chloe supports Imagine H2O Asia’s accelerator operations and communications as well as helping build the organization’s growing network of utility and industrial end-users in Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, Chloe served as a sustainability intern at an ESG advisory and monitoring firm in Singapore. With an interest in working across sectors on climate and water issues, Chloe also has experience in various roles with local environmental non-profit organizations. Chloe recently graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Yale-NUS College.

Priyanka Sherwani

Priyanka Sherwani

Priyanka is a Summer Associate, supporting Imagine H2O Asia’s investor outreach, market research and startup events. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, Priyanka interned at the National Climate Change Secretariat in Singapore where she researched Blue Carbon opportunities in Southeast Asian and supported the development of international carbon markets agreements. She has a keen interest in interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability. Priyanka is a penultimate year student at Singapore Management University, majoring in Politics, Law and Economics.

Charlene Tan

Charlene Tan

Charlene is a Summer Associate assisting with Imagine H2O’s start-up engagement, outreach events and market research. Prior to joining Imagine H2O, Charlene was a sustainability research analyst in the TIC sector, where she analysed environmental policies in the European Union and Singapore. With an interest to solve climate challenges, Charlene has participated in sustainability case competitions and start-up development. Charlene is a penultimate year student at Nanyang Technological University, double majoring in Environmental Earth Systems Science and Public Policy and Global Affairs.

Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison

Chris Morrison is one of the original judges of IH2O, consistently supporting the program since 2009. He earned his advanced Science degree at UC San Diego and has vast experience in the water industry including:  Elected Chair of Marin Municipal Water, Appointed to California Reg Water Control Board, and involvement with various global water initiatives. In his professional career, over three decades with executive roles at Ecolab/Nalco, with five years as Vice President leading Ecolab Water Division technology development. Chris currently provides strategic leadership to a variety of water firms throughout the globe.

Wayne Byrne

Wayne Byrne

Wayne Byrne is an accomplished CEO and serial entrepreneur with a passion for Cleantech and Water Technology. With a background in multinational ICT corporations, Wayne transitioned into the Cleantech space where he has focused on waste-to-resource and water technology for nearly two decades. He boasts an impressive track record with four successful business exits, including the sale of OxyMem (IH2O ’15) to Dupont in 2019. Wayne holds an International Executive MBA from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and an Advanced Management Diploma in Business/Managerial Economics from the same institution. Currently, he serves as a Venture Partner with Burnt Island Ventures and the Co-founder and Director of Method Capital Limited, offering non-dilutive project finance for sustainability infrastructure. Wayne’s expertise extends to non executive and advisory roles in the clean-tech and water sectors, reinforcing his status as a forward-thinking leader in these critical industries.


Judging & Advisory Teams

Aaron Zell
Equity Group Investments

Adam Tank
Transcend H2O

Andrew Collier
Veolia

Andrew Leach
Veolia

Anna Catafau
Veolia

Barry Hofer
Blue World Insight

Barry Liner
Water Environment Federation

Biju George
Ampcus Inc

Brady Steinbach
Sudoc

Brett Clark
Veolia

Bri Nakamura
Xylem Innovation Labs

Christopher Adams
RBC Capital Markets

Christine Boyle
Burnt Island Ventures

Chris Morrison
MorrisonWater

Christy Kennedy
Woodard & Curran

Clayton MacDougald
Emerald Ventures

Clifford Chan
East Bay Municipal Utility District

Corey Williams
SmartCover

Damian Georgino
Thales Water

Dan Kroll
Hach

Daniel Benitez
VL Water Quality LLC a Veralto Company

David Miller
GEI Consultants

David Rose
Thales Water

David Stanton
cleanwater1

Dirk Brusis
SKion Water

Dominik Elsaesser
Elsass Consulting LLC

Eric Tracy
Ferguson Waterworks

Helge Daebel
Emerald Technology Ventures

Henrik Laursen
AMI Global

Ifetayo Venner
Arcadis

Iryna Ryzhankova
DuPont Water Solutions

Jack Seagrist
Flodesk

Jessica Schloss
Veolia

Jill Hudkins
Tetra Tech

Jiten Mangliani
Aqualateral

Joe Zubak
Global Water Advisors

John Grant
Lemnos Advisory

Kelven Lam
Emerald Technology Ventures

Lynn Broaddus
Broadview Collective

Mark Lambert
WaterMark 

Matt Rea
The Nature Conservancy

Matthew Shackelford
Touchdown Ventures

Max Storto
Xylem

Michael Flynn
NASA

Michael Warady
Sylmar Group & EAI Water

Mike Lodge
Realise Impact

Nicole Neeman Brady
Renewable Resources Group

Nikita Shirish-Bhalerao
Veolia

Owen Cadwalader
Travertine

Paul Gagliardo
Gagliaqua

Paul O’Callaghan
Blue Tech Research

Peter Williams
Pivot Projects

Pierre Côté
COTE Membrane Separation

Ralph Exton
Grundfos

Reinhard Huebner
SKion Water

Robb Barnitt
DropCountr

Sabeeha Islam
Munich Re Ventures

Sandeep Sathyamoorthy
Stantec

Sandrine Duboc
Veolia

Sarp Sekeroglu
Kimley-Horn

Shogo Hosoda
Kubota

Steve Kloos
Burnt Island Ventures

Takasuke Nezaki
Kurita

Travis Wagner
Trinnex

Vinod Jose
Amane Advisors

Vinod Ramachandran
Roland Berger

Will Sarni
Water Foundry Ventures

Cindy Ko
Toniic (Singapore)

Choon Jin Yeoh
Enterprise Singapore

Gabriel Gábor Kicsi
Veolia Asia (Singapore)

Hugh Chapman
Aqua Analytics (Australia)

Irwan Dinata
Moya Holdings Asia Ltd (Indonesia)

Kunal Shah
Anaergia (Singapore)

Michael Froud
Pittwater Capital (Australia)

Michael Toh
PUB Singapore

Michael Reed
Family Sustainability Solutions

Philip Abraham
Veolia Asia (China)

Ng Wun Jern
Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

Prashant Pundrik
Athena Cleantech (Singapore)

Ramon Alikpala
FutureWater Asia (Philippines)

Rodney Chapin
Ardurra International (Vietnam)

Ronnie Lim
TechWater Solutions Inc (Philippines)

Steve Kloos
Burnt Island Ventures (USA)

Stuthi Vijayaraghavan
Urban Venture Labs (India)

Tuck Wai Lee
Upconverge (Singapore)

Allegra Gordon
Oceankind

Anders Jacobson
Blue Foundry

Betsy Otto
Independent

Braulio Eduardo Morera
50L Home Coaliation

Caroline Delaire
Aquaya Institute

Chaarvi Amit Badanni
American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact

Chloe Oliver Viola
The World Bank

Emily Skeehan
11th Hour Racing

Erika Montague
Schmidt Marine Technologies 

Jason Thompson
Oceankind

Jennifer Sara
The World Bank 

Jiten Manglani
Aqualateral 

Katie Velasco
Rare, Center for Behavior and the Environment

Kunal Shah
Anaergia

Margaret Bowman
Independent

Neil Jeffery
Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor 

Paul Gagliardo
Independent

Stephanie Wear
The Nature Conservancy

Timonthy Male
Environmental Policy Innovation Center

Tom Ferguson
Burnt Island Ventures

Will Sarni
Water Foundry

Xin Gao
Xylem


Our Board

tamin pechet
Tamin Pechet

Tamin Pechet

tamin pechet

Tamin Pechet is Chairman of Imagine H2O. He is also CEO of Upwell, a holding company for purpose-driven businesses, including one of the largest finance companies in the water industry. Tamin is the founder of Banyan Water, a leading software and analytics company that optimizes water systems nationally, and he serves on boards of four software and data businesses. Previously, Tamin was a venture capitalist at Catamount Ventures and an investor at Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group, where he co-founded Goldman Sachs E&P Capital and helped launch Goldman’s Specialty Lending Group. Tamin holds an AB with honors from Harvard University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was featured in two recent case studies.

tamin pechet
matt evans
Matt Evans

Matt Evans

matt evans

Matt is Managing Principal at Julius, an online and AI education company that connects learning to job skills and careers for water professionals.  Previously, Matt was Senior Vice President at Pearson, a global education company (ticker: PSO, 25K employees), where he led its online learning division serving tens of thousands of adult learners each year.  Prior to joining Pearson, Matt was as a Principal at Salmon River Capital and an Assistant Vice President at Merrill Lynch. He received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Amherst College.

matt evans
Rebecca Hwang
Rebeca Hwang

Rebeca Hwang

Rebecca Hwang

Prior to co-founding Rivet Ventures, Rebeca Hwang co-founded YouNoodle, Cleantech Open, and Startup Nations Summit. Rebeca was educated at MIT and Stanford and has been recognized as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and as one of the top 35 under 35 Global Innovators by MIT Tech Review. Rebeca also serves on the Global Board of Kauffman’s GEN and the WEF’s Global Council on the Future of Migrations. Rebeca has worked closely with several countries on their national startup programs, including Malaysia, South Korea, Spain, Iceland, Chile and Mexico, where she is a member of the Mexico-U.S. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Council. Rebeca is a frequent speaker at global conferences on entrepreneurship and women leadership.

Rebecca Hwang
brain matthay
Brian Matthay

Brian Matthay

brain matthay

Brian is Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives at Cypress Creek Renewables, a utility-scale solar project development company and long-term owner of solar projects. Prior to Cypress, Brian was a Senior Vice President in the Environmental Finance Group at Wells Fargo where he originated and structured solar tax equity investments for the bank’s own account from 2008 to 2014. Previously, as Project Director for the Global Environment Technology Foundation (GETF), he developed public-private water partnerships including a $20 million water partnership with Coca-Cola and USAID operating in 21 countries. Brian holds an AB with honors from Harvard and a MS in Resource Economics from the University of California Davis.

brain matthay
matt servatius
Matt Servatius

Matt Servatius

matt servatius

Matt Servatius has been with Wells Fargo for over 15 years in various leadership roles across relationship management and risk in CleanTech, technology, general industries and real estate. In early 2015, Servatius began leading the CleanTech banking group nationally with offices in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Denver, and Houston. Matt also sits on the Board of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2), is on the National Renewable Energy Labs Investor Advisory Board, and is a member of the Bay Area Council Water Committee. Servatius holds a Bachelors of Commerce in Finance, and a MBA from Santa Clara University.

matt servatius
peter werner headshot
Peter Werner

Peter Werner

peter werner headshot

Peter is a partner in Cooley’s business department. He joined the Firm in 2001 and is resident in the San Francisco office. Peter’s practice primarily focuses on the representation of emerging technology companies, venture capital firms, private equity firms and investment banks. Peter regularly assists clients with financings and mergers and acquisitions, in addition to entity formation, organization and governance matters, securities transactions, and SEC and stock exchange compliance and reporting. Peter received a J.D. in 2001 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Law and Economics Fellow. Peter received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1997.

peter werner headshot

Current Job Openings

Future Opportunities

If you want to get involved with Imagine H2O, email us at jobs@imagineh2o.org with your resume and why you’re interested in our organization. We are always excited to meet people passionate about water innovation and entrepreneurship.