President: Mr. Humphrey Gouverneur  (Curacao)

Bio of Mr. Humphrey Gouverneur

Mr. Humphrey Gouverneur took the initiative to found the Caribbean Desalination Association and has been appointed first President of the Board of Director. Since the affiliation of CaribDA with IDA, he has represented CaribDA in the IDA Board of Directors. He has been very active in promoting CaribDA.

Mr. Humphrey Gouverneur has a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Institute of Engineers. During his more than 30 years career with Aqualectra, the Water and Power Utilities from Curacao, he has gained a wealth of experience with seawater desalination, with MSF, MED and SWRO and is also an expert in the field of electricity production.

Since 1999 he holds the position of Director of Production with Aqualectra.

Vice President : Mr. Errol Grimes (Trinidad & Tobago)

Bio of Mr. Errol Grimes

Mr. Errol Grimes; The Chief Executive Officer of the Water and Sewerage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (WASA) - a post held for the past six (6) years. A Civil Engineer with over 20 years experience in the Water and Waste Water Industry especially in the areas of Operations and Maintenance.  Mr. Grimes received formal education and advanced training in Civil Engineering in Trinidad and Germany respectively.  He manages as part of the Authority’s portfolio of water resources, the largest Seawater Reverse Osmosis Plant in the Western Hemisphere.   This plant produces approximately 24 imgd.  Mr. Grimes also overseers the operations of  WASA’s Beetham Waste Water Plant (BWWTP) which treats approximately 22mgd wastewater and is currently implementing a project to produce industrial grade water from wastewater using Reverse Osmosis Technology at this Facility. Mr. Grimes has served in the past as President of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) – 2000-2002 and is a former Board Member of Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS). He is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago (APETT), a Senior Member of the International Water Association (IWA) and a member of the International Desalination Association (IDA).  

Treasurer: Mr. Manuel Pereira (Curacao)

 Bio of Mr. Manuel Pereira

Mr. Manuel Pereira is Co-founder of the Caribbean Desalination Association and has been appointed as the first Secretary of the Board of Directors. He has represented CaribDA at the IDA World Congress in Grand Canaria, Spain Oct. 2007, where he presented a combined paper with Veronique of Degremont. He has been also very active in promoting CaribDA.

He has a degree Mechanical Engineering of the University of the Netherlands Antilles followed by a 2 years training in “Project Planning & Cost Controlling” in The Netherlands.

He is fluent in the languages; English, Dutch, Spanish, Papiamento and Portuguese.   

He has a total of 18 years experience in Construction Projects (Refinery, Power and Water plants) in The Netherlands and in the Caribbean (e.g. Curacao, Suriname, Aruba, Bonaire) and joined Aqualectra, the Water and Power Utilities from Curacao, in 1998 as Project Engineer where he was involved in several Desalination new construction projects and upgrades. Since 2003 he holds the position of Project Manager for Aqualectra and as such he was responsible for the execution of the 18.000 m3/day Sea Water Reverse Osmosis Plant build at Sta. Barbara, Curacao.

Secretary:  Mr.  Dr. Anders Hallsby, PhD (USA)

Bio of Mr. Dr. Anders Hallsby PhD

Mr. Anders Hallsby; In 1981 received a Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) degree in Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Received a Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1983, followed by a doctorate in 1985.

Worked for Dow Chemical in Midland, MI for 13 years, starting in Bioprocess Research. In 1989 moved to the Liquid Separations group, working with Water purification technologies for FilmTec Membranes and Dowex resins. In 1994 became the manager of the Specialty separations group. Responsible for technical service and support for RO and NF membranes and new business development for RO and NF technology. Launched Ultrafiltration (UF) and Microfiltration (MF) product lines in the North America market

In 1998 accepted a position with Akzo Nobel in Matteson, IL, as the Business Leader for the North American Ink resins business

In 2000 moved to a start-up “dot.com” business in downtown Chicago, as the General Manager for the online filtration business (eFiltration.com).

Joined Nalco Company in 2002. Currently Business Development Manager for Nalco’s membrane business unit.

Directors:

Ms. Linda Dudley (Barbados) 

Mr. Eric Saez (St.Maarten)

Mr. Paul Choules  (USA)

Mr. Bill Conlon  (USA)

Mr. Gerard Pereira (Cayman Islands)

Bio of Ms. Linda Dudley

Ms. Linda Dudley is currently responsible for marketing and business development for Ionics Freshwater Ltd, Barbados.Linda has worked in the field of membrane technology since 1985. She is a UK Chartered Chemical Engineer (and ‘Registered Engineer’ in Barbados).

Her career began with 10 years of membrane R&D at the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. Linda has worked within the global water and waste water treatment industry since 1994,formerly with Houseman Ltd (PermaCare), Degremont and  Nalco Ltd based in the UK. She relocated to the Caribbean in 2005 and is committed to supporting and developing the growth of membrane desalination and membrane bioreactor(MBR) technology in the region.She is a founder member of CaribDA and an active member of the IDA and Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association(CWWA) and has given over 20 technical papers at International conferences.

Bio of Mr. Eric Saez

Mr. Eric Saez has a degree of Electrical Engineering of the University of Grenoble in France. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish.   

He has a total of 19 years of experience in Construction and Operation of Water plants all around the world (e.g. Caribbean, Europe, Africa, America and Australia) and joined Veolia Water, the leader of water services provider for municipalities and industries, serving more than 110 million people worldwide, in 1994 as Project Engineer where he was involved in several Potable, Waste and Desalination Water projects. Since 2005 he holds the position of Operations Director for Veolia Water Caribbean.

Bio of Mr. Paul Choules

Mr. Paul Choules is a Vice President with Veolia Water Solutions and Technologies (VWS) in Houston, Texas, and provides leadership in the development and implementation of Desalination and related projects. 

Mr. Choules is experienced with a variety of project approaches, including the engineering, procurement, construction and startup (EPC) services approach, the design/build (D/B), design/ build/operate (DBO) and the design/build/own/operate (DBOO) project approaches.

Mr. Choules has more than 25 years of industry experience, which includes involvement in sales, startup, commissioning, managing, and operating seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and thermal desalination plants.

Prior to joining Veolia Water in 2005, Mr. Choules was a Regional Vice President with Weir Techna.  In that role, he directed the firm’s development and implementation of desalination projects for industrial applications in the South American and North American markets.

Bio of Mr. Bill Conlon

Mr. Bill Conlon is Technical Manager and Principal Professional Associate at the Water Technical Excellence Center, PB Americas, Inc.

Mr. Conlon has been a consulting engineer involved in membrane technology for over 37 years. He is a graduate of Florida International University, School of Technology with Post Graduate studies in Civil Engineering at the same institution. He is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and a registered Professional Engineer in Florida and Arizona. His forte is reverse osmosis, membrane processes and advanced water treatment. Mr. Conlon has pioneered the application of reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, and system components to municipal water treatment and is an internationally recognized specialist in the design and operation of membrane process and advanced water treatment systems. Bill is the author and co-author of more than 60 technical papers on the subject of water and wastewater treatment. Mr. Conlon is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Water Works Association (AWWA), Water Environment Federation (WEF) and International Desalination Association (IDA).

Mr. Gerard Pereira

Mr. Gerard Pereira was appointed to the position of Vice President – Engineering for Consolidated Water Company Ltd. (CWCO), Cayman Islands, B.W.I., in 2003. In Jan 2008 Mr. Pereira accepted the role of Vice President – Sales and Marketing for CWCO.

Mr. Pereira obtained his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. On returning, from university, to Cayman Islands in 1995, Mr. Pereira joined Ocean Conversions (Cayman) Ltd. as the Operations Engineer, and was subsequently promoted to Operations Manager in 1998, a positional held until CWCO acquired the company in 2003.

Mr. Pereira has gained significant experience and knowledge in all facets of the desalination industry, specifically within the Caribbean region having worked in the industry on several islands for 13 years. He was instrumental in the project development of several Design Build Own and Operate contracts in Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda, and British Virgin Islands. His is experienced in both, the design, build construction and the long term operations of desalination facilities.

Mr. Pereira resides on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and has called it home for 34 years. 100% of the public utility water on Grand Cayman is from Sea Water Reverse Osmosis.