Speakers

Professor Roger Falconer

Roger is Emeritus professor of Water and Environmental Engineering at Cardiff University, chair professor at Hohai University, China, and an independent water and environmental engineering consultant. He has held academic posts at the universities of Birmingham, Bradford, and Cardiff and has led large research teams on a wide range of research projects on flood and water quality modelling.

He has been involved in over 100 EIA studies worldwide and has published extensively in the field. He regularly advises the water industry and UK and international government agencies on flooding and water quality issues, and regularly participates in media and TV interviews on these topics.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering (Foreign Member), Institution of Civil Engineers and Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management. He is an Honorary Member and Past-President of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering & Research (2011-15). 

Victoria Brayshaw

Victoria Brayshaw is the Yorkshire & Humber regional vice chair and West Yorkshire branch chair of the Institution of Civil Engineers. She is a fellow and has been involved with the institution for more than 20 years.  She is the national head of civil engineering in Tetra Tech’s UK division.  

Her team of engineers, designers, and consultants are working with public and private sector clients and water companies throughout the UK, combining traditional engineering with smart sewers and nature-based solutions. Victoria also holds a role on Tetra Tech’s senior leadership team focused on technical excellence and technical development.

John Curtin

John spent over 30 years in key roles at the Environment Agency including director of incident management & resilience, executive director of flood and coastal risk management, and executive director of operations.

He has extensive experience in managing major environmental incidents - floods, droughts, pollution, and nuclear events - and is a specialist in crisis response, community resilience, and emergency communications. John played a central role in responding to events such as the 2013 coastal surge, the 2014 Somerset floods, and storms Desmond, Eva, Ciara, Dennis, and Eunice.

During national emergencies, he represented the Agency at COBR, contributing to government-led crisis coordination. His work in climate resilience earned him the British Hydrological Society’s Presidential Prize (2020) and an honorary Doctorate (2022).

Today, John continues to contribute to the field as a visiting professor at the University of Southampton and President of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management as well as working with private sector businesses to improve their climate and environmental resilience.

Bryan Penny CEng MICE

Bryan is a senior associate at Mott MacDonald,  based in Sheffield.  He has had a career in civil engineering spanning 30 years, working with contractors and consultants focusing on water management and environmental improvement schemes.

Over the past 10 years, he has been occupied with flood defence schemes particularly in the Yorkshire and Humber region, working with local authorities and the Environment Agency. 

As a past chair of the Yorkshire and Humber region Bryan was passionate about supporting the sharing of knowledge and experience across the Engineering professions,  to showcase the excellent work done in the region building and maintaining the infrastructure necessary for a thriving society. 

Clients and communities are increasingly focused on providing schemes that bring environmental and ecological benefits, schemes which also minimise the impacts of construction and use low-carbon materials, all while ensuring optimum value.

Leading and supporting the development of flood alleviation schemes requires constant updating of knowledge to stay abreast of the latest legislation and regulations as well as developments in industry best practices. It is important to take some time to reflect on strategic issues and consider what the future challenges will be as we move further towards climate uncertainty.

Clive Surman-Wells

Clive is innovation partnerships manager for Northumbrian Water Group (NWG). Having spent 25 years in information technology and information systems, Clive has been delivering and deploying operational solutions within Northumbrian Water for last 14 years, most notably in the geospatial field.  

Clive has been a driving force in progressing NUAR the National Underground Asset Register, established England’s first moss tree, and has pioneered a number of initiatives to improve positional accuracy of buried assets.  Partnership and collaboration have been at the heart of his work.

Now Clive helps colleagues win external funding to turn their ideas into reality, something that led to the inception of the National Leakage Research and Test Centre.

Professor Kirill V. Horoshenkov

Kirill Horoshenkov is Professor of acoustics in the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research interests are in acoustic sensing, robotics and porous media. He led the EPSRC UK Acoustics Network Plus (UKAN) with 2000 members.

He also led the EPSRC Programme Grant to develop robotic autonomous sensing for buried pipes (Pipebots). Pipebots is now a registered trademark used by all UK water utilities while referring to autonomous robots working in buried water pipes. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK Institute of Acoustics and Acoustical Society of America. He is the editor-in-chief for Nature Portfolio Journal Acoustics.  He is a founder of two spin-off companies. He is a chartered engineer.

Dr Richard Crowder

Jenny Cooke

Jenny Cooke is a collaborative and inclusive leader with 18 years of experience in civil engineering. Her career spans the full breadth of the Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) sector—beginning on site as a geotechnical engineer, progressing through consultancy as a rivers and coastal engineer, and culminating in 13 years of project management and programme delivery for the Environment Agency.

As Calder programme manager (£160M) and West Yorkshire area flood risk manager, Jenny has led transformative schemes, secured multi-million-pound funding, and built trusted relationships across government, industry, and communities.

Renowned for resolving complex stakeholder challenges, she champions equality as an EDI lead and has earned awards for excellence in communication, coaching, and customer service. Jenny firmly believes that collaboration is the key to solving even the most difficult problems.

Craig Lashford

Craig is a chartered water and environmental manager, with over 14 years of experience in surface water management, having previously worked in academia. Craig is an associate director of surface water management with extensive experience regarding the effectiveness of sustainable drainage and natural flood management on catchment flooding. His background is primarily in optioneering, working with communities to outline different nature-based solutions both in the UK and internationally.

Rachel Glossop

Sarah Tyler

Sarah Tyler is the strategic partnership lead for Connected by Water and is currently leading the development of South Yorkshire’s Integrated Flood and Water Management Plan. Connected by Water (CbW) is an alliance between the four local authorities in South Yorkshire, Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. 

Sarah has a varied background working in the private, voluntary and public sector and has worked directly with partners and local authorities on a wide range of issues including flooding, climate change and sustainability appraisals – and prior to this role, worked on the effects of PFAS contamination in water.

Emma Brown

Emma Brown is manager of strategic partnerships at Yorkshire Water and general manager of award-winning partnership, Living with Water; Emma’s key strategic aim is climate resilience.

Emma’s passion for nature-based solutions and holistic water management drives a dedicated team of flood risk engineers, partnership portfolio managers, and strategy leads for NBS, social value and education.

Emma’s ambition for the future would be to have a strong partnership culture embedding sustainable nature-based solutions to support water management throughout the region. Her team are working hard to deliver green spaces across the region to support flood resilience, environmental benefits and community well-being.

Dr Beth Barnes

Dr Beth Barnes is the regional director for the North East, Yorkshire & Humber, joining the ICE in January 2025. She has previous experience as an assistant professor at Durham University. She taught civil engineering from fundamental first year mechanics, to design of steel and concrete to Eurocodes and surveying.

Her research background is in exploring the poor representation of pedestrian behaviours in agent-based simulations of disaster and hazard events on differing scales from a pavement (micro) to city environment (macro), which links to Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Sustainable and Resilient Cities). 

Prior to this she worked in industry in both consultancy and contracting roles in the transport and water sectors. She is an advocate for diversity and has continuously championed outreach initiatives, including setting up and leading a Women’s Engineering Society at Durham University and facilitating departmental outreach connections with over 6000 local young people annually.

Jenny Roberts

Jenny is a chartered scientist with the Institute for Environmental Sciences and holds a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Cambridge. As data science lead at JBA Consulting, Jenny specialises in applying advanced statistical and machine learning techniques to a broad range of scientific and engineering challenges in the fields of flood modelling, climate adaptation, and earth sciences.

She has led a number of high-impact AI flood resilience projects, including using deep learning time series models to enhance forecasting at the Thames Barrier, and convolutional neural networks to develop real-time, probabilistic flood forecasting systems. 

Dave Scott

Dave is a Chartered civil engineer and project manager, approaching 25 years’ experience across the water sector in the UK and Asia. He has always been motivated by a strong sense of what his work is ‘for’, from which came a passion for trialling and leading adoption of technology to optimise outcomes and user experience – including the experience of the delivery team.

As digital lead for Arup’s work with the Environment Agency, Dave's current focus is on streamlining delivery in alignment with client data and information needs, to relieve pressure on valuable resources and unlock insight that drives better decisions.

Mike Dugher

Will McBain

Will leads Arup’s work related to adaptation and resilience (water environment) in the UK, India, Middle East and Africa. A director of Arup, he is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management and a leading proponent of integrated solutions to water and environmental challenges of all kinds.

Will is Arup’s framework director on the Environment Agency’s (EA’s) Collaborative Delivery Framework, on which Arup is Lot 1 Consultant in the Northeast/Yorkshire and Midlands hubs. He is on the Board of the EA’s Decarbonisation Accelerator Programme and is Arup’s project director for three of the EA’s Adaptation Pathway Pilots.

He is also Arup’s topic lead for the water environment aspects of the Development Consent Order for Thames Water’s South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO). He lives in Ilkley and has strong views about the need for a more joined-up approach to addressing urban flooding and river water quality issues.

Sun Yan Evans CEng FICE

Sun Yan Evans FREng, FICE, FCIWEM is Mott MacDonald’s inaugural Fellow and director of flood risk and water quality, with over 30 years of experience in the water sector. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), and the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), where she also serves as a Trustee.

Internationally recognised for her leadership in flood and water quality modelling, dam breach analysis, and policy-shaping work with the UK Government and the World Bank, Sun Yan has led high-impact projects across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

A passionate advocate for technical excellence, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), and mentoring, she regularly speaks at global forums and has received numerous industry awards. Her leadership is defined by a reflective, inclusive approach that continues to inspire the next generation of water and environmental professionals.

Jonathan Moxon

Jonathan has 20 years of experience working within flood and climate resilience management for the Environment Agency and Leeds City Council. As a lead local flood authority, his teams manage flood risk and the wider impacts of climate change across the city.

Jonathan plays a leading role on strategic, regional and national partnerships and initiatives relating to climate change and flood risk in both research and delivery capacities. 

He plays an active role in both the Leeds and Yorkshire & Humber Climate Commissions and manages the West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme. Jonathan also represents Leeds City Council on the board of the Aire Resilience Company. 

Adam Ashman

Adam has 20 years experience working across infrastructure asset management, operations, maintenance and engineering. A chartered engineer, he is head of strategic planning at Yorkshire Water, focussing on important topics such as the climate, the transition to Net Zero, the adaptation to a changing climate, and the protection of our natural environment through the creation and implementation of long term sustainable improvements such as the Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans.

Adam is a huge advocate of solving problems through innovation and the multiple benefits that come from working and learning together within diverse partnerships.

Geoff Roberts

Geoff has spent over 50 years working in various roles to improve our rivers.  

After starting as an analytical chemist investigating problems caused by a local food plant, he joined Yorkshire Water in 1974 as a pollution prevention officer. He rose in the ranks to head of safety health and environment before leaving in 2000 when he accepted a role as trustee for The Aire Rivers Trust.

He has sat on the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee for the Environment Agency and maintains an active interest in the regulatory regime surrounding water pollution and the water industry.

Ruth Goodall

Ruth has diverse experience in catchment management, flood risk and water planning and has spent her 25 year career so far working to deliver sustainable benefits for people and the environment. With a background in hydrology, flood risk and catchment management and a track record in the development of project strategies and delivery plans for major water infrastructure, Ruth has an in depth understanding of the challenges facing regulated and government clients in the water sector. 

As part of the Technical Governance team within the Yorkshire Storm Alliance Ruth is supporting the delivery of ambitious sustainability benefits in Yorkshire Waters CSO spill reduction programme and is championing the delivery of blue – green solutions alongside traditional storage approaches for Yorkshire.

Ruth is a Fellow of CIWEM and an active member of the North Western and North Wales Branch of CIWEM.

Richard Jackson

Richard has been working directly with communities in the East Riding of Yorkshire for over 15 years, supporting residents and businesses to adapt to the challenge of living on the fastest eroding coast in northwest Europe.  Richard also has significant experience of developing coastal management policy including shoreline management plans and local plans. 

With previous experience of working across environmental management, biodiversity and climate change, Richard is currently managing the Changing Coasts East Riding project, part of the Government’s Coastal Transition Accelerator Programme, as well as continuing to work at a national level to promote the need for adaptation.

Amy Bentley

Originally from Chesterfield, Amy studied at Leeds University and began her career as a hydrologist. Following roles in flood risk and water resources management in the UK and Australia, Amy eventually made her way back to Yorkshire and is now head of sector for water and environment Europe.

Amy’s teams are helping clients tackle the industry's biggest sustainability and infrastructure challenges including reaching net zero by 2030, focusing on critical areas such as improving combined sewer overflows and driving the return on investment in technology and talent.

Dr Vera Jones

Dr Vera Jones is technical director, global technical authority for water quality and technical Fellow at AtkinsRéalis. She leads a global team of technical experts working across the breadth of the water quality sector – from river and coastal biogeochemistry to emerging contaminants, water quality modelling and beyond.

She has a particular interest in bathing waters, and how we can apply latest approaches and technologies to improve the water we protect these environments. Vera holds a PhD in aquatic biogeochemistry, is a Chartered marine scientist and Fellow of the Institution of Environmental Sciences. She was awarded an AtkinsRéalis President’s award (2023), was a finalist for the WISE Outstanding Woman in Science award (2024) and Highly Commended in the CIWEM Spotlight awards (2024).

David Renwick

David joined Natural England in late September of 2022. Before this he was area director for the North of England for the National Lottery Heritage Fund. He was director of conservation at the North York Moors National Park and has held environmental/sustainable development positions in local government. 

One of his earliest roles was managing a wetland restoration scheme working with farmers on agri environment. At university David studied Environmental Management and has master’s 
degrees in Restoration Ecology and Public Management. One of the things David has enjoyed being involved in the most in recent years is Nature North strategic partnership for nature recovery for the North of England.