15 board members for the term 2022-2026

The annual general meeting of German Water Partnership took place on July 5 again in presence on site in Berlin. With almost 100 members attending, the first physical general meeting after two pandemic years – held on the climate-neutral seminar ship Orca ten Broke – enjoyed great popularity. In addition to the information of the board and the management about the recent activities of the association and resolutions for the fiscal year 2022 / 2023, the regular election of the GWP board for the next four years was on the agenda this year.

New faces on the board – Gunda Röstel confirmed as chair of the board

15 candidates had stood for election to the Board of German Water Partnership and were unanimously confirmed via an open list election . This means that the board is again staffed with the maximum number of members until 2026 and a representation of the entire diverse membership of GWP in the board is guaranteed.

The board of German Water Partnership for 2022-2026 introduces itself:

DR. MICHAEL BECKEREIT, Managing Director, DWI Deutsche Wasser International, Hamburg.

Michael Beckereit studied civil engineering and earned his doctorate with a thesis on the costs of anaerobic wastewater treatment. After managing positions at Eurawasser, Berlin, and the Essen-based Emschergenossenschaft, Lippeverband, among others, he spent 13 years managing the Hamburg waterworks.

Since 2017, he has acted as a special representative of the management of Tilia GmbH in Leipzig and has been managing director of DWI Deutsche Wasser International since 2019.

Dr. Michael Beckereit is a founding member and long-standing member of the board of German Water Partnership.

AXEL BÖCKER, Member of the Management, Dorsch Holding GmbH, Frankfurt/Main//General Manager Dorsch Emirates – Dubai/U.A.E.

Axel Böcker studied civil engineering as well as factory planning in postgraduate studies. Until the takeover by RSBG SE in 2016, Axel Böcker was a shareholder of the Dorsch Group. Until today, he acts as managing director of Dorsch Emirates, based in Dubai. In addition to his membership in the Chamber of Engineers in Hesse and the Society of Engineers in the United Arab Emirates, he is also a long-standing member of the Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ghorfa, a member of the Foreign Trade Committee of the Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a member of the Qatari German Partnership.

Axel Böcker is a new member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2022.

DIPL.- ING. (FH) MICHAEL DRECHSLER, Managing Partner, UFT Umwelt- und Fluid-Technik Dr. H. Brombach GmbH, Bad Mergentheim

Michael Drechsler studied civil engineering, water management and cultural engineering with a focus on urban water management. He first worked as a project engineer and has held various positions at UFT Umwelt- und Fluid-Technik Dr. H. Brombach since 1998, since July 2017 as managing partner. He is a member of the general assembly of the Heilbronn-Franken Chamber of Industry and Commerce and chairman of the sponsoring group of the IHK-Wirtschaftsjunioren Regionalgruppe Main-Tauber as well as of several DWA technical committees or working groups in the field of construction and soil waste.

Michael Drechsler is a new member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2022.

ECKARD EBERLE, CEO Business Unit Process Automation, Siemens, Karlsruhe, Germany

Eckard Eberle studied electrical engineering and automation technology. Eberle started his career in 1992 at Siemens Energy as a project manager in engineering. After holding positions as a sales engineer and sales manager in the power plant division and as a partner at Siemens Management Consulting, Eberle was appointed head of the Control Components business unit in 2008.

From 2011 to 2014, Eckard Eberle was CEO of Industrial Automation Systems at Siemens, and since 2014 he has been CEO of the Process Automation Business Unit at Siemens in Karlsruhe.

Eckard Eberle has been a new member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2022.

ALEXANDRA ERVENICH, Corporate Account Manager Water, Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V., German Branch, Ratingen

Alexandra Ervenich studied Roman languages and literature as well as contemporary Japanese studies and set the course for an international orientation of her professional activities at an early stage. She has been working for Mitsubishi Electric since 1994. Since 2011, she has been Corporate Account Manager Water in the Factory Automation business unit of Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. Since Mitsubishi Electric joined the German Water Partnership in 2011, she has been actively involved in the association, with a particular focus on the Arab world, especially Egypt. From 2016 to 2019, Ms. Ervenich was deputy head of the RF Egypt/Jordan, since September 2019 she is head of the RF North Africa & Jordan.

Alexandra Ervenich is a new member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2022.

PROF. DR.- ING. SVEN-UWE GEISSEN, Head of Department, Technical University of Berlin

Sven-Uwe Geissen is a professor at the TU Berlin in the Department of Environmental Process Engineering. In addition to his work at the TU Berlin, he is currently a board member of the German Water Partnership, chairman of the IndustryWater section of the VDI ProcessNet platform, and vice chairman of AQUANET Berlin Brandenburg. His research focuses on industrial water management, treatment and recycling, sludge treatment and utilization, desalination, resource recovery, concentrate management and treatment, and plant modeling and simulation.

Sven-Uwe Geissen is a member of the German Expert Council for Environmental Technology and Infrastructure and a long-standing member of the board of German Water Partnership.

INGO HANNEMANN, Technical Managing Director, Hamburger Wasserwerke GmbH

Ingo Hannemann, who holds a degree in engineering, joined the MVV Energie Group after holding positions in municipal infrastructure management as well as strategy and organizational development, where he held various management positions. In 2009, Hannemann took over as head of the Energy-Water-Wastewater Technology Division at Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG and as managing director of ESOS Energieservice Osnabrück GmbH. He has been technical managing director at HAMBURG WASSER since 2018. Since 2021, he has assumed the role of Spokesman of the Executive Board at HAMBURG WASSER.

Ingo Hannemann is a member of various committees of industry and trade associations and has been a new member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2022.

GEORG HUBER, Chairman of the Management Board, HUBER SE, Berching.

Georg Huber was employed in various positions at Huber Technology in France, Singapore and the USA from 1993 to 1997, and from 2002 at Hans Huber AG as Sales Representative Region Latin America. From 2006 he was Head of Finance at Hans Huber AG, from 2008 Chief Financial Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer at HUBER SE and from 2010 Chairman of the Management Board of Huber SE, furthermore member of the Board of Trustees of the Huber Technology Foundation since 2011.

Georg Huber has been a member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2014, of which he has been the managing director since 2017.

MICHAEL KERSTING, Business Development Manager, Hermann Sewerin, Gütersloh, Germany.

Michael Kersting has been responsible for international business development at Sewerin since 2014, preparing the company’s entry into little to undeveloped markets. He began his professional career in 1991 at Miele & Cie. KG and moved to Hermann Sewerin GmbH in 2006 as Area Sales Manager. In this position, he was responsible for the regions of Southeastern Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, Spain, Latin America and Africa.

At German Water Partnership, in addition to his role as a member of the board, he heads the Africa and Latin America regional forums and has been on the association’s executive board since 2018.

DR. MICHAEL KUHN, Managing Partner, KUHN, Höpfingen, Germany

Michael Kuhn studied supply engineering and industrial engineering. After a first professional station in an engineering office for wastewater technology, he joined KUHN GmbH, which he has headed in partnership as managing partner since 1997. He has been an officially recognized expert in water management since 2021. He is a member of the board and the advisory board of the DWA and a member of the DIN committee on wastewater treatment plants.

Michael Kuhn has been a member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2018.

DR.-ING. SHAHROOZ MOHAJERI, Managing Partner, inter 3, Berlin

Shahrooz Mohajeri is managing partner of the research and consulting institute inter 3 in Berlin. His work focuses on economic and institutional-entrepreneurial aspects in the water sector. The environmental engineer with a PhD advises national as well as international organizations in the MENA region with a focus on Iran. He has been a member of GWP since its foundation and is responsible for various tasks.

Shahrooz Mohajeri is member of the board of German Water Partnership, head of the Regional Forum Iran, mind sponsor for the Regional Forum Africa and the Working Group Agricultural Irrigation as well as association representative in the GIZ Working Group Water/Wastewater/Waste.

DIPL.- CHEM.- ING ANJA RACH, Senior Sales Manager Water, BRENTWOOD/ENEXIO, Hürth, Germany

After graduating as a chemical engineer (FH), Anja Rach worked for several years in the industrial coatings market segment in the application technology sector, focusing on international sales and sales management (authorized signatory). In 2003 she founded her own engineering office and consulted various companies nationally and internationally. The path from paint technology to water/wastewater was steered via filtration.

Anja Rach has been a member of the board of German Water Partnership since 2014.

GUNDA RÖSTEL, Authorized Representative GELSENWASSER, Dresden//Commercial Director SE Dresden

Gunda Röstel has a degree in special education and worked first as a teacher and later as a school principal. After her political engagement as party leader of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance 90/The Greens), she has been working in the energy and water industry since 2000. With her position as authorized signatory of GELSENWASSER AG, managing director of the subsidiary Stadtentwässerung Dresden GmbH as well as in various supervisory board functions of the EnBW Group, she has many years of operational as well as cross-divisional professional experience in this sector. In addition, she has headed the economic committee of BDEW for many years, is a member of the extended technical board and a member of the federal board. Furthermore, she has been active for more than 10 years as Chairwoman of the University Council of the University of Excellence TU Dresden.

Gunda Röstel is a co-founder of German Water Partnership and has been Chairwoman of the Board since May 2017. She is also a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, the National Hydrogen Council of the German Federal Government, the Innovation Advisory Council of Saxony and the Advisory Council HZwo.

DR.-ING. GERD SAGAWE, Management Consultant, Dr. Weber and Partner, Frankfurt/Main

Gerd Sagawe is an independent management consultant in the partner network of Dr. Weber & Partner GmbH Beratung für Strategie-, Geschäfts- und Personalentwicklung (Consulting for Strategy, Business and Human Resources Development) and support for the establishment and further development of corporate units and teams in water, wastewater, energy and environmental technology in Frankfurt/Main. He studied chemical engineering and received his doctorate from the Faculty of Energy and Economics at the University of Clausthal. From 2003, he was responsible for EnviroChemie GmbH as a board member, managing director and authorized signatory.

Gerd Sagawe is involved in board positions in the VDMA (German Engineering Federation), in the members’ council of the Entrepreneurs’ Association of Southern Hesse and in DECHEMA/VDI (ProcessNet – Industrial Water Section). He is head of the Working Group on Industrial Water Management and a member of the board of German Water Partnership.

DR.-ING. URSULA SCHLIEßMANN, Head of Business Field Environment and Climate Protection, Head of Department Prototype Development and Construction, Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB.

Ursula Schließmann studied process engineering at the University of Stuttgart and received her doctorate there in 2009. Until 2001, she was a research associate in the Department of Membrane and Process Technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB, Stuttgart. From 2001 to 2006, she was a research associate at the Institute of Interfacial Process Engineering IGVT, University of Stuttgart, before moving to the Department of Environmental Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering at Fraunhofer IGB.

Ursula Schließmann is a member of the board of German Water Partnership e.V. and deputy head of the AK Innovation and Science Cooperation.

We look forward to working with her and wish her every success in her work on the board of German Water Partnership.

Many thanks for your board activities

With the election of the new GWP board for the next four years, we say goodbye to the long-standing board members Hubertus Soppert, Richard Vestner and Hans-Joachim Werner, who did not stand for re-election this year – thank you very much for your commitment to the board of German Water Partnership!

As a founding member of GWP, Hubertus Soppert was an active member from the very beginning and has been part of the board since 2008. He showed his commitment in the Regional Forum Gulf States and in the context of countless events and delegation trips. The constant expansion of the network and the cultivation of contacts in the political arena are among his merits. We say thank you and wish Hubertus Soppert all the best in his well-deserved retirement!

Dr. Richard Vestner, also a GWP member since 2008, has been a member of the board for the past eight years. Most recently active in the management of the North America Regional Forum on the side, his focus was on the topic of digitalization. His accomplishments include the Water 4.0 brochure and his strong online presence for GWP. As an advisory board member of the BLUE PLANET Berlin Water Dialogues, he provides important input: in 2021 on Smart City and currently on the topic of artificial intelligence in water management. Mr. Vestner, we say thank you and wish you every success in all the new challenges ahead!

Hans-Joachim Werner was a GWP board member since 2014 and in this function he made a strong case for the representation of SMEs, among other things. We think of numerous GWP-Days in Turkey and the multiple presentation of the GWP-Award to young talents. Unfortunately, he could not be present personally at the official farewell during the 18th General Assembly. We would like to take this opportunity to thank him once again and are pleased that Hans-Joachim Werner will remain with the GWP network as head of the Regional Forum Turkey!

Impressions of the 18th General Meeting of German Water Partnership

Photo credits (c) ProjectImages / Daniel Hinz