Board of Directors
Doug Brown
Chairman
Mr. Brown is one of only a handful of globally recognized senior executives to have led multiple successful billion dollar exits in the water space. He was the founder, Chairman and CEO of AquaVenture Holdings, which he led to a listing on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) in 2016 and subsequently sold to Culligan Water for US$1.2 billion in 2020 while he was serving as Chairman. Mr. Brown was also CEO of Seven Seas Water, an AquaVenture Holdings business. He was previously CEO of NYSE-listed Ionics, Inc., which was acquired by GE Water for US$1.3 billion in 2005. Prior to Ionics, Mr. Brown was CEO of Advent International, a global private equity firm. Mr. Brown’s experience spans the US, Europe, South America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Melanie Leydin
COMPANY SECRETARY
Ms. Leydin earned a Bachelor of Business degree in Accounting and Corporate Law from Swinburne University. She is also a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia, an independent professional association for company secretaries, governance advisers, and risk managers in Australia, committed to promoting sound practice in governance and risk management.
Mel Ashton
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Mel Ashton is the former Chair of Cullen Wines (Australia) Pty Ltd, former Director of The Hawaiian Group, and previous Acting CEO of Royal Flying Doctor Service in Western Australia. He has also been President and Director of CAANZ, and Vice President and Director of Fremantle Football Club Ltd, who hold the Australian Football League license for the Fremantle Dockers.
Mel Ashton holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Western Australia. In 2019 Mel was awarded a Meritorious Service Award which recognizes an outstanding contribution to CAANZ and the Accounting Profession.
Tom Pokorsky
Managing Director & CEO
Tom Pokorsky is CEO and Managing Director of Fluence Corporation. Mr. Pokorsky has 35 years of successful water industry executive experience, including 15 years as CEO working in North America, with activity in Europe, China and Israel. Mr. Pokorsky has run public and private businesses, achieving returns of 5–10x with IRRs up to 50%. He founded and grew Nexom in the wastewater sector, delivering 25% annual revenue growth and 50% EBITDA growth, leading to its sale to KKR. At Water Pollution Control Corporation (later “Sanitaire”), Tom doubled revenue and profits, negotiated its sale to ITT Industries, and then grew its Advanced Water Treatment group (now part of Xylem) from $60M to $350M in four years, including $100M in organic growth and five successful acquisitions on three continents.
Paul Donnelly
NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Mr. Donnelly is Chief Executive Officer of Flagstaff Partners, an independent corporate advisory firm.
Previously, Mr. Donnelly was an Executive Director at Macquarie Capital, where he worked for 25 years in various roles, including President & CEO of Macquarie’s Canadian operations, and Global Head of Equity and Debt Capital Markets.
Mr. Donnelly has a broad range of investment banking experience, in Australia and internationally, with particular skills in capital markets. Over his thirty-year career he has gathered deep transactional experience advising on significant and complex transactions for leading Australian and international companies.
Nikolaus Oldendorff
Non-Executive Director
Nikolaus Oldendorff is working as managing director of Reederei Nord GmbH in Germany that currently operates around 35 vessels in the transportation of crude and petroleum products, various dry bulk commodities and the transportation of containers. He is also engaged as a start-up and venture capital investor and holds several board seats around the globe.
Nikolaus earned a Masters degree from the CASS Business School in London.
