Today’s episode of our Innovation: An Endless Pursuit podcast, is a special one, as it’s the last one of our series. Over the past weeks, we have journeyed through many different innovation challenges that the water industry faces and explored how companies can respond to them.
In today’s episode, Chris speaks with Bristol Water’s CEO, Mel Karam. They shift focus and zoom out a little, to look at the industry, rather than company-specific, challenges. Mel and Chris talk about how the industry is evolving and discuss where it can look for further progress.
Their conversation touches on a range of topics, including the complexities of competition in the water industry, how utilities businesses can live out their social purpose and, as in our previous episodes, Mel’s punt on which of today’s innovations are likely to flop.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and look forward to hearing what you think of it.
We’re always looking for help and collaboration on our Quest and if you have any comments or thoughts we’d love to hear from you at innovation@Bristolwater.co.uk.
Today's guest:
Mel Karam
Mel Karam is the CEO at Bristol Water. He joined the company in April 2017, from the KPMG Global Infrastructure team, where he was a Partner and Global Head of Asset Management. He is an engineer with a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and graduated with an MBA distinction from London Business School.
Mel has a long history of working in senior executive positions in UK infrastructure and utilities, including British Gas, National Grid, Scottish & Southern Energy, SGN and Thames Water. He has advised infrastructure and utility executive teams and investors around the world, on M&A activities, as well as operational excellence. Mel is skilled in investment management, asset management, commercial and business development, project management and strategic leadership.
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Today’s episode of our Innovation: An Endless Pursuit podcast, is a special one, as it’s the last one of our series. Over the past weeks, we have journeyed through many different innovation challenges that the water industry faces and explored how companies can respond to them.
In today’s episode, Chris speaks with Bristol Water’s CEO, Mel Karam. They shift focus and zoom out a little, to look at the industry, rather than company-specific, challenges. Mel and Chris talk about how the industry is evolving and discuss where it can look for further progress.
Their conversation touches on a range of topics, including the complexities of competition in the water industry, how utilities businesses can live out their social purpose and, as in our previous episodes, Mel’s punt on which of today’s innovations are likely to flop.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and look forward to hearing what you think of it.
We’re always looking for help and collaboration on our Quest and if you have any comments or thoughts we’d love to hear from you at innovation@Bristolwater.co.uk.
Today's guest:
Mel Karam
Mel Karam is the CEO at Bristol Water. He joined the company in April 2017, from the KPMG Global Infrastructure team, where he was a Partner and Global Head of Asset Management. He is an engineer with a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and graduated with an MBA distinction from London Business School.
Mel has a long history of working in senior executive positions in UK infrastructure and utilities, including British Gas, National Grid, Scottish & Southern Energy, SGN and Thames Water. He has advised infrastructure and utility executive teams and investors around the world, on M&A activities, as well as operational excellence. Mel is skilled in investment management, asset management, commercial and business development, project management and strategic leadership.
Episode 4 - Water Treatment with Natalie Fee and Rob Luckwell
Innovation: An Endless Pursuit
39 minutes 50 seconds
6 years ago
Episode 4 - Water Treatment with Natalie Fee and Rob Luckwell
In today’s episode of Innovation: An Endless Pursuit we look at a hugely important, yet often underestimated topic, of importance of water treatment. The quality of water in the UK has been some of the best globally for a number of decades, so people just don’t think about it too much.
But ensuring that we provide the best water to our customers is no small feat and it’s our innovations in water treatment that enable us to maintain this high standard.
Innovation in Water Treatment isn’t just about doing what we do better though, it is constantly changing. Our team of experienced water scientists are always on the lookout for things that could impact our water quality and are constantly assessing these to determine where we need to focus our next innovations.
One of the biggest emerging topics at the moment is plastic pollution. Our love of plastic and its indestructible nature has led to its discovery in some of the most unexpected places on earth: at the bottom of the ocean, within Arctic Ice, even inside animals!
It’s an area of increasing importance for the water industry – particularly when considering micro-plastics that can enter water ways – and is leading some to ask questions like “should we begin to regulate for this”.
In this episode Chris speaks with two separate experts to look at both the innovations that we have seen in water treatment and the potential threat that plastic poses to our water supply.
The first half of today’s episode looks at innovation in water treatment with Rob Luckwell, Water Quality Scientist here at Bristol Water. In the second half, Chris talks with Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea, and discusses the scale of the plastic problem and what we can do to reduce the impact on our water environrments.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and look forward to hearing what you think of it.
About today’s guests:
Natalie Fee:
Natalie is an award-winning environmentalist, author, speaker and founder of City to Sea, a UK-based organisation running campaigns to stop plastic pollution at source. In 2018 Natalie was listed as one of the UK’s ‘50 New Radicals’ by The Observer / Nesta and in the same year the University of the West of England awarded her the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science in recognition of her campaign work. She won the Sheila McKechnie Award for Environmental Justice in 2017 for City to Sea's #SwitchtheStick campaign and is proud to have been named Bristol 24/7’s Woman of the Year for 2018.
Her book, How to Save the World for Free is due out October 2019. She can be found on Instagram as nataliefee_ and on Twitter as nataliefee
Rob Luckwell:
After 15 years on the job, Rob is an expert in treatment process operation and optimisation; he has a passion for customer engagement and educating on the value of water. In fact, one of his recent accolades, in 2019 Rob was awarded an outstanding business advocate award by the Lord Mayor of Bristol for services to local communities.
Innovation: An Endless Pursuit
Today’s episode of our Innovation: An Endless Pursuit podcast, is a special one, as it’s the last one of our series. Over the past weeks, we have journeyed through many different innovation challenges that the water industry faces and explored how companies can respond to them.
In today’s episode, Chris speaks with Bristol Water’s CEO, Mel Karam. They shift focus and zoom out a little, to look at the industry, rather than company-specific, challenges. Mel and Chris talk about how the industry is evolving and discuss where it can look for further progress.
Their conversation touches on a range of topics, including the complexities of competition in the water industry, how utilities businesses can live out their social purpose and, as in our previous episodes, Mel’s punt on which of today’s innovations are likely to flop.
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode and look forward to hearing what you think of it.
We’re always looking for help and collaboration on our Quest and if you have any comments or thoughts we’d love to hear from you at innovation@Bristolwater.co.uk.
Today's guest:
Mel Karam
Mel Karam is the CEO at Bristol Water. He joined the company in April 2017, from the KPMG Global Infrastructure team, where he was a Partner and Global Head of Asset Management. He is an engineer with a First Class Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and graduated with an MBA distinction from London Business School.
Mel has a long history of working in senior executive positions in UK infrastructure and utilities, including British Gas, National Grid, Scottish & Southern Energy, SGN and Thames Water. He has advised infrastructure and utility executive teams and investors around the world, on M&A activities, as well as operational excellence. Mel is skilled in investment management, asset management, commercial and business development, project management and strategic leadership.
