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 5 - Water Supply Networks with Frank Van Der Kleij and Ivan Stoianov
Innovation: An Endless Pursuit
52 minutes 54 seconds
6 years ago
Episode 5 - Water Supply Networks with Frank Van Der Kleij and Ivan Stoianov
In today’s episode of Innovation: An Endless Pursuit we look at one of the most critical pieces of the water puzzle, our network assets - the pipes that keep the water flowing from our reservoirs to our customers taps.
When you look at the challenges facing the water industry, some of the biggest are found in how we manage our network assets: keeping customers supplied with fresh drinking water, reducing leakages and preventing disruption when we have to make repairs.
This is no small job when you think there’s over 4,250 miles of pipe that carry water across the Bristol area. Some of which dates back to the 1800s!
To maintain our network we must continually repair, upgrade and evolve our network. Replacing old, outdated pipework with the latest innovations in network technology. This is an ongoing cycle of activity and one that we’re always looking for innovative ways to improve.
Identifying and responding to how our network is running – either during incidents or in normal operation - is an area that we have developed some really exciting innovations in helping us to keep customers on supply when there are problems and reduce the stress on our pipes when there aren’t.
In this episode Chris meets with two leading experts in this area, Ivan Stoianov and Frank Van Der Kleij, to discuss the size of the challenge when it comes to maintaining our networks and learn how industry and university collaborations are helping us to address the challenges of network management.
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 guests:
Frank Van Der Kleij
Frank is the head of Asset Risk and Planning at Bristol Water and has responsibility for Network Asset performance through risk management, development of interventions and delivery assurance for our investment program.
He has an MSc in Rural Engineering from Cranfield University, a chartered Environmentalist and a committee member for the Institute of Water in the South West. He has over 20 years’ experience in Water Management and has provided consultancy services on several Non Revenue Water projects in Central and South-East Asia.
Ivan Stoianov
Ivan is a Senior Lecturer in Water Systems Engineering and a holder of a prestigious five-year EPSRC Fellowship.
Ivan founded and leads a cross-disciplinary research group InfraSense Labs which has a current research portfolio in excess of £2.5 million. He is also the co-founder of Inflowmatix Ltd which allows utility companies to continuously diagnose the fluid dynamics in their networks in order to reduce bursts, operating costs and uncertainty in hydraulic modelling.
In addition to his academic work Ivan was called as an expert witness for the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. He has been asked to investigate the sufficiency of water supply and water pressure for the provision of water to the London Fire Brigade to allow them to effectively fight the fire in Grenfell Tower on 14th of June, 2017.
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.
