Board Members
ROCKBlue has a strong and mixed Board of eight professionals with a diverse background and skill set. The Board has 40 percent female participation and 40 percent Africa representation. The organizational function of the Board, as documented in its bylaws, is responsibility for planning, policy, and reviewing work of ROCKBlue Directors and key team members. The Board of Directors is also responsible for other business and financial matters including approval of the annual budget.
Ned Breslin has been a nonprofit leader for over three decades and has a distinguished career of implementing impactful programs across the globe. Starting in 1987, he has worked on water and sanitation development throughout Africa where he helped organizations grow, improve and measure their results.
A former CEO of Water for People, a water and sanitation nonprofit that implements and tests unique implementation models in 11 countries around the world, Ned was best known for “Everyone Forever” which led to scaled full coverage models in multiple districts, in multiple countries across three continents, and the monitoring work he pioneered that led to the understanding long-term impact in new ways.
He strongly believes that new approaches are needed, thoughtful risks need to be taken and sector practice needs to be brought into greater light so that good work can be better understood; and work that does not transform lives highlighted as well so that mistakes and poor programming are not scaled.
Ned is a prolific writer and advocate, who contributes regularly to several publications and journals including Forbes, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Huffington Post, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He has spoken at several high-profile events including TEDx; PopTech; Social Innovation Summit; South by Southwest (SXSW); and social Good Summit, among others. Ned is a 2011 winner of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Ned received a bachelor's degree in government from St. Lawrence University and a masters from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Peter Macy, the founder and President of ROCKBlue, has four decades of engineering and management experience in all aspects of water supply, sanitation, and wastewater.
His career started out as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo and the Central African Republic. He rose to Vice President and Africa Regional Manager for the US engineering company CDM Smith before leaving to devote his full attention to the NGO, ROCKBlue.
He has worked within and for numerous public utilities in the developing world including utilities in Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Lesotho. Peter has managed millions of dollars’ worth of projects, has started up and led country and regional offices, marketed mega proposals, and served as a technical advisor for multiple sectors.
Peter has served as a "thought leader" and guest speaker at numerous conferences and initiatives associated with international development. He has authored and co-authored books and articles for professional organizations about water resources management.
His board assignments for various NGO’s includes: ROCKBlue, Engineers Without Borders, MCD and the Giving Circle. He has been active with various organizations and committees throughout his career including the International Water Association (IWA), American Water Works Association (AWWA), Water for People, and the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC).
Peter earned a BS degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (IEOR) from Syracuse University. Then, through coursework at UC Berkley, University of Denver and Colorado State University, became a practicing and Registered Professional Civil Engineer.
Satish brings over 25 years of technical experience working on international infrastructure and institutional development projects related to water and wastewater.
Over the past decade, he has led multi-national and multi-disciplinary teams and managed delivery of successful projects in culturally diverse countries like Jordan, Venezuela, Pakistan, Lesotho and Zambia. The projects range from planning and designing infrastructure; assessing institutional capacities and capabilities; planning institutional requirements for sustainability; monitoring implementation and startup operations of infrastructure projects. Satish brings a collaborative approach to development that benefits clients, their institutions and donor agencies to achieve desired outcomes.
He is currently based in Lusaka, Zambia managing a local team of resettlement and social experts on an MCC funded project. Satish is responsible for the capacity building of this team and to complete resettlement related activities associated with over $250 million-dollar water infrastructure investment on time and within budget.
Satish has a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, 1994 and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Michigan State University, 1990.
Sophia has held numerous senior management positions in her long and distinguished career. This includes the Lesotho National Development Corporation as the CEO, Deputy Chief Executive of the multi-million-dollar Lesotho Highlands Water Project of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority and CEO of the Millennium Challenge Account-Lesotho where she managed a US$362.55 million contract between the Government of Lesotho and the US government (MCC). She was also instrumental in the initiation and formulation of the Lesotho contract with MCC where she served as the Project Coordinator under the Ministry of Finance. Following Lesotho’s eligibility for a second contract with MCC, the Government of Lesotho appointed her as a Coordinator for the development process.
Sophia has won numerous awards including the prestigious MCC Country Ownership Award and the Lesotho Institute of Accountants’ Presidential Award for excellent service. Lesotho’s King Letsie III also appointed her to be Commander of the Most Loyal Order of Ramats’eatsana.
She has a strong financial background including serving as the chairperson of Nedbank Lesotho Board of Directors, as Director of the Central Bank of Lesotho Board of Directors where she also serves as a member of the Bank’s Audit Committee and, besides being on the Board, she serves on the Finance Commission of the Christian Council of Lesotho.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honors Degree from the University of Manitoba, Canada (1980). In 1984, she joined the Center for Accounting Studies where she lectured in Financial Accounting, Business Mathematics and Data Processing. She was appointed to the position of Deputy Director from 1987 to 1989.
Dennis has an extraordinary career working with utilities in the developing world and for multiple high-profile stakeholders from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the World Bank. He has also led numerous ground-breaking projects in the sector. Currently, he’s the Chief of Party of the USAID funded e-WASH project assisting water utilities in Nigeria. Prior to that, and his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he was Chief of Party of USAID’s SUWASA (Sustainable Water and Sanitation for Africa) program based in Nairobi, Kenya, which was aimed at promoting sustainable water sector reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Before joining SUWASA, Dennis was a Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist and the urban team leader of the Water and Sanitation Programme -Africa (WSP of the World Bank) where he worked on the different approaches to serve the urban poor whether by utilities (i.e. establishment of pro-poor units, water re-selling, delegated management approaches, and social connections) or other sustainable mechanisms.
Dennis is the former Managing Director of the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, Zambia. He also previously held the post of Managing Director of the Water Utility Partnership for capacity building in Africa (WUP).
Dennis has a PhD on economic regulation of water and sanitation services in Africa, an M.Sc. in Civil Engineering and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering.
Winnie is a Civil Engineer with a Masters’ Degree in Water Services Management from UNESCO-IHE in Delft, The Netherlands. She is also a Certified Project Management Professional.
She has over 14 years of experience in water utility advisory services. Prior to engaging in consulting work, Winnie worked as a full-time advisor to urban water utilities in Uganda. Her work involved elaborating reform policy recommendations, developing strategic approaches for small towns’ water services management including pro-poor service delivery. She was fundamental in developing policy frameworks on water utility asset management and small towns’ performance management.
Winnie has experience in monitoring and evaluating performance of donor funded programs, regulation of utility services, technical aspects of water services provision including water loss reduction methods, management information systems, and vocational training for artisans.
For most of her career, Winnie has been involved in water sector reform processes. Most recently, she was the Deputy Team Leader for a comprehensive investigation into the most effective way of reorganizing water services’ delivery in Uganda.
She has also worked on assignments in other countries including Rwanda, Somali-Land, South Africa, Netherlands; and she has received regulatory training at the Public Utility Research Center in Florida, USA.
Richard Noth has over 40 years’ global experience as a management and financial advisor. He specializes in institutional development, finance and public private partnerships of utilities and infrastructure in developing and transition countries, in the fields of water, wastewater and sanitation. He directed 22 development projects and advised governments in 25 countries on the range of management and other factors supporting sustainable water utilities.
He offers extensive experience in developing strategies, designing activities and financing infrastructure development programs, water projects, sanitation programs, including notably determining tariff systems and structures and investment implementation strategy for pro-poor service delivery.
Richard has developed and strengthened regulatory frameworks, such as developing the framework South Africa implemented for the monitoring of its Water Boards and that Saudi Arabia adopted for regulating its water utilities. His proven experience in determining utility restructuring and privatization options includes analyzing options for Public Private Partnerships as well as build-operate-transfer schemes for water and sanitation services. He evaluated the economic feasibility of infrastructure capital expenditures and investment projects, including financial due diligence assessment and identification of investments, always founded on the requirements for their sustainability. He has authored and co-authored over 40 publications and speaks three languages.
Richard has a Master of Public Administration, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1973 and a BA, Labor Management Relations with concentration in Industrial Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 1968.
Karen is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer and Registered Professional Engineer with a Master’s Degree in Business Management from Texas A & M University. She holds a Class 1 Wastewater License and is a Water Environment Federation (WEF) Fellow. She has 30 years of experience in the water industry, having started her water career at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality as a senior environmental engineer.
For the past 25 years, Karen has worked at Alexandria Renew Enterprises (AlexRenew), the water resource recovery facility serving the City of Alexandria, Virginia and parts of Fairfax County. Since 2005, she has served as chief executive officer.
During Karen’s tenure as CEO, she led a repositioning of AlexRenew from passive treater of water to sustainable utility and enthusiastic community problem solver, ensuring AlexRenew engages with its community in innovative and meaningful ways. For instance, as part of a capital program to address enhanced Chesapeake Bay regulations, AlexRenew created a neighborhood destination from an industrial area by incorporating amenities such as a regulation-size multipurpose field and LEED Platinum Certified Environmental Center with educational lobby into the planned wastewater infrastructure.
Karen is currently overseeing a significant program to address Alexandria’s combined sewer overflows. The program involves construction of a network of deep tunnels and sewers that will capture almost all of the overflows and send them to AlexRenew for treatment. It will also incorporate stream restoration, a public art program, and extensive community outreach.
Throughout her career, Karen has been devoted to mentoring women in the water industry, workforce development, and industry leadership. Karen founded and leads the Women’s Water Network for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and continues to develop and mentor a number of existing and future women water leaders.
To support the water workforce of the future, she oversaw the creation of the AlexRenew apprentice program and partnerships with two local organizations to provide internships to underserved, high ability high school students.
Karen has held board roles for a number of organizations, including the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and WateReuse. She has published or presented more than 50 educational papers and talks, and received multiple awards for public service and innovation.
