Members of the Safe Water Project Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will guide the project in strategic decisions throughout the five-year life cycle of the project. The TAG forum was designed to provide for interdisciplinary critical thinking and exchange among experts, ensure that the project team develops the best approaches for learning, and help identify potential pitfalls and possible solutions.
Tom Clasen, PhD
Dr. Clasen, an epidemiologist, is a senior lecturer in the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on waterborne diseases affecting low-income populations, including household-based interventions to improve the microbiological quality of drinking water in development and emergency settings. His publications include field trials of point-of-use filtration and disinfection products, systematic reviews of water quality and sanitation interventions to prevent diarrheal disease and enteric infections, assessments of water and sanitation interventions in emergencies and outbreak responses, cost-effectiveness analyses of water quality interventions in developing countries, and the "Water and Sanitation" chapter of the fifth edition of the Oxford Textbook on Public Health. His current research includes randomized trials of novel filtration technologies; WHO reports on scaling up household water treatment and the role of the intervention in achieving the Millennium Development Goals' water targets; and examinations of the microbiological effectiveness, cost, environmental consequences, and health impact of boiling—the most common means of treating water in the home worldwide. He holds an MSc (Control of Infectious Diseases) and PhD from the University of London and a JD from Georgetown University.
María Elena Figueroa, PhD
Dr. Figueroa is the director of the Global Program on Water and Hygiene at the Center for Communication Programs in the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and she is also the director of the Research and Evaluation Division at the center. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Figueroa has contributed to the field of applied communication for health and development through research conducted in numerous countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, and Zambia. Her current work focuses on the understanding of ecological, household, and individual factors affecting hygiene behavior and household water treatment. She has recently coauthored a chapter on the social, cultural, and behavioral correlates of household water treatment and storage for the forthcoming WHO book Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage. Her additional research interests include the development of conceptual models and indicators to assess the effect of community-based interventions for participatory development; behavior change indicators related to gender in development programs; and the role of household traits on health behavior. She provides behavior change expertise to several international organizations, including the WHO International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage and the World Bank-based Public-Private Partnership for Hand Washing.
Stuart L. Hart, PhD
Dr. Hart is the Samuel C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise and professor of management at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management. Before joining Cornell in 2003, he was the Hans Zulliger Distinguished Professor of Sustainable Enterprise and professor of strategic management at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he founded the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and the Base of the Pyramid Learning Laboratory. Previously, he taught corporate strategy at the University of Michigan Business School and was the founding director of the Corporate Environmental Management Program. Professor Hart is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism for business strategy. He has published more than 50 papers and authored or edited 5 books. His article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World” won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in the Harvard Business Review for 1997 and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. With C.K. Prahalad, Hart also wrote the pathbreaking 2002 article “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which provided the first articulation of how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. His new book, Capitalism at the Crossroads, was published by Wharton School Publishing in 2005. The second edition of the book with a new foreword by Al Gore was published in 2007.
Rajeev Karwal
In a career spanning more than 24 years, Mr. Karwal has worked on start-ups, turnarounds, and more. He is known for his strategic abilities and excellent execution. He has worked in India and abroad with companies like LG, Philips, Onida, and Electrolux. After stepping down from the post of president and CEO of the Consumer Durables Vertical of Reliance Retail, he founded Milagrow Business & Knowledge Solutions to help micro, small, and medium enterprises with a unique venture catalyst approach. Mr. Karwal is considered one of India's greatest brand builders, start-up experts, and ace turnaround artists. The Economic Times featured him among India’s most powerful CEOs in 2004. In 2002, Business Today chose him among the top 25 Hot Young Rising Stars of India Inc. Additionally, Business India voted him as one of the Stars of the Millennium in 2000.
Makarand Phadke, PhD
Dr. Phadke received a Bachelor of Technology degree in chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai in 1980 and MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984. He started his industrial career with Rohm & Haas Company in Philadelphia in their Research Department. In 1994 Dr. Phadke moved to India, where he has been working with water treatment companies. Currently, he is with Reliance Industries, Ltd., and is part of the Innovation Leadership Centre in Pune. Dr. Phadke’s industrial experience has covered research and development, marketing, sales, and business leadership.
Robert Quick, MD, MPH
Dr. Quick is a medical epidemiologist in the Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He received his medical training at the University of California, San Francisco, obtained an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley, completed residencies in family practice and preventive medicine, and worked as medical director and clinician at the Indian Health Service hospital in Bethel, Alaska. For the past 17 years, he has worked at the CDC conducting research on the etiology, control, and prevention of enteric diseases in the developing world. His work on cholera in Latin America and Africa revealed the seriousness and extent of the problem of lack of access to safe water and sanitation in the developing world and inspired a research focus on waterborne diseases and their prevention. With colleagues at the CDC and the Pan American Health Organization, he developed the Safe Water System, a simple, inexpensive, household-based water quality intervention, and has conducted field trials in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to establish the evidence base supporting its use and dissemination (www.cdc.gov/safewater). He has collaborated with numerous partners from the public and private sectors, nongovernmental organizations, UN agencies, and academic institutions to implement and evaluate the Safe Water System and other water and hygiene interventions in vulnerable populations in the developing world, including people living with HIV/AIDS.
Vinay Singhal
Mr. Singhal graduated in mechanical engineering from BITS Pilani in 1966. He has worked in reputed Indian and multinational corporations: DCM, Hindustan Lever, JK, Indo Rama, and Ranbaxy. His technical experience covers operations, maintenance, and project management in large industrial plants. He has demonstrated expertise in energy management, including erection and operation of all types of captive power plants.
Mr. Singhal has general management experience via his role as president/CEO of JK, Indo Rama, and Fortis Healthcare. He introduced several innovative initiatives that helped achieve turnaround at JK and Indo Rama. As CEO of Fortis Healthcare (for five years), he erected the most modern 350 bed hospital in a record time of 18 months, following global standards in collaboration with Partners Healthcare System of Boston.
In 1995, Mr. Singhal attended the Advanced Management Program (AMP) at Harvard Business School, Boston.
In 2005, he joined the Clinton Foundation (HIV/AIDS initiative). In his role as country director, Mr. Singhal coordinated all activities of the foundation in India. He controlled a budget of $7.5 million and was responsible for implementation of the foundation’s memorandum of understanding with the Government of India. Vinay also acts as a liaison between the India office and other country operations and the head office in Quincy, Boston. Some challenging projects have been initiated during his time.
He completed his assignment with the Clinton Foundation and resumed the work of consulting through his consulting company, SJV Consultants (www.sjvconsultants.org). He represents Partners Healthcare System, a $6 billion company, and Nanobiosym Inc. (a Boston-based nanotechnology company). Primarily he works in health care, education, and energy by being on the board or as adviser of a number of companies and nongovernmental organizations.