Meet Our BHUC 2023 Speakers

September 22, 2023

The time has come to meet our BHUC 2023 speakers!


Our renowned annual conference, now in its 11th year, continues its tradition of featuring an exceptional line up of expert speakers. This year, a team of specialists has been carefully chosen to bring our theme 'Designing the Future: Sustainable Borehole Water Supplies' to life. They will leverage practical case studies, extensive industry experience, and deep subject knowledge to deliver an outstanding conference experience.


What to expect…


The day kicks off with our keynote speakers, Dr Stephanie Wray and Andy Turner who will set the tone for the day introducing this year’s theme of sustainability. Stephanie will first summarise why a path to sustainability is one we should all be treading before Andy translates how this is interpreted by the environment agency and what it means for borehole water suppliers.


After which, David Banks of Holymoor Consulting and co-author of the renowned 'Water Wells and Boreholes', will bring the hydraulic design chapter to life, detailing key considerations to optimise drawdown efficiency. Our audience will then hear from John Calder from Dura Pump as he discusses how power and pump control systems can be optimised, before our very own James Dodds takes to the stage to weave the morning sessions together.


The afternoon will then see two fantastic workshops, the first of which will be delivered by David Banks, Shona Symon, and John Calder. This interactive workshop session on Borehole Design will build on David's morning talk before exploring the use and selection of control systems. Our parallel workshop on Water Stewardship, run by Envireau Water in collaboration with The Alliance for Water Stewardship and Steve Brown from 20 Fifty Partners, will build on last year’s conference, exploring what sustainability means for good water stewards.


Our flagship Borehole Users Conference will be taking place at Holywell Park Conference Centre on Wednesday the 8th November 2023, and there's still time to book your delegate space!



Meet our Speakers:

Stephanie Wray, Chief Sustainability Officer, RSK Group


Stephanie is an environmental and sustainability consultant with almost 30 years of experience in advising projects and businesses on reducing and mitigating their environmental and social impacts. She has worked in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific and is a Fellow and past President of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).


Steph is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the RSK Group and the founder of Nature Positive, an RSK consultancy assessing corporate sustainability risks and dependencies in relation to the natural environment, often with a watery theme. Representing that small area of intersection of a Venn diagram of ‘People with PhDs in Biodiversity’ and ‘People with MBAs in corporate strategy’, she is particularly well placed to advise on how all business relies on nature.

Andy Turner, Water Resources Manager, Environment Agency


Andy Turner is a Water Resources Manager in the Environment Agency. For the last 31 years he has worked on many aspects of water resources management, including water company water resources planning, abstraction licensing, drought management, water resources strategy and policy, as well as the development and implementation of water resources legislation. 


Andy’s team are currently helping the agriculture and energy sectors to improve their water supply resilience and are busy refreshing the National Framework for Water Resources which sets out the long term water supply and environmental needs for the nation and provides a pathway for multi-sector water resources planning.

David Banks, Director, Holymoor Consulting Ltd


Dave is the author/co-author of the textbooks “Water Wells and Boreholes” and “An Introduction to Thermogeology: Ground Source Heating and Cooling”, both in their 2nd editions and both published by Wiley. His experience covers the design of boreholes for groundwater supply, ground source heating, and geothermal energy development. As well as, water chemistry, where he provides advice on the mineral and biofouling of well screens. 

James Dodds, Water Resources Specialist, Envireau Water


James is renowned for his in-depth knowledge of the UK regulatory system. Over 40 years, he has developed national recognition for his expertise in water management and water resources hydrogeology. Particularly with respect to abstraction licensing, borehole design and testing, the development of monitoring systems.

Shona Symon, Senior Hydrogeologist, Envireau Water


Shona is passionate and experienced in water resource management, working throughout the UK to develop groundwater supplies. She specialises in borehole design and specification, test-pumping, monitoring systems, and abstraction licensing across food and drink manufacturing, water bottling, and distilling sectors. 

John Calder, Technical Director, Dura Pump


John has brought together the many aspects of pump systems over the past 22 years, resulting in the ability to specify every aspect of a pump system and resolve many long standing issues. Having been practical hands on fault finding, building systems, and installing pumps, he can analyse systems fully.

Sarah Wade, Global Sector Lead, Alliance for Water Stewardship 


Sarah works with businesses and other interested organisations within AWS’ priority sectors to help advance water stewardship around the world. Sarah engages with companies to help them understand water risk, learn more about water stewardship, and then take informed action where it is needed most, working with others along the way.

Steve Brown, Director of UK Water Stewardship Programmes, 20 Fifty Partners


Steve has extensive experience in the water sector ranging from sustainable urban drainage design, to implementing and auditing international water standards. He regularly presents at conferences and delivers training on water standards to a wide range to people in various roles and organisations.

Dr Phil Ham, Managing Director, Envireau Water


Phil specialises in hydrogeological impact assessments and has a particular interest and expertise in the development, management, and regulation of independent water supplies. He leads groundwater supply and environmental monitoring projects for a variety of industries including food and drink manufacturing, water bottling, brewing, distilling & allied industries, as well as pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.

Dr Lee Oliver, Head of Sustainability, The Woodland Trust


Lee has multi-site water stewardship and governance experience. Achieving the Alliance for Water Stewardship certification for Diageo’s 11 Spey malt distilleries and Cameronbridge grain distillery. 

Harriet Robson, Senior Water Resources Specialist, Envireau Water


Harriet specialises in the regulatory aspects of water resources management, including abstraction licensing, discharge permitting, water stewardship, and nutrient neutrality. She is passionate about the UK’s regulatory system and the agri-food sector. As chair of the Water for Food Group, Task and Finish Group, she has recently assisted the UK’s National Drought Group.

Julia Carter, Technical Officer, British Soft Drinks Association


Julia joined the British Soft Drinks Association this year after 7 years at AG Barr as Regulatory Affairs Manager. She built her expertise in food regulation through various roles in confectionery, in wholesale retail with Makro, and labelling with SVA Ltd.
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