Letter From Our Co-Chairs
Together The Water Council, our members, partners and contributors celebrated benchmark accomplishments this past year: from the grand opening of the Global Water Center, to the launch of the Global Freshwater Seed Accelerator program, to the redevelopment of Reed Street Yards into a Global Water Technology Park.
The Center proudly opened its doors to the public, welcoming in excess of 800 people and initially housing 25 different organizations, while garnering significant media attention. National and international companies are now approaching The Water Council looking to establish operations and headquarters in the Milwaukee region.
In less than five years, not only has our size grown, but our scope has expanded exponentially. In 2013 we grew by more than 30 new members, including companies headquartered around the world. The Council has increased programming for start-ups and member companies of all sizes; education at middle, high school and college level; and has established credibility as an international hub for water technology innovation. Our Board of Directors, recognizing our tremendous growth, is developing a new Leadership Strategic Vision. This vision outlines accomplishments and strategies to maximize The Council's global reach in the water technology market.
We will continue focusing on Reed Street Yards as an important partner with the Center. Since moving to the Walker’s Point neighborhood, we’ve witnessed the flurry of work to ready the site for development and look forward to Reed Street Yards expanding the physical hub of water research, technology and innovation that the Center has already established.
Looking forward, 2014 promises to be another immense year for The Water Council. We will be hosting our 7th annual Water Summit, our largest Summit ever, coinciding with the International Water Association’s Board of Director’s meeting. The Global Freshwater Seed Accelerator program will accept a wave of applications for Round 2, a global solutions team of specialists in water-related fields will be developed to deploy to inquiring markets, and our colleagues at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences will debut their new facility.
We’ve had a tremendously successful year thanks to our dynamic membership and partners in academia, government and business communities around the world, our vital financial supporters and strong staff. Our members are our best ambassadors – we look forward to working with you in the coming year to spread the word and share our vision as we expand our global impact. Thank you.
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Rich Meeusen
Co-Chair, The Water Council
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Paul Jones
Co-Chair, The Water Council