Governance

Annabelle Degroot

Non-Executive Director

Annabelle Degroot is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of experience, more than half of which was spent in Southern and West Africa. She held a series of senior financial and commercial roles before progressing to Managing Director positions with the SABMiller/AB InBev group in Zambia and Nigeria. On returning to the UK, she took up the role of Global Vice-President, Strategy and Sustainability Finance at Unilever, before becoming Managing Director of French and Jupps Ltd, the UK's oldest provider of roasted malts to the food and beverage industry. She brings deep expertise in financial governance and risk management, international stakeholder engagement, and sustainability strategy, with particular experience of navigating complex regulatory environments across multiple markets.    

Alicia Walters

WSUP Charity Trustee

Vanniasingham Baghirathan

WSUP Charity Trustee

Baghi is a civil engineer specialising in water resources and project management. He had a long career with one of the UK’s major consulting engineering companies, leading on water resources and other development projects in south and SE Asia including Indonesia, Bangladesh and India. In the latter years, as Regional Director for South and SE Asia based in Bangladesh and India. Following his retirement from the company, Baghi spent 16 years with WSUP from the start of its implementation programmes in 2007. This included several years as Programme Director for Mozambique and Madagascar followed by periods as Director, WASH Finance and as a consultant WASH expert. Baghi joined the Board of WSUP Charity in 2023.

Ulrike Sapiro

WSUP Charity Trustee

Ulrike Sapiro is Chief Sustainability Officer at Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, an internationally operating DAX-40 company based in Duesseldorf, Germany, and active in consumer products for laundry and personal care as well as industrial technologies with high-tech adhesives and sealants. In her role, Ulrike reports to the board and - together with her team - develops and oversees corporate sustainability strategy, governance, reporting and disclosure as well as external and internal engagement. She is working closely across the business on implementation and ESG data management program. In 2022, Henkel launched its new 2030+ Sustainability Ambition Framework and worldwide employee engagement and upskilling hub. Prior to joining Henkel, Ulrike spent 13 years in several sustainability leadership roles at The Coca-Cola Company on global and European level. Before joining Coca-Cola, she held sustainability and external affairs roles at RWE Thames Water, a UK-based private water and wastewater company. Ulrike holds a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Munich. In 2022, she was recognized as one of the Global Top 100 Sustainability Leaders.

Peter Lochery

Non-Executive Director, Representing Care International

Peter is Director of the CARE USA Water Team and his current work includes increased engagement with private entrepreneurs in rural WASH and mobilizing investment into rain-fed agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. Previously Peter worked for the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program and then with the WSP Regional Water and Sanitation Group for South Asia.

Karl Simons

Non-Executive Director

Karl is Executive Director – Head of Health, Safety, & Wellbeing at FYLD. Previously, he was the Chief Health, Safety & Security Officer at Thames Water and was responsible for the strategic direction and development of these.  He has 25 years of experience in industry, having worked across all continents and numerous safety critical industries including oil, gas, minerals, rail, construction and utilities.

David Birch

WSUP Charity Chair

David is a civil engineer specialising in water resources. After three years as a VSO volunteer in Bangladesh, David led water resource projects in Egypt, Pakistan, and India. He has worked for one of the UK’s major consulting engineering companies, including managing director or chairman of the group’s companies in India, China and South East Asia.

Lord Boateng

Chairman

The Rt Hon Lord Paul Boateng DL PC is a Member of the House of Lords. He was formerly in the UK Cabinet as Chief Secretary to HM Treasury and UK High Commissioner to South Africa. He is currently Chairman of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund based in Nairobi and is on the Board of the London based Ghana International Bank. He is Chair of a number of charities working in Africa including BookAid International and the International Council of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Andy Wales

Non-Executive Director

Andy Wales is one of the most experienced Chief Sustainability Officers in the world, having led sustainability for telco BT, brewers SABMiller and ABInBev, water utility Severn Trent, and textiles firm Interface Inc. Most recently he led Global Sustainability Solutions for Accenture as they scaled up their multi-billion dollar sustainability consulting practice. He’s now an independent Operations Adviser for private equity firm Advent International. Andy has sat on advisory boards for WWF, Sainsburys, the Global Innovation Fund, and the Mayor of London, and was a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.  

Ed Mitchell

Chief Executive; WSUP Advisory Chairman

Ed joined WSUP as CEO in June 2022. Previously, he was a Director at Pennon Group, the owners of South West Water, Bournemouth Water, Bristol Water, and Viridor, and Executive Director of Environment and Business at the Environment Agency for nearly a decade. He was also the Director of Environment and Corporate Responsibility at Thames Water. Ed holds a Master of Science (MSc) in Water and Wastewater Engineering from Cranfield University and was previously involved with WSUP as a non-executive director following its foundation in 2005.

Anzo Francis

Director of Finance

Anzo is responsible for the strategic development of WSUP’s global finance function, providing strategic support to the CEO and SMT and input to the Board, Finance and Audit Committees, and WSUP subsidiaries. Anzo ensures the group’s financial systems are robust, legally compliant and support current activities and future growth plans. A law graduate and fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), Anzo began her career in audit, finance and tax at Milne Ross and KPMG then moved into senior finance roles in industry and commerce, including housing, property, retail, energy consulting, education, business membership organisations and international development. Anzo joined WSUP in February 2020 and brings a wealth of commercial, financial and legal expertise and insight to WSUP's senior leadership team.

Jeremy Horner

Chief Operating Officer

Jeremy joined WSUP in 2016 and is the Chief Operating Officer. He leads the strategic development of WSUP’s six country programmes, oversees the People and Support function to ensure WSUP uses its people, time and money effectively, and drives programme quality through the Programme Excellence team. An engineer by training, Jeremy has experience across the commercial, public and non-profit sectors, including roles in international development with the UK government and as CEO of a UK NGO, where he also completed a management degree.