CIWEM Presidential Conference 2025: The Ripple Effect | COVENTRY | IN-PERSON

Hannah Burgess | CIWEM President and Regional Delivery Director (Flood, Coast and Maritime) | Binnies

CIWEM President Hannah Burgess is a fellow of CIWEM and a chartered water and environmental manager. She has worked in flood and coastal management for 21 years and has witnessed first-hand the devastating impacts of flooding and coastal change. For her day job, she is a regional delivery director for the Binnies UK flood, coast and maritime business (part of the RSK Group). Hannah has volunteered for CIWEM since 2005 and was past chair of the Rivers and Coastal Group and the West Midlands Branch. She was a founding member of the Women in FCERM initiative and the Chair of the RSK Women’s Network. In summer 2024, Hannah also won the RSK Group People Award for Network Builder of the Year.

Ruth Needham, Head of Landscape and Partnership at Trent Rivers Trust 

Ruth Needham is Head of Landscape and Partnership at Trent Rivers Trust. She is an aquatic ecologist specialising in the restoration of rivers, floodplains and wetlands and a keen advocate of working in partnership. She is passionate about the use of nature-based solutions, both in rural and urban settings to deliver a range of benefits. She has a breadth of capital and engagement experience, liaising with farmers, community groups, regulators, private business, planners and engineers. Ruth has worked in the water sector for over 25 years, initially with the Environment Agency, then with the Wildlife Trusts, and more recently with the Rivers Trust.

​Jamie Cooper, Flood Risk Manager, Staffordshire County Council

Jamie Cooper is Flood Risk Manager at Staffordshire County Council. He has more than 15 years’ experience in flood risk management having held various roles in the private and public sector. Jamie has an MSc in Water Resources Technology and Management and an MBA. His specialist interests are innovation, surface water, and community work combining theoretical and practical aspects of flood risk management. He chairs the strategic board for the flood aware, informed and resilient (FAIR) project covering Staffordshire and the Black Country and sits on various regional and national boards. Jamie is a Chartered Manager, fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and currently working towards fellowship of CIWEM.

​Margaret Devenport, Performance and Reporting lead, Severn Trent Water

Margaret is a Performance and Reporting lead within Severn Trent. She oversees the performance reporting around Severn Trent's Storm Overflow and implementation of the wider improvement plans to reduce spills at these assets.

She has previously created Severn Trent's waste infra PR24 investment plan within the Strategy department. Before joining Severn Trent she was a Framework Manager in consultancy working on a variety of urban drainage projects in the UK and Australia.

Margaret is a subject matter expert on hydraulics, water quality and data analytics. Margaret has a keen interest in training and development.

Margaret lives in Derby and in her spare time runs two Girl Guide units. Meaning when she's not in the office you'll find her in a field near a city of tents.

Jacky Huson, Southwell Flood Forum 

After my house flooded in 2007 and 2013 I wanted to avoid the traumatic experience again. I camped in my house during the remedial works and within days of the flood on 23rd July 2013, I was instrumental in forming Southwell Flood Forum. I've lived in Southwell since 1980 and with my admin/IT background I grew into the role of secretary, volunteer recruiter/'manager', networker - locally and at national events - alongside my work as a massage therapist. I helped arrange events, built relationships within the flood community and my steep learning curve included fathoming the complexities of flooding, mitigation and resilience.

​Peter Cross, Lowdham Flood Action Group

Peter Cross was an Army Officer for 30 years then founded and ran a charity using veterans to work with disaffected young people for 15 years. He founded the Lowdham Flood Action Group in 2020 which switched to providing COVID support for the village before resuming its normal role. His village has flooded 6 times. He has significant experience working with Risk Management Authorities including the development of a £30 million Flood Alleviation Scheme. He has established a network of local flood leads in surrounding villages who share information and support. He is on the Trent Regional Flood and Coastal Committee championing the activities of flood groups.

Rhys McCarthy, Area Flood Risk Delivery Manager, Environment Agency

Rhys is the Area Flood Risk Delivery Manager covering the West Midlands for the Environment Agency; he has over 20 years’ experience of both managing and working as a technical lead within the industry.

Rhys has delivered flood risk schemes, programme managed delivery of hundreds of millions of pounds of investments within the West Midlands and worked with communities, Risk Management Authorities, and politicians to better protect people and the environment.

Over the past 10 years Rhys has specialised in funding requirements for flood risk investment, working with the Regional Flood and Coastal Committees to get the most for communities.

​Emily Cowell, Ecologist , Canal and Rivers Trust

A restoration ecologist at heart, Emily’s love of nature started young. Emily pursued that passion through an Environmental Science degree, years of conservation volunteering, to a MSc in Conservation Ecology and recently designing and delivering nature recovery projects for the Canal and River Trust. Emily has had the opportunity to work on multifaceted restoration projects including Defra and NHLF funded Green Recovery Challenge Fund and Seven Trent funded Unlocking Biodiversity project, delivering sustainable landscape nature recovery. Now working within the Environment and Climate Action team, Emily’s focus is on nature recovery, protected species and sites and collaboratively working on strategy and policy for environment and climate related sustainability challenges.