Can you tell us a little about yourself, and how does it feel in your new role as Executive Director at SIWI?
It feels great to be part of SIWI! I am so impressed by the team and their knowledge, and I am proud to be able to join an organization with experience from so many years of working in the water space, making a difference. World Water Week confirmed what I’d already sensed: SIWI has earned deep trust by combining rigorous knowledge with genuine collaboration.
My background spans both the development sector—most recently as CEO of Save the Children Sweden—and the private sector as Head of HR and People & Culture at H&M Group. I’ve led organisations through change, with a focus on building capabilities and clarity of purpose in complex environments. At SIWI, I’m excited to help shape our new strategy so we remain relevant and impactful, working with partners to turn knowledge into better water governance and real outcomes.
From SIWI’s perspective, what are the biggest challenges currently facing the water sector, and how do you see the path towards building a Water-Smart Society?
In Europe, four challenges stand out. Climate change is already disrupting water systems, with floods, droughts, and shifting rainfall patterns becoming the new normal. A Water-Smart Society must build resilience through technology and nature-based solutions, smarter storage, and better early warning systems.
Governance remains fragmented. Too few coherent policies regulate and safeguard freshwater, and water is still managed in silos across agriculture, energy, cities, and industry. The EU Water Resilience Strategy offers a chance to change this by elevating and embedding water across all sectors.
Urbanisation is another pressure point. European cities face growing risks from flooding, scarcity, and pollution. To adapt, they must integrate green infrastructure and modernise wastewater systems so that resources are reused rather than wasted.
Finally, finance remains a bottleneck. Despite Europe’s advanced markets, water resilience is still underfunded. Integrating water into ESG frameworks, developing new financial tools, and mobilizing investments in circular and nature-based solutions will be key.
Europe must continue to work on all these fronts, but it is also clear that it is leading the way. With the EU Water Resilience Strategy and strong cross-sectoral collaboration, Europe has the potential to demonstrate to the rest of the world what a Water-Smart Society looks like in practice.
What are your key priorities in this new role, and what opportunities do you see for collaboration between SIWI and Water Europe?
A key priority for me is to continue strengthening SIWI’s role as a bridge—connecting knowledge, governance, and practice. SIWI already has a long history of bringing water and climate experts and stakeholders together, and in today’s fast-changing landscape, this bridging function is more important than ever. By building stronger connections, we can ensure that strategies are not only well designed but also deliver results on the ground. Europe is taking important steps, with leadership from European Commissioner Jessika Roswall, Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, and the EU Water Resilience Strategy.
This is where collaboration with Water Europe becomes so important. Water Europe mobilizes a wide community across sectors, while SIWI works to advance water governance and convene actors in research, policy and the private sector. By joining forces, we can ensure that Europe’s vision of water resilience translates into coherent policies and practical outcomes. Collaboration, in this sense, strengthens the bridge that turns ambition into a Water-Smart Society.
Looking at the international water landscape, where do you see SIWI focusing its efforts in the coming years?
The next few years will be decisive for water on the global stage, with COP30 in Belém, World Water Week 2026, the Rio Convention COPs in 2026 — on climate, biodiversity, and desertification — and finally the UN 2026 Water Conference in the United Arab Emirates. For SIWI, the priority is to build continuity across these milestones so that water remains firmly at the centre of global discussions on climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development.
This is where collaboration with Water Europe is so important. By working together, we can ensure that the EU Water Resilience Strategy is visible and contributes to the conversations at World Water Week and the three COPs, while also helping shape the outcomes of the UN 2026 Water Conference. In practice, that means aligning messages, amplifying Europe’s leadership, and making sure European experiences inform and influence global commitments—while global agreements and resolutions, in return, strengthen Europe’s own resilience strategies.
