The Executive Breakfast

Seminar Series

  
 

 

 

MANAGING WATER AND SEWER ASSETS

Friday February 29th, 2008

Hyatt Regency Vancouver

655 Burrard Street

8:00 am - 11:00 am

To kick start this series we have asked Nilaksh Kothari, the current AWWA President to come and speak with you about Asset Management - An Industry Perspective. Nilaksh will provide an overall "industry wide perspective" on the topic of Asset Management.

Topics covered will include:

  • What is the overall industry saying about the value of Asset Management?

  • Where does Asset Management fit in to the wide range of competing priorities that Utility managers juggle?

  • What are the driving forces behind it and how is the industry responding?

  • Why bother with a program?

  • What are the long term benefits?

  • What’s the downside if you don't go there?

Nilaksh will also give a personal perspective based on his expertise, experience and program development/involvement.

To complement this, we have asked Rowan Birch, P.Eng, the Assistant City Engineer for the City of Vancouver, to come and let you have A Local Perspective/Case Study. Rowan will speak to you about the City of Vancouver’s Infrastructure Management Strategy Program.

Topics covered will include:

  • What were the driving forces behind Vancouver’s asset management strategy?

  • What are the program elements?

  • What process was undertaken to get started? 

  • Where are we now? 

  • Successes, barriers, resource requirements, costs, future plans.

Speaker Bios

Nilaksh Kothari, AWWA President

Since 2000, Nilaksh Kothari has served as General Manager of Manitowoc Public Utilities, which is located on the shore of Lake Michigan in east-central Wisconsin. MPU is the largest municipally-owned utility in the State of Wisconsin, serving 17,600 electric customers and13,500 water customers, with a total annual budget of $40 million. Mr. Kothari is responsible for directing all aspects of MPU’s operation, its 100 employees, and over $150 million in assets, which features a 140 MW coal-fired generating plant, a 25.0 MW combustion turbine facility, and a 14.0 MGD microfiltration plant.

 

Mr. Kothari received a Masters of Science in Engineering from South Dakota State University in 1985 and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from M.S. University in Baroda, India in 1983. He is a registered professional engineer. His professional memberships and affiliations include the Great Lakes Utilities, American Water Works Association (AWWA), American Public Power Association (APPA), Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin (MEUW), Municipal (MEG), West Shore Water Producers Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, Rotary, and the Elks. He has given presentations on Asset Management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on various occasions.

Rowan Birch, P.Eng, Assistant City Engineer, City of Vancouver

Rowan Birch is responsible for leading the Departmental Services division of Vancouver’s Engineering Services Department, and has served in this position for the past three years.  This division is responsible for delivering internal business services, such as fleet maintenance, logistical support, and budget management and information technology.  He is an executive sponsor of the City’s Infrastructure Management Strategy program, which is being implemented to better manage construction and maintenance of almost $8 billion worth of the City’s public works assets.

Mr. Birch received a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Science from the University of British Columbia in 1978 and a Masters of Business Administration, also from UBC, in 1983.  He has worked for the City of Vancouver since graduation and has led many City projects and initiatives including the City’s coordinated street furniture contract and its Anti-Graffiti program.  Apart from his involvement  in the Infrastructure Management Strategy program, Rowan also currently devotes much of his energy to overseeing the Neighbourhood Energy Utility, a City-operated district heating system currently under construction which will take heat from City sewers to provide hot water heating to the new Olympic Village development in False Creek.   He is also very committed to the professional development of young engineers, and is the leader of the Engineering Services Department’s mentoring program.