Dr. Amgad Elmahdi has recently joined IWMI to lead the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Office in Cairo, Egypt “Director of MENA Region”.

 Dr Elmahdi has over 20 years of working experience in the fields of hydrology, natural resource management, water accounting and assessment and water information management in operational, research, and academic agencies in Australia, Greece, Italy, China and Egypt. Prior to joining IWMI, Dr Elmahdi was leading the Water Resources Section, at Climate and Water Division, at the commonwealth Australian Government, where he led four multi-disciplinary teams/units responsible for delivering high profile organisational objectives: 1) Water resources modelling, 2) Groundwater, 3) Urban Water, and 4) Water Analysis to provide water information services across Australia using data collected by about 200 water management agencies and utilities. These services are a key element of water reforms to provide secure access to water, to address over allocation, and to provide efficient allocation of water through water markets, pricing and other means.

He holds a PhD in Water Resource Management from the University of Melbourne, Australia, 2 M.Sc. in Land & Water Management from Italy and Egypt with around 100 publications on water related issues and tools . Dr Elmahdi MENA's office mission is to provide evidence-based science solutions to sustainably manage water and land resources for water and food security, people’s livelihoods and the environment. His role is also involving representing IWMI in the sub-region, promoting and expanding IWMI’s research activities across the region, while maintaining strong links with national and international partners to ensure effective uptake of IWMI’s research outputs and to ensure services have direct community value. He is also a recognized International Water and Natural Resources Management Consultants and the Australian representative for international agencies- ICID- International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage since 2016 and recognised a keynote speaker at national and international forum and the leading authors for WMO water resources assessment manual book.

Shri A.B. Pandya, a Bachelor in Civil Engineering from Saurashtra University and M. Tech. in Structural Engineering from IIT Delhi, is presently Secretary General ICID. He is a former Chairman of Central Water Commission and Ex-Officio Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Water Resources.  Shri A.B. Pandya, joined the Central Water Engineering Service in Central Water Commission in October 1977 and held various positions in the Department and other organizations under the Ministry of Water Resources He superannuated from the government service in December 2015 after serving for two years as Chairman of Central Water Commission. His major areas of works include setting up policy initiatives, planning, design and financing of water resources projects for hydropower and irrigation including regional planning for optimum water resources utilization; simulation and disaster management for flood and dam related incidents, setting up water resources related data collection strategies at national level and implementation of cutting edge technologies for collection and dissemination; legal and constitutional aspects of international and interstate water disputes and international water data sharing and treaty management at international level; dam safety assurance and management of dam safety programmes including distress analysis and recommendation of remedial measures for dams and appurtenant works, comprehensive safety review of dams and setting up guidelines and legal framework for dam safety, numerical modeling of structures and geotechnical engineering problems and application software for engineering analysis and data driven software applications. He is actively associated with many technical professional bodies in India.

Mr. Harish Kumar Varma,  a 1977 graduate in Civil Engineering with postgraduate in Hydrology from University of Roorkee (now IIT, Roorkee), India, has more than 41 years of working experience in various aspects of water resources planning, development and management while working in Central Water Commission (CWC) and Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited (WAPCOS) under Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India; Asian Development Bank (ADB); and International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID). Main fields of activities included operation and maintenance of hydrological network, hydrological analysis, flood forecasting, flood control and drainage, water resources system modeling, hydro-dynamic modeling including dam break modeling, investigation and preparation of detailed project report for hydropower/ multipurpose projects, administration of loan and technical assistance for projects funded by ADB in the field of irrigated agriculture and water management, flood and river erosion, coastal protection, integrated water resources management (IWRM), climate change, water use efficiency improvement program etc. Mr Varma has also worked in Ethiopia for about 14 months in different assignments as Hydrologist and System Modelling expert.

Mr. Varma is presently working in International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) as Executive Director.

Dr Abdel Kaher El-Zaemey, is a professional Chartered civil engineer with PhD in Water Engineering and more than 30 years of experiences in areas related to infrastructure, desalination  and  renewable energy.  He has been working in the UAE for the last 10 years, where he has been involved in many strategic infrastructure projects in different parts of the GCC.