Donna has worked with WICS for 12 years. Her focus during the past three years, and her particular area of expertise, is in building relationships with our international partners, through her support of the Scottish Government’s Hydro Nation initiative. In this capacity Donna has worked on numerous international assignments in countries as diverse as Latvia, Georgia and Romania. She has also formalised our programme of international partnerships, for example by putting in place Memorandums of Agreement, developing bespoke training programmes and sharing best practice.
Donna manages our engagement with WAREG – European Water Regulators, the association of 25 authorities that fosters cooperation and exchange of best practice among water regulators in Europe. Engaging with WAREG allows us to contribute to open dialogue with other relevant regional and international organisations and national institutions, with a particular focus on European issues in the field of water services.
Donna’s former roles within WICS include a secondment as Principal Support Manager with the Customer Forum where she coordinated the Forum’s work programme and acted as the liaison point with Scottish Water. Donna was also our Head of Operational Business Support for a number of years, overseeing aspects of our work such as the provision of Commission board papers, recruitment and office management. She played a key role in the Open Water initiative, the programme to open up the market for retail water and sewerage services in England in 2017, including preparing the wide-ranging policies that underpinned the programme’s delivery.
Before joining WICS Donna worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 16 years, holding posts around the world including in Iran, Switzerland and Germany. She has recently completed the Executive Development Program in Business at Columbia Business School.