Water. Desalination + reuse
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/604344
BUSINESS November-December 2015 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 13 | CORPORATEPEOPLE FCC Group – the parent of desalination company, FCC Aqualia – has appointed Carlos M Jarque as its new chief executive officer. Jarque was previously executive director of corporate affairs at telecoms giant, América Móvil since 2013 and was earlier a secretary of the Inter-American Development Bank. He has been a member of the supervisory board at Telekom Austria since August 2014. FCC group chair, Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, stressed that Jarque's experience and leadership will ensure FCC resumes the path towards growth. Honorary chairman of America Movil, Mexican, billionaire businessman, Carlos Slim, became the largest shareholder in FCC Group at the end of 2014. Xylem has announces executive leadership appointments. It has appointed Colin Sabol as senior vice president and president, analytics and treatment and David Flinton as senior vice president and president, dewatering. Sabol most recently served as senior vice president and president, dewatering for the company. Flinton was formerly vice president, marketing and engineering for the company's applied water systems division. He will be responsible for all aspects of Xylem's dewatering operations globally, including strategy, sales and marketing, product development, manufacturing, and supply chain. H2O Innovation has appointed Marc Blanchet as chief financial officer and Guillaume Clairet as chief operating officer. Lawyer and mergers and acquisitions specialist, Blanchet joined H 2 O Innovation in February 2007 as director of corporate and legal affairs. Since July 2011, he has been vice president, corporate and legal Affairs and corporate secretary. Blanchet will include in his brief "coordinating acquisition projects and growth plans." Hydranautics, a Nitto Group company, has appointed Umang Yagnik as regional account executive for the US Pacific Northwest. He was previously a regional account executive for the company in India. Water Planet has appointed Eric Seo, as a product development engineer working on the company's PolyCera membrane technology in Los Angeles, US. Fred Wiesler has been appointed as director of sales and marketing for QUA membrane technologies. he is based in Canonsburg, US. He was previously Membrana's global sales director. Russ Swerdfeger, Evoqua's Memcor product manager, has been appointed to the board of directors for the American Membrane Technology Association. Brown and Caldwell has appointed Erin Mackey as a supervising engineer/technical specialist in drinking water and reuse. Mackey was formerly with Carollo Engineers. The plant is scheduled to supply water to FEWA by June 2017 and to be fully operational in 2018, acceding to Menezes. The venture has issued a tender to supply solar panels to the plant with 16 companies having pre-qualified, Menezes said. The 80% debt-financed plant will be the first desalination facility in the region to be independently financed Menezes said. He went on the say the plant would be expected to bring a return on investment of 15-16% but he was reported to have declined to indicate over what period. ENERGY RECOvERY PAIRS UP WITh SChLUMBERGER Energy Recovery has sold the exclusive rights to manufacture and operate its VorTeq hydraulic fracturing technology for the next 15 years to engineering firm, Schlumberger in a deal that immediately tripled the energy from pressure firm's share price. The deal includes a US$ 125 million exclusivity fee. Energy Recovery's annual revenues from its desalination pumps have averaged about US$ 45 million. The exclusivity fee will be paid in an upfront US$ 75 million tranche paid this year followed by two US$ 25 million, as yet unspecified, milestone payments expected next year depending on Energy Recovery "satisfying certain key performance indicators expected to occur in 2016." The payments are purely for the exclusivity arrangement and none of them have any associated operating costs. The agreement included continuing annual royalties for the duration of the licence agreement again subject to Energy Recovery meeting unspecified "key performance indicators." Following the announcement a number of analysts gave a range of upgrades on Energy Recovery's stock. Energy Recovery said VorTeq was built to isolate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) pumps from abrasive substances in the fracking fluid that frequently cause pump failure. Energy Recovery said VorTeq could reduce the cost per barrel of fracked oil from new boreholes by US$ 5 by quartering the number of pumps needed. MEMBRANE PIONEER DRAWS NEW INvESTMENT Water treatment membrane and solutions developer, Water Planet, has received a new Series B round of investment for its development and commercialization of its industrial wastewater treatment technologies. The funding round included investments from Air Liquide's Aliad Corporate Venture fund, Bluestem Capital and the UCLA Venture Fund. "Our new investors add significant value beyond the infusion of capital. They bring great experience in early stage companies as well as global access to customers, which will further fuel our growth," said Water Planet chief executive officer, Eric Hoek. He said the funding would boost the company's development of its latest membrane which "combines the economics of polymer with the performance of ceramic." He added: "We now have the capital to commercialize our PolyCera membrane technology and to drive sales of our broadening portfolio of innovative products." In a statement, Water Planet said the strategic investment in the firm by industrial gas giant, Air Liquide, went far beyond the capital value, as the two firms plan to collaborate on current and future products and services. "We are already engaged with them to develop unique offerings for water reuse and look forward to bringing other services and products to market together," said Water Planet co-founder and chief technology officer, Subir Bhattacharjee. President of Bluestem Capital, Steve Kirby, said: "Water Planet is one of the best combinations of disruptive technology and management execution we have seen. We are confident that when a customer goes to Water Planet with a problem that no one else can solve – they will."