As of January 1, 2023, Peter van der Linde (63) has been appointed branch manager at association Water Alliance. He succeeds Ignaz Worm, who was responsible for the activities of the industry association ENVAQUA for 4.5 years. This association will continue to exist, but has been conducting its activities under the banner of the Water Alliance since early 2023. In this way, this renewed organization currently has nearly two hundred members.
Peter is well known in the water and environmental technology sector. He worked for many years in various roles with the company Holland Water and is still active there in expanding the global distribution network. As a member of the industry association, Peter has not only participated in but also organized various activities.
For example, Van der Linde represents the association at the European federation Aqua Europe and is co-founder of the Circular Water Expert Group.
Collaboration
Together with the team of FME (the business association for the technological industry) Peter will lead the activities of the association, this under the broader umbrella of Water Alliance. Peter says: “The association has laid a strong substantive foundation in recent years; in the coming phase I also want to use our knowledge and skills in lobbying in The Hague. This with the aim of helping politicians and officials to make legislation that can accelerate the application of innovative water and environmental technology. I also want to preserve what makes the association so special: the network of colleagues and professionals who enjoy meeting each other and together create the technology-driven solutions of tomorrow. In addition, I believe that the interests of Dutch water and environmental technology companies are better served when the industry is represented effectively, efficiently and unambiguously on a national and international level. That is why I see the close cooperation, with the association and the foundation operating under the joint banner of Water Alliance as a great challenge and the way to achieve that.”
Amazing time
Outgoing branch manager Ignaz Worm looks back on a great period: “We came up with the TechTalk format with the team and implemented it 28 times over the past four years. That was a wonderful way to discuss urgent social challenges that can be solved with technology. We have grown from 100 to 120 members, and as a result of the close collaboration with the Water Alliance Foundation that began January 1, we now represent as many as 200 companies. I am proud of those results.”
Ignaz Worm, by the way, remains active in the water sector. With his company Spatial Insight (Haarlem), he focuses on consultancy in the field of data-driven management of underground assets, such as water pipes, heat networks, valves and gas pipelines.
Reinforcement
Hein Molenkamp, Water Alliance director, is pleased that Peter van der Linde is joining the Water Alliance team. “There is now both a foundation and an association under the same banner. We have started a process in which the cooperation between these two pillars will become even closer than before. It is good that during this process Peter will guard the interests of the association in particular from his background and expertise. I am very much looking forward to the cooperation.”
