Dr. Emilio Gabbrielli
Secretary - Bazil
Director, Overseas Business Development, Global Sales Water Treatment for Toray, Dr. Emilio Gabbrielli has 40 years of experience in water. His first exposure to desalination was in 1975; while in Peru, he became involved in the design and construction of a solar desalination plant to produce drinking water for a marginal community in the desert region of the north.
This experience was enough to convince him to pursue a career in water resources development and protection, making desalination his technical focus. His first projects included desalination plants in Libya, Algeria and Saudi Arabia based on EDR and on MSF technology associated with power generation. In 1981, he moved to Australia, where his focus moved to membrane technology. He played a key role in the design and construction of most of the desalination and reuse projects in Australia at the time.
From 1995, Emilio spent a few years with Thames Water developing PPP projects, mainly in Indonesia, Spain, the Caribbean and Latin America. In 2003, after four years as Managing Director of Thames Water do Brazil, Emilio was appointed Executive Secretary of the Global Water Partnership (GWP). GWP is an international network of institutions committed to the sustainable development and management of water resources. It was founded by the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank and the Government of Sweden. At GWP, he was able to continue pursuing his ideals of a better life for all through policies that lead to a more sustainable and equitable use of water.
In 2009, Emilio returned to Brazil with a global business development role for Toray, focused on Latin America, Spain and Australia. In 2012, the Australian Water Association (AWA) appointed him to the honorary position of AWA Global Ambassador.