Our team
Executing our mission requires the expertise, authority, political nous and community outreach to catalyse transformative policy reform. Our team remains independent, avoids early judgment and stays open to multiple perspectives in highly contested, values-driven policy domains. We have a solid track record of project delivery and management.
Our team comprises skilled mediators, and knowledgeable and independent facilitators of policy change able to engage stakeholders and experts in the design of practical policy solutions. We engage our stakeholders in a clear and consistent way, and act with honesty, humility, optimism, impartiality and rigour.
Watertrust Australia is located at the Australian Academy of Science for an initial period of at least five years. This will help us engage with deep expertise from a wide range of disciplines. We are open to working with all of Australia’s learned academies.
Our staff
Nick Austin
CEO
Nick Austin joined Watertrust Australia Ltd from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle where he was Director, Agricultural Development in the Global Development division from 2017–2021. Before Nick joined the Gates Foundation, he was Interim Executive Director, CGIAR, based in Montpellier, France.
Rod Marsh
Director | Strategy & Programs
Rod has over 20 years’ experience as a public-sector policy advisor and manager, and private-sector consultant. He has worked on a wide range of complex challenges across public sector governance, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and energy transitions.
Amanda Wealands
Principal
Amanda brings over 15 years of experience in waterway restoration, management and assessment, and is leading the development of the evaluation framework for Watertrust Australia.
Kane Aldridge
Principal
Kane has extensive experience in facilitating partnerships between government, industry and academia for addressing complex water management challenges. Kane joined Watertrust Australia from the Goyder Institute for Water Research, where he was Director and successfully developed it as a leading collaborative water research partnership within Australia.
Peter Horne
Principal
Peter has a background in environmental and agricultural sciences with experience in partnership brokering, often in complex contexts. Before joining Watertrust Australia, Peter spent 25 years working in the Indo-Pacific region on strengthening agricultural livelihood systems that are being challenged by major shifts in the natural resource base, climate and markets.