Winners Announced For The 7th WIF Team Challenge

This annual competition brings together early career professionals from different organisations across the water sector to identify and pitch an idea around a specific challenge. This year’s challenge was “What are the emerging trends that will impact the water-energy nexus by 2030?”

The teams first met back in April at the competition briefing, which took place at the Birmingham offices of our event supporter, WSP. The eleven teams, comprised of early-career water sector professionals from British Water members, worked over the following weeks to develop their response to the challenge. The teams then presented their ideas to the audience, which included representatives from their sponsoring organisations and special guests, and a judging panel comprised of experts from across the water sector.

The teams presented their ideas and answered questions from the panel.

Prizes for the winning teams included:

• Vouchers to the value of £100, £50 and £30 (1st, 2nd & 3rd place teams)
• Prize from our event supporter, WSP, for the team who delivers the most innovative presentation 
• Lunch with the Water Industry Forum's Board of Directors
• Spot mentoring session with one of our WIF Board of Directors
• A place on the "winners table" at the WIF Annual Dinner in October 2025
• Speaking opportunity at next year's WIF Team Challenge event
• Opportunity to participate in British Water’s Thought Leadership+ interview programme, hosted by Mark Fletcher FREng, Chair of British Water
• Opportunity to participate at the British Water Annual Conference, including exhibitor poseur table stand and complimentary tickets

For a second year, WIF is offering all participants the opportunity to apply for a 12-month term as a Non-Executive Director on WIF’s Board. Katrina Cullen has shared her experience of her first year in the role as the first early-career NED appointed to the WIF Board. Read Katrina’s blog here.

Judging Panel: Louise Elliott, WSP; Prof. Jan Hofman, Bath University; Margaret Read, WIF/NISTA; Richard Thompson, Environment Agency; Kate Kendall, Ofwat; Gaby Mandell, Institute of Water

Whilst the judges deliberated, we heard from our keynote speaker, Carolyn Cadman, Director of Net Zero and Natural Resources, South West Water. Carolyn spoke about her career and passion for working with nature, encouraging Team Challenge participants to find their passion. 

Lead judge, Louise Elliott, Strategy & Business Growth Director at WSP announced the results. Louise commented on the outstanding quality of this year’s presentations and how close the final results were, with a mere 7 points separating the winners and last placed team!

The judges awarded the following:

Winning Team

TEAM 6:  Alleviating the Pressure of the Water-Energy Nexus on the Agricultural Industry – Vertical Farming

Nehla Farhan, United Utilities; Beth Gibb, Additive Catchments; Melissa Au, Gleeds Cost Management; Hilda Oketona, Skanska UK, pictured here with Anita Payne, Water Industry Forum and Louise Elliott, WSP

Highly Commended Team

TEAM 3: Lithium for a Water-Secure Future Conference – Lithium Mining 

Nancy Ntseze, Affinity Water; Tariro Chengeta, Arqiva; Jamie Thomas, WSP UK; Angus Hargan, Galliford Try

WSP Prize Winning Team

Team 2 was also highly commended by the judging panel and received the WSP prize for innovation used during their excellent AI Tool presentation.

Picture with Anita Payne, WIF and Louise Elliott, WSP are Alice Mucklow, Galliford Try; Josh Dixon, United Utilities; Maryam Haleem, Arup; Ramiz Beig Zali, University of Exeter

The event concluded with a drinks reception for all participants. Congratulations to everyone who took part and thank you to the judges, our speaker, Carolyn Cadman, and to our event supporter, WSP, for generously hosting the challenge this year.