2008 Conference: Water: The Next Global Crisis?

Terry Anderson is the Executive Director of PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center, a non-profit institute dedicated to improving environmental quality through markets. Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; visiting professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business; and professor emeritus at Montana State University. In an age of growing environmental concerns, resource economist Terry Anderson defines a new course for achieving environmental quality. He believes that market approaches can be both economically sound and environmentally sensitive. Anderson's work helped launch the idea of "free market environmentalism" with the publication of his book by that title, coauthored with Donald Leal. Government subsidies often degrade the environment, he points out, and private property rights encourage resource stewardship by harnessing market incentives to individual initiative for protecting environmental quality. His broad-ranging ideas have provided a refreshing and stimulating look at complex and seemingly intractable environmental problems. Anderson is a leader in promoting water markets to improve efficiency and quality. Anderson is the author or editor of over thirty books including Water Markets: Priming the Invisible Pump, Water Marketing-The Next Generation (1996), Continental Water Marketing (1994), and Free Market Environmentalism (revised ed., 2001). He has published widely in both professional journals and the popular press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, and Fly Fisherman. Anderson received his B.S. from the University of Montana in 1968 and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington in 1972, after which he began his teaching career at Montana State University where he won several outstanding teaching awards.

Nigel Asquith is Co-founder and Director of Policy and Strategy at the Fundacion Natura Bolivia in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. His work revolves around developing markets for watershed services to improve environmental management and increase local economic welfare. Asquith is also Executive Director of the EcoFund Foundation Ecuador, a $17 million conservation fund set up by the oil company shareholders of the Ecuadorian Heavy Crude Pipeline. From 2001 to 2005, he worked for Conservation International (CI) where he developed a regional strategy for CI in northern Mesoamerica. Asquith holds a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Duke University and has over 15 years experience designing and implementing conservation projects. His technical expertise is in plant-animal relations in neotropical forests, ecosystem service valuation, policy analysis, and the impacts of the oil and gas sector on biodiversity. He has worked at the Smithsonian Institution, the Center for International Forestry Research, and the World Bank, and is currently a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organization. She is also a founding board member of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), a think-tank of international activists, scholars, writers, and economists dedicated to creating sustainable alternatives to economic globalization. She is a contributing author to the highly acclaimed IFG report, Alternatives to Economic Globalization. Maude founded the Blue Planet Project, a Council of Canadians project that works with grassroots groups around the world to stop the commodification of the world's fresh water resources. She is a founding member of Friends of the Right to Water, a North-South Coalition seeking a UN Convention on the Right to Water. She is currently chairperson of the board of Food and Water Watch, the foremost U.S. organization fighting for the right to water. In 1998, she wrote a groundbreaking analysis on the global politics around water for the IFG and is the co-author of the 2002 book, Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water. Her newest book, Blue Covenant, The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, published in 2007, is also an international best seller. In 2008, Maude wrote Our Water Commons. Maude was one of the "1000 Women for Peace" nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. In the same year, she received the prestigious Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship as well as the Right Livelihood Award. She also won the Citation of Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Canadian Environmental Awards, Canada's highest environmental honor.

Joseph W. Dellapenna is Professor of Law at Villanova University. He has taught at law schools in the United States and abroad for 38 years. He has practiced, taught, and written about water, both in the United States and internationally, for this entire period. Professor Dellapenna has served as a consultant to governments on three continents regarding water law reform and on transboundary water disputes. He also serves as Director of the Model Water Code Project of the American Society of Civil Engineers and served as Rapporteur of the Water Resources Committee of the International Law Association. As Rapporteur, he led the revision of the Helsinki Rules, the generally recognized summary of the customary international law on water resources, which resulted in the International Law Association's approval in August 2004 of the Berlin Rules on Water Resources to replace the Helsinki Rules. He serves as chair of the Water Regulatory Standards Committee and as Vice-Chair of the Standards Development Council of the Environment and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He contributed nearly the whole of volumes 1, 3 and 5, and parts of volumes 2 and 6, of the eight volume treatise WATERS AND WATER RIGHTS, the standard reference on water law in the United States, as well as authoring numerous other books and articles. Professor Dellapenna received a B.B.A. with distinction from the University of Michigan in 1965, a J.D. cum laude from the Detroit College of Law in 1968, an LL.M. in Public International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University in 1969, and an LL.M. (Environmental Law) from Columbia University in 1974.

Dr. Peter H. Gleick is Co-founder and President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. His research and writing address the critical connections between water and human health, the hydrologic impacts of climate change, sustainable water use, privatization and globalization, and international conflicts over water resources. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert and was named a MacArthur Fellow in October 2003 for his work. In 2001, Gleick was dubbed a "visionary on the environment" by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1999, Gleick was elected an Academician of the International Water Academy, in Oslo, Norway and in 2006, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. Gleick received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He serves on the boards of numerous journals and organizations, and is the author of many scientific papers and six books, including the biennial water report, The World's Water, published by Island Press (Washington, D.C.).

Robert Glennon is the Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, where he teaches constitutional law, American legal history, and water law. Glennon's funded research activities have included two National Science Foundation grants. He has held many administrative positions, such as trustee, director, and chair for various institutional organizations. His professional activities include serving as Water Policy Advisor to Pima County, Arizona; as a member of American Rivers' Science and Technical Advisory Committee; and as a commentator and analyst for various television and radio programs. Glennon is the author of many books, articles, and other writings. His best-known work is Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters (Island Press, 2002), the first book ever published to focus on the environmental problems caused by groundwater pumping. Glennon received numerous accolades for Water Follies from such publications as Scientific American, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books. His new book, Water Sense: America's Crisis and What To Do About It, will be published in early 2009. Glennon received a J.D. from Boston College Law School and an M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from Brandeis University. He is also a member of the bars of Arizona and Massachusetts.

Clay J. Landry is the Managing Director and a Principal of WestWater Research, a consulting firm providing water-marketing and water-asset-valuation services to a range of public and private sector clients. Landry has negotiated and advised on major water transactions throughout the United States. Recently, he assisted a major power generation company in leasing more than 10,000 acrefeet of water for drought emergency water supplies. Under Landry's management, WestWater has advised on more than $500 million in water transactions. In addition, Landry works regularly with private equity and hedge funds in structuring deals and sourcing funds for water development and acquisition projects. Prior to founding WestWater Research, Landry was an Associate at the Political Economy Research Center (PERC), a public policy research institute that specializes in market approaches to natural resource management. Landry is recognized as a leading authority on water pricing and is routinely called upon as an expert witness by clients such as the IRS, U.S. Department of Interior, Indian tribes, municipal governments, and private companies. He has also worked internationally on water-marketing issues in Australia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. Landry serves as an Associate Editor for "Water Resource Impact," a monthly publication of the American Water Resources Association, and was previously the Finance and Regulation Editor for "Global Water Intelligence," an international water industry news magazine. With a strong commitment to market-based stewardship, Landry helped establish the Montana Water Trust, a private non-profit that buys and leases water rights for stream flow protection. Landry holds a Master's degree in agriculture and resource economics from Oregon State University and a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Wyoming.

Lewis H. Lapham is the former Managing Editor of Harper's Magazine and the Founding Editor of Lapham's Quarterly. Lewis H. Lapham was born January 8, 1935 in San Francisco, California, and educated at Yale University (B.A., 1956) and at Cambridge University (1956-1957). He was a newspaper reporter for The San Francisco Examiner (1957-1959) and for The New York Herald Tribune (1960-1962), a contract writer for The Saturday Evening Post (1963-1968) and for Life magazine (1969-1970), the managing editor of Harper's Magazine (1971-1975), the editor of Harper's Magazine (1976-1981 and 1983-2006), and the founding editor of Lapham's Quarterly (2007-present). Inducted into the American Society of Magazine Editor's Hall of Fame in 2007, Lapham continues to write his bi-monthly "Notebook" column for Harper's Magazine. His documentary film, "The American Ruling Class," premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, The Century Club, the Advisory Council to The New School University, Mr. Lapham has lectured at many of the nation's leading universities, among them Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford, and the Universities of Michigan, Virginia, and Oregon. He lives in New York City.

Gary Libecap is Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Corporate Environmental Management, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Sherm and Marge Telleen Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His Ph.D. is from the University of Pennsylvania. He previously taught economics and law at the University of Arizona. He has authored or co-authored five books, edits the series, "Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Economic Growth;" and has written more than 150 journal articles and book chapters on property rights, natural resources, environmental and other issues, and serves on various National Science Foundation Panels. His research is on property rights institutions-how they emerge, when they emerge, their structure, and how they affect resource use. His research focuses on fisheries, water, and land use. His latest book is Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West's First Great Water Transfer, Stanford University Press.

Pat Mulroy oversees the operations of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which serves more than 340,000 customers, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is responsible for acquiring, treating, and delivering water to local agencies that collectively serve nearly two million residents and 40 million annual visitors. Mulroy joined the District more than 20 years ago and began serving as its general manager in 1989. She was a principal architect of the Authority, which has served as a model for other Western water agencies since its creation in 1991.As general manager of one of the country's most progressive water agencies, Mulroy is exceptionally active in regional and national water issues. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the National water Resources Association, and on the Board of Trustees of the American Water Works Association Research Foundation. Additionally, she was the original chairperson of the Western Urban Water Coalition and served on the Colorado River Water Users Association's board of directors. A resident of Southern Nevada for more than three decades, Mulroy is equally active in the community. She currently chairs the University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Sciences Advisory Board, and has served on the Nevada Public Radio Board of Directors. Mulroy is also actively involved with the Diocese of Las Vegas and Bishop Gorman High School. Her honors include National Jewish Medical and Research Center's Humanitarian Award and the University and Community College System of Nevada Board of Regents' Distinguished Nevadan Award. Mulroy served as special assistant to the Clark County Manager and as Clark County Justice Court Administrator before joining the District.

Thomas M. Siebel is the Chairman of First Virtual Group, a diversified holding company with interests in commercial real estate, agribusiness, and global investment management. Mr. Siebel was the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Siebel Systems, one of the world's leading software companies, which merged with Oracle Corporation in January 2006. Before founding Siebel Systems, Mr. Siebel served as Chief Executive Officer of Gain Technology, a multimedia software company that merged with Sybase in December 1992. From 1984 through 1990, he was an executive at Oracle Corp., where he held a number of senior management positions. Mr. Siebel serves on the Board of Advisors for the Stanford University College of Engineering and the University of Illinois College of Engineering. He is a Director of the University of Illinois Foundation, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. He is a frequent industry spokesman and is the author of three books: Taking Care of eBusiness and Cyber Rules, published by Doubleday, and Virtual Selling, published by the Free Press. The Siebel Foundation, founded in 1996, is active in the support of the homeless and underprivileged, educational and research programs, methamphetamine abuse prevention, and alternative energy solutions. The Siebel Foundation, in turn, created the Siebel Scholars Foundation, the Dearborn Scholars Fund in Montana, and the Meth Project. The Siebel Scholars program has contributed $28 million to ten universities to endow scholarship funds for graduate students in computer science and business who demonstrate exceptional academic achievement and leadership. Mr. Siebel is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in History, an MBA, a Master of Science in Computer Science, and a Ph.D. in Engineering (Hon.).

Rodney Smith is President of Strategic Water Group LLC, Managing Member of Strategic Water Management LLC, and Senior Vice President of Stratecon Inc., an economics and strategic planning consulting firm specializing in the economics, finance, law, and politics of water resources. He is involved as a partner or advisor in the acquisition of water rights throughout the western United States and in the sale and leasing of water rights and water supplies to public and private sector water users. He has consulted extensively for public and private sector clients, including high net worth investors, on business and public policy issues concerning water resources. Dr. Smith has written extensively on the law, economics, and finance of water resources and water policy. He is founding co-editor of Stratecon's aid-circulation publication, "Water Strategist," the leading source of information on western water markets and related policy. Rod is also known for his books Troubled Waters: Financing Water in the West and Trading Water: A Legal Framework for Water Marketing, sponsored by the Ford Foundation through grants to the Council of Governors' Policy Advisors. Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt wrote the forwards for both books. Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the School of Politics and Economics, Claremont Graduate University.

Kimberley Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes the weekly Potomac Watch political column from Washington, D.C. Ms. Strassel joined Dow Jones & Company in November 1994 as a news assistant with The Wall Street Journal Europe's Central European Economic Review magazine in Brussels. In January 1996, she moved to the European Journal's London bureau as an Internet reporter, and in July 1999, she transferred to the domestic Journal's New York bureau and covered commercial real estate. She joined the Journal's editorial page as an assistant editorial features editor in November 1999 and began writing the OpinionJournal.com column, "Scene & Heard." In January 2002 she became an editorial page writer and a senior editorial page writer a year later. She assumed her current position in November 2005. She was a finalist for a Loeb award in 2008, 2007, and 2005. In 2001, Ms. Strassel received a Front Page Award for Internet commentary from the Newswomen's Club of New York for selected "Scene & Heard" columns on OpinionJournal.com. In 1999, 2000, and 2001, she was named one of the 30 most influential U.S. business journalists under 30 by The Journalist & Financial Reporting Group (TJFR). An Oregon native, Ms. Strassel earned a Bachelor's degree from Princeton University.

Barton H. "Buzz" Thompson, Jr. is the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, the Robert E. Paradise Professor of Natural Resources Law at Stanford Law School, and a Senior Fellow in Stanford's Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies. Co-author of Legal Control of Water Resources (West Publishing, 4th ed., 2006) and Environmental Law & Policy: Concepts and Insights (Foundation Press, 2003), his current scholarship focuses on water policy, ecosystem services, climate adaptation, conservation tools, and market and other alternative approaches to environmental regulation. Professor Thompson chairs the boards of the Resources Legacy Fund and Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, serves as a California trustee for The Nature Conservancy, and is a member of the boards of the American Farmland Trust and the Natural Heritage Institute. He is also a member of the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for which he chairs the committee on the valuation of ecological system and services. Professor Thompson holds a B.A., M.B.A., and J.D. from Stanford University and clerked for the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court. At Stanford, he has been the recipient of both the Hurlburt Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Robert E. Paradise Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching and Research.