North American Water Loss 

Mr. Cooper serves as global director for water at Arcadis with 20 years’ experience as a certified operator, prof. engineer, and utility leader.  Jim brings a passion to advance the water sector, with an education in Civil Engineering and AI, and serves as Chair of the AWWA Engineering & Construction Division, Inaugural Chair of the AWWA Digital Twins Committee, past co-chair of the Digital Twin Subgroup for SWAN, and Chair of the Intelligent Water Committee at Virginia Tech University.

Richard Donat started his role at San Antonio Water System in 2010, working on the Brackish Groundwater Desalination program. He then went on to lead the Project Controls group, which manages scope, schedule, and budgets for Capital Improvement Projects. He currently serves as Director of Non-Revenue Water, where he is responsible for implementing a program to reduce water loss.He holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Arkansas, a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Tennessee, and an MBA from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

David is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and has over 13 years of experience in the profession. David joined Louisville Water in the spring of 2022 as a Project Engineer and was promoted to Manager of Infrastructure Planning the next year. In this position, David oversees the Hydraulic Model, the Capital Budget, Asset Management, and most recently, Lost Water initiatives. Prior to joining Louisville Water, David worked for the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) as a plan review engineer for over eight years. David lives in Louisville with his wife (Sarah), dog (Tanner), cat (Wilson), and because it’s Kentucky, horses (Merlin and Pippin).

Michael Thompson is a Senior Water Resource Engineer at the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC). His work focuses on sustainable water use planning, hydrology, groundwater and surface water availability modeling, withdrawal data analysis, and water conservation initiatives across the 13,500-square-mile Delaware River Basin. Since joining DRBC in 2018, he has led numerous research projects and authored publications which provide key insight into the region’s water resource management. His recent work related to water loss conservation has received national recognition for advancing water conservation programs. Moving forward his work will continue to focus on the long-term resiliency of water supplies considering planning benchmarks such as a drought of record. Outside of DRBC’s office, he volunteers on national and global workgroups related to water loss conservation.