Dr Peter Williams
Dr Peter Williams has over 35 years’ experience in helping businesses and governments adapt to, and make the most of, new technology. By background as a strategy and process consultant, he was formerly the CTO of IBM's "Big Green Innovations" unit, where he played a major role in the development of IBM's "smarter planet" businesses in the areas of environmental management, water management, smart cities and disaster resilience: these focused on on the applications of technology to public infrastructure and public services. In focusing on disaster resilience, he was the lead author of the UN City Disaster Resilience Scorecard, now used by over 350 cities globally. He retired from IBM in 2018,
Peter has worked with many start-ups in smart water/wastewater management, smart grid, smart cities and precision weather forecasting areas. He has advised a number of VC firms and has frequently acted as a judge in VC competitions such as Imagine H20.
Peter also leads the US Network of ARISE, the UN DRR's vehicle for enabling public-private collaboration in disaster risk reduction. In this role he has expanded membership significantly and led or participated in numerous projects such as creating a community toolkit for wildfire risk reduction; a critical asset management tool; and action guides for cities trying to become disaster resilient. He also led the creation of a further UN Scorecard for the resilience of industrial and commercial real estate.
Peter was accorded the honor of being named an IBM Distinguished Engineer in 2009, and he also lectured at Stanford University for several years on Smart Cities and Communities. A native of the UK, he has lived in the US since 1999.
Why Water?
My father was a sea captain and I largely grew up in a seaside town in Sussex in the UK. I had plenty of chances to observe at firsthand, and hear from my father, what a really angry sea can do - it has to be one of the most awe-inspiring forces in all of nature, and I would go down to the beach on stormy days just to look. I also have numerous happy childhood memories from calmer days spent poking around in tidepools looking for shrimp and crabs.
Fast forward, and I came to realize that as powerful as it is, the sea is incredibly fragile, and its health is in dire danger from climate change, plastic waste and other perils. I was also asked by IBM to play a large role in the development of its smart water business and came to an additional appreciation, that freshwater is, if anything, even more fragile and exponentially scarcer than the oceans, while being chronically under-valued and therefore under-invested and under-managed.
So my interest was initially sustainability-led, but sustainability is a huge component of my other passion, which is resilience and disaster risk reduction. A community cannot be resilient without a resilient water supply offering sustainable and equitable access to all. And it cannot really be sustainable without efficiently managed water systems and environmentally aware management of water resources - conditions which all too often today are not met.
Physical and information technologies offer opportunities to reverse the downward arc of water resources on this plant, whether at the community or continental scale. I am passionate about bringing those technologies to market and letting them loose to make the difference we all need.