LISA BALLANTINE
Lisa grew up in the
Chicago area, married young, and
lived a fulfilling life as mother to
four great kids and wife to a
wonderful man. Lisa, having lived
in the Dominican Republic as a
missionary, was aware of the issues
of water contamination in that
country and that it is one of the
leading causes of death in
children. Lisa saw the need for
safe water treatment in the DR and,
having experience in the country,
she knew the project could be
sustainable. Lisa studied under the
direction of Prof. Manny Hernandez,
NIU, for three years before she
moved with her family to the
Dominican Republic and began
AguaPure. |
With the help of David Webb, Radhames Carela
and Prof. Hernandez, and the financial
support of Insituform, Lisa re-engineered
the ceramic water filter, equipment and
manufacturing processes to improve
effectiveness, quality, and sustainability.
Lisa has learned a lot from her years of
experience developing AguaPure and is now
ready to launch FilterPure, an
internationally focused enterprise. Lisa
hopes to relieve the need for clean and safe
drinking water in the Dominican Republic,
and eventually in other countries, by
facilitating the spread of ceramic water
filtration as a viable solution for water
treatment in developing nations. |
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TRACY HAWKINS
 Tracy
is a single mother living in
Atlanta, Georgia who, in 2005, took
a volunteer vacation to Tanzania,
Africa. During her visit, she heard
the story of a potter who tried to
start a pottery training program but
failed due to lack of resources.
Tracy decided to use her skills as
an accomplished project manager
(Bachelor of Industrial Engineering
– Georgia Tech - 1985) and a
hobbyist potter to revisit the
opportunity. She formed a team of
local Tanzanians to develop a plan,
and discovered that a well-placed
gesture could make a huge impact in
the lives of these people. While
accomplishing research for the
original project, Tracy learned
about ceramic water filtration and
shared the safe drinking water
solution with her Tanzanian staff.
She discovered that contaminated
drinking water was a serious problem
in Tanzania, and, with her staff's
resolute support, |
began the development
of a sustainable ceramic water
filter enterprise in Tanzania called
Safe Water Ceramics of East Africa (SWCEA).
In the summer of 2007, Tracy called
upon Professor Manny Hernandez for
help and he volunteered his
consultation and technical support
to get the project started. It is
through Manny that Tracy met Lisa
Ballantine of AguaPure, Dominican
Republic. Tracy and Lisa began
working together and discovered by
combining their knowledge and skill
sets, they could effectively create
and manage an international
organization focused on solving the
problem of contaminated drinking
water world-wide. Tracy and Lisa
officially joined forces in 2008,
forming FilterPure. Tracy continues
to lead the development of SWCEA by
bringing resources, consultation,
and encouragement to the local
project team, while also focusing on
spreading the FilterPure solution to
other developing countries in need. |
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THOMAS ROONEY
 Thomas
Rooney is a managing partner at RCI
Consulting, where he advises clients on all
facets of the global water crisis with a
particular emphasis on critical water
infrastructure issues.
Prior to joining RCI Consulting, Mr. Rooney
was the President and CEO of Insituform
Technologies, Inc., a plastics technology
company that has become the world’s largest
water, sewer and oil pipeline rehabilitation
company. During his tenure the company
expanded its operations to include sewer,
oil and drinking water technologies, while
also expanding the company into Eastern
Europe, Australia, China, India, Malaysia,
Mexico and various other countries,
ultimately operating in 45 countries around
the world.
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Mr. Rooney currently serves on the board of
directors of the International Centre for
Democratic Transition (ICDT www.icdt.hu)
based in Budapest, Hungary. Through his
involvement with the ICDT, Mr. Rooney
advises democratic governments around the
world on the difficult challenges associated
with critical water shortages and failing
water infrastructure.Mr. Rooney holds a civil engineering degree
from Cornell University and an MBA, with a
specialization in finance, from The
University of Chicago.
Mr. Rooney is the author of numerous water
and infrastructure-related business
commentaries in several major publications
including the New York Times, the Boston
Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the
Washington Times as well as frequent
appearances on national news programs
including NBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, FOX News and
NPR Radio. |
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