Last year's IAWD General Assembly has elected the next IAWD Board. It will steer our association through four years, in other words, through phase 4 of the Danube Water Program.

Effective 01 January 2022, the new IAWD Board is in charge. Numerous faces are familiar. Some are new. Shouldering the responsibility for the period 2022 until 2025 are:

• Walter Kling, President. The IAWD founding member, long-time President, and Deputy Managing Director of Vienna Water has agreed to serve another four years, supported by the following proven IAWD Board members 
• Lyubomir Filipov, Vice President. The Director for Strategic Partnerships and Projects at Veolia water/Sofiyska voda takes over from outgoing Vice President Vladimir Tausanovic.
• Christian Hasenleithner, Vice President. The graduated water engineer and current General Manager at Energie AG Bohemia replaces outgoing Vice President Hans Sailer.
• Gottfried Blaser, Treasurer. The Head Manager of ARA Oberengadin in Switzerland has volunteered to continue his meritorious work for another term of office.
• Karl-Wolfgang Brunner of REWAG, Germany, continues to serve on the Board, but is preparing a handover to Johann Wolf, also of REWAG due to pesonal reasons.
• Mircea Macri of APA Nova Bucuresti S.A. in Romania will also keep serving for another period.

New on the IAWD Board are:

• Wolfgang Gruber, Staff Unit Manager at Vienna Water, an Environmental Sciences and Civil Engineering graduate from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna and internationally experienced project engineer, and
• George Sugar of Vodovod Subotica in Serbia, an Engineering graduate from the University in Szeged who has joined PUC "Vodovod i kanalizacija" Subotica in 2009 as a Process Engineer, later Technical Director and General Manager since 2016.

While the new IAWD Board takes the reins, a very familiar face has left the IAWD: Philip Weller, known to many as the Head of IAWD's Technical Secretariat and Danube Water Program Coordinator, has retired, and those who attended last year's virtual Danube Water Conference will remember the very emotional Goodbye video that crowned the Conference wrap-up session.

Phil Weller's position will be filled interimistically by Katerina Schilling, IAWD's Communication and Program Manager. Ms. Schilling, an IWA Fellow and co-founder of the Austrian Young Water Professionals Chapter, has spent a decade as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Water Quality, Resources and Waste Management the Vienna University of Technology before joining the IAWD.