Mr Douglas Brown

Doug Brown has more than 20 years of Private Equity experience; and over 20 years of experience in water resource development. In 2003, Doug became Chief Executive Officer of Ionics, Incorporated – a leading publically traded (NYSE: ION) provider of membrane-based water purification equipment and services. Doug was recruited by Ionics’ Board of Directors to turn around the company after a four-year period of declining profits. Doug had previously worked at the Company during the late 70’s and early 80’s as a Product Manager and as a Field Engineer installing water desalination systems in the Middle East and North Africa.

As CEO, Doug revamped Ionics’ strategy to focus on water services, restructured the company to streamline operations, and completed the largest acquisition in Ionics’ history (Ecolochem). In February 2005, Ionics was acquired by General Electric for $1.3 billion. During Doug’s 22-month tenure as CEO, Ionics’ per share price nearly tripled from $16 to $44, representing an increase in shareholder value of more than $750 million.

Doug has also spent 17 years at Advent International – a leading global private equity fund manager. He was Advent’s President and Chief Executive Officer from 1995 through 2002. As CEO, Mr. Brown restructured Advent’s worldwide investment organization leading to substantially improved investment results. From 1990 through 1994, Doug served as Advent’s European Managing Director. During this period, he improved European investment returns from negative results for the previous 3 years to top quartile returns in the European private equity industry.

In 2007, Doug founded AquaVenture Holdings – a provider of Water-as-a-ServiceTM (or WAASTM) solutions that offer customers a reliable and cost-effective source of clean drinking and process water primarily under long-term contracts that minimise capital investment by the customer. AquaVenture Holdings is composed of two operating platforms: Quench, a U.S.-based provider of Point-of-Use, or POU, filtered water coolers and related services to more than 45,000 institutional and commercial customers; and Seven Seas Water, a multinational provider of desalination and wastewater treatment solutions, providing 8 billion gallons of potable, high purity industrial grade and ultra-pure water per year to governmental, municipal, industrial and hospitality customers. He is CEO and Chairman of AquaVenture Holdings as well as CEO of Seven Seas Water and Chairman of Quench USA. In October 2016, AquaVenture Holdings successfully completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange and is traded under the symbol WAAS.

Mr. Brown received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard University where he was a Baker Scholar and Loeb Rhodes Fellow in Finance.