Community Water Solutions

CWS is a social enterprise that partners with rural communities in W.Africa to implement sustainable water treatment businesses.

  • Stage Full Product Ready
  • Industry Other
  • Location Boston, MA, USA
  • Currency USD
  • Founded October 2008
  • Employees 2
  • Website communitywatersolutions.org

Company Summary

CWS launches sustainable water businesses in rural villages in W.Africa. These businesses are owned and operated by the communities that they serve, and use simple, locally available technologies to enable the treatment, distribution, and storage of safe drinking water. The maintenance and operation of these businesses is funded by water sales revenue, while the capital necessary to launch them is generated from our innovative Fellowship Program.

Team

  • Kate Clopeck
    Executive Director

    Kate Clopeck is a co-founder and the Executive Director for Community Water Solutions. Over the past 7 years, Kate has worked extensively on water improvement projects around the globe including Nicaragua, Cameroon and Ghana. She earned a MS in Technology and Policy from MIT in 2009 and a BS from the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Kate currently splits her time between her hometown of Boston and Tamale, Ghana

  • Vanessa Green
    Co-Founder and Board Member

    Vanessa is the CEO of OnChip Power. She co-founded CWS while at MIT completing her Masters Environmental Engineering, where she focused her work on household water treatment and safe storage technologies for the developing world. Vanessa was recently named Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy and selected as one of Boston Business Journal's Rising Stars. In addition to her M.Eng degree,Vanessa also received her MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

  • Charles Howe
    Co-Founder and Board Member

    Chuck Howe is a Director and Partner at the Center for Innovation, Excellence and Leadership (IXL Center). where he is responsible for project integration, advisory and client management. Prior to joining IXL, Chuck served as a consultant to Liberty Mutual, and to other clients in the pharmaceutical, professional services, and renewable energy industries. Chuck is a 2004 graduate from Harvard University.

  • Kathryn Padgett
    Ghana Country Director

    Kathryn first joined the CWS team in December 2010 as Community Water Solutions Winter Fellow. After graduating from Georgetown University in 2011 with a BS in Foreign Service in Science, Technology and International Affairs and a Certificate in International Development, she joined our staff as the Ghana Country Director. In this role, Kathryn manages our operations in the field and works to establish strategic partnerships on the ground.

  • Samantha Derrick
    US Director of Operations and Development

    Sam Derrick is a 2008 Clemson graduate with a BS in Health Science and a concentration in Promotion & Education. Like Kathryn, Sam first joined our team in 2010 as a CWS Winter Fellow. Before working for CWS, Sam served as the Project Materials Developer for a non-profit located within Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in South Africa.

Advisors

  • Jeff Clopeck, Day Pitney, LLC
    Lawyer
    Unconfirmed
    Jennifer Drumm, Friedman, Suvalle & Salomon, P.C.
    Accountant
    Unconfirmed

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