Building the world's most used open WASH platform

Career

• Head of Product, mWater & Solstice (2018-present). Growing digital data governance platforms to global leadership.
• Systems Advisor, WaterAid London (2015-2018). Scoped, configured and deployed a global management information system to 20 country programmes. Oversaw mobile data collection, analysis and mapping tools across the organization.
• Programme Officer, WaterAid London (2014-2015). Data analysis and visualization of project implementation. Post-implementation sustainability monitoring.
• CRM Services Officer, WaterAid London (2013-2014). Database administration, training workshops, automated data imports with VBA and Python.
• GIS Developer (Volunteer), British Red Cross London (2012-2013). Mapping tools with D3.js, PHP, SQL. Python scripting.
• Operations Analyst, GSA Capital London (2011-2012). Trade reconciliations, treasury automation, risk management.

Education & Skills

• MSc Development Studies, University of Glasgow (Merit)
• MA (Hons) History & Philosophy, University of Glasgow (First)

Technical skills (product management, prototyping, side projects, and independent work; mWater's platform architecture is by CTO Clayton Grassick): TypeScript, JavaScript, React, CoffeeScript, Node.js, Python, C#, PostgreSQL, SQL, REST API design, D3.js, Leaflet, MapboxGL, CSS, HTML5, Git, GIS, agentic AI development, local LLMs, prompt engineering, PowerBI, Unity, AWS, Docker, Linux, VBA, ETL, offline-first mobile architecture, data visualization, unit testing.

Trainings conducted include CAWST, Medair, DigDeep, USAID IUWASH, Oyo State Nigeria, UNICEF, SAGO Network, Water for South Sudan, Netherlands Red Cross, Water for People, Clear Cambodia, LM International.

A Published, Public Strategy

The strategy stakes out how AI should serve frontline water and sanitation work: as a capacity-multiplier for local professionals, not a new dependency on consultants.

• Assume AI agents will find your APIs, so build sanctioned, structured access
• Separate data from structure to ringfence high-risk elements like survey schemas
• Make documentation machine-readable
• Keep humans in control with approval workflows and point-in-time recovery
• View the interactive AI Roadmap

Shipped AI, Not Slideware

A steady cadence of AI features, each delivered free to all users:

• AI dashboard translation, November 2024
• AI survey translation, January 2025
• The Integrator: AI builds data import/export integrations from plain language, funded by UNICEF Madagascar, February 2026
• AI-powered widget design: describe charts, pivots, and maps conversationally, April 2026
• MCP server: connect Claude, Cursor, or Codex to query data and docs and propose changes, June 2026

Responsible by Design

AI capability paired with governance, so governments and NGOs can adopt it with confidence:

• Every AI-proposed data change requires human review and approval
• AI-generated integration code runs sandboxed, with encrypted credential storage
• Permission-aware access: AI assistants see only what the user can see
• Data sovereignty commitments, presented in mWater's webinar on data ownership in the age of cloud and AI
• No proprietary fine-tuned models: features improve as foundation models improve

SDG 6: Clean Water & Sanitation

mWater's platform directly enables progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 by providing the data infrastructure for:

• National WASH monitoring information systems (MIS) used by governments to track coverage and service levels
• Post-implementation monitoring (PIM) surveys that verify whether water infrastructure remains functional
• Water quality data management from laboratory testing to field screening
• Asset management databases tracking hundreds of thousands of water points at national scale
• Equity analysis identifying underserved communities and service gaps

Conference Presentations & Workshops

Petri has presented at and built applications for major WASH sector conferences:

• Stockholm World Water Week: annual talks on data management and mWater features (2018-2026)
• Brisbane WASH Futures (2018)
• Colorado WASH Symposium: conference apps (2019, 2020) and presentations
• UNC Water and Health Conference: conference app (2018) and sessions
• AfWA (African Water Association): presentations on data-driven WASH
• Multiple workshops on mWater platform adoption for government WASH programs

Community Building & Content

Beyond product work, Petri actively builds mWater's public presence and community:

• Grew mWater's LinkedIn following from 500 to 5,000+ followers
• Maintains the mWater Portal news feed (portal.mwater.co), seen by hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each year
• Coordinates and writes for the mWater.co blog, authoring flagship posts including the AI strategy (2026), the Horizon launch (2026), and From Assets to Accounting (2025)
• Maintains mWater's YouTube channel with 200,000+ views across training videos and feature walkthroughs
• Runs training and consulting for organizations including Netherlands Red Cross, Medair, Water for People, CAWST, UNICEF, USAID IUWASH, and Clear Cambodia
• View consulting and side projects

Team Building & Project Management

Petri has built and managed distributed teams since 2016, across multiple continents:

• Hired staff and managed global teams spanning engineering, data, field support, and training across the US, Canada, Haiti, Uganda, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Nepal
• Selected and mentored interns from the University of Chicago, guiding them through real product and data work
• Managed the CRS Azure project, a digital water service provider platform for small utilities to attract finance and investment
• Managed the Water Mission systems integration, connecting field data collection to organizational workflows
• Coordinated USAID Haiti, one of the largest mWater deployments, with a digital platform used by all urban utilities in Haiti
• Oversaw product delivery across dozens of concurrent partner projects with varying requirements, timelines, and regulatory contexts

Government & Institutional Deployments

Product decisions shaped by deep engagement with national-scale deployments and donor partnerships:

• Ethiopia CO-WASH program, one of the largest WASH monitoring programs in Africa
• Malawi national water point database, 120,000+ water points tracked
• Uganda RUMIS (Rural Water MIS), district-level water service monitoring
• Water.org partnership, funded Portal upgrades for survey conditionality, previews, and charts (2025)
• UNICEF Madagascar partnership, funded the AI-powered Integrator plus dashboard slicers and sections (2026)
• 28 portal languages supporting deployments from Indonesia to Haiti to Tajikistan
• Updated admin boundaries for Angola, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Uganda, Malawi
• Encryption at rest and Two-Factor Authentication for government security requirements

AI Strategy & Shipped AI Features

Authored mWater's public AI strategy (July 2026) and is actively shipping against it:

• MCP server for permission-aware AI assistant access, shipped June 2026
• AI-powered Integrator for plain-language data integrations, shipped February 2026
• AI-powered widget design for dashboards, shipped April 2026
• AI-powered survey translation (January 2025) and dashboard translation (November 2024)
• Human-in-the-loop approvals and sandboxed AI code execution throughout
• Roadmap extends to predictive planning, water resource modeling, and agentic AI
• View the interactive AI Roadmap