Founders & Board

Experience Across Disciplines

Leaders and experts from academia, business, and civil society worldwide bring practical expertise to guide Safe Water Gardens.

Learn more about our vision and team

Dr. Marc van Loo

Founder & CEO

Dutch by birth, cosmologist by training, educator and international educational author by profession, Marc opened LooLa Adventure Resort in 2000 – which went on to become the world’s most highly decorated eco resort. Leveraging on these eco-awards, and spurred on by the preventable death of the daughter of Loola’s cook, LooLa’s team initiated the Safe Water Garden concept in 2015. Together with an ever-growing group of passionate supporters, Marc drives our mission to bring safe sanitation to the whole world.

Tim-Frederik Kohler

Co-Founder

17/5/1979 – 30/11/2022

Prof. Dr. How Yong NG

Co-Founder

How Yong has over 20 years of experience in wastewater treatment. He is: a Provost’s Chair Professor in NUS’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Director of the NUS Environmental Research Institute; Director of the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Laboratory; Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA); Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore, Vice-Chair of the Management Committee of the IWA Specialist Group on Membrane Technology; and President of the Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore.

Mike Flache

Co-Founder

Mike is an entrepreneur, business angel and philanthropist. Together with talented teams, he builds digital businesses worldwide. Mike spends much of his time helping build high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia. As a recognized thought leader, he collaborates with Fortune 500 companies, innovators and technology vendors. The analysts of Onalytica voted him as one of the top-10 global thought leaders in the field of digital transformation.

Jehanne Fabre

Board Member

Jehanne graduated with honours from the Sciences Po Lyon in Strategies of International Cultural Exchanges and has a Master’s in Public Policies Analysis. She has worked for UNESCO and the French Ministry of Agriculture and was the Global Head of Water for Danone between 2019–2023. She is currently Global Head of Water at l’Oreal. Her passion has been bridging sectors to establish climate adaptation strategies in partnerships with governments, the private sector, civil society, and the international community.

Sam McGoun

CFO

A Stanford graduate, Sam started his career at American Express, quickly rising in the ranks as Asia’s head of Consumer business development and head of corporate strategic development. He then opened an award-winning travel agency in Singapore, specializing in sustainable travel which became Singapore’s third largest social enterprise by revenue. He’s a recipient of AmCham’s Ally of the year award, recognizing the male leader who most advanced gender equality.

Henky Irawan, S.Pi, MP, M.Sc

Board Member

Henky is a Lecturer and Researcher in Marine Biology at Raja Ali Haji Maritime University (UMRAH), in the Kepulauan Riau Province of Indonesia. He also serves as the head of the Institute for Research and Community Service at the University. According to the AD Scientific Index, Henky is ranked 1st in Indonesia and 13th in ASIA in the field of Fisheries. He has been actively involved in SWG programs since 2017 as one of SWG’s research leads, focussing on community impact.

Romi Saryadi

Board Member

Romi is a native of Bintan island in Indonesia. He finished high school in 2010 and became our youngest staff at LooLa Resort. He then taught himself English in 3 months, quickly became one of LooLa’s top activity instructors, handling school guests and family guests from Singapore, then head of activities. Showing similar initiative, he joined the SWG team early on and became one of our top technical experts. He’s been a part of just about everyone of the 700 SWGs we’ve built so far, including the one we built in Nepal.

Yudha Dwi Prasetyatama, M.Eng.

Board Member

Yudha is SWG’s formal research lead. He is a lecturer at the department of agricultural and biosystem engineering, faculty of agricultural technology, Universitas Gadjah Mada. Concurrently, he is pursuing his PhD (in the topic of Safe Water Garden) at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore on a full scholarship. He joined the SWG team in 2016, has experience in chemistry-based research, and is passionate about working on community empowerment projects.

Rik Sneep

Board Member

Rik is Shell’s Country Chair for Bolivia and Paraguay and has worked in various leadership roles in six countries. He is the founder of TOPAZ Transformations, a niche consultancy focused on educating executive leadership in how to make profit through purpose. With a passion for sustainable business and geopolitics, Rik is a member of the Baker Institute Roundtable for Emerging Leaders and advises non-profit organizations on energy market development.

Dr. Elis Hastuti

Board Member

Elis is a graduate in Environmental Engineering from Bandung Institute of Technology, has a master degree of Water Resources Engineering and Management in Stuttgart University, and is about to receive her doctorate in environmental science from Padjadjaran University. She works as a sanitation engineer with the national inspection body for wastewater treatment installations – tasked also with drafting Indonesia’s National Standards – at the Directorate of Engineering Affairs for Human Settlement and Housing, Ministry of Public Works and Housing (Kementerian PUPR).

Jaya Putra

Board Member

Jaya hails from the mystical highlands of West Sumatra, home to the unique matrilineal Minangkabau culture which expects boys to leave the house and build a life for themselves. Jaya came to Bintan, started as an independent taxi driver, met Marc who was building his resort at the time, and in no time worked himself up to LooLa’s transport coordinator. Soon after that, owing to his communication and interpersonal skills, he became director of LooLa’s community outreach and director of Loola’s foundation. He has led all major SWG projects in Indonesia to date in an exemplary manner.

Pieter den Dekker, M.Eng

Board Member

Pieter finished his Masters in Civil Engineering at Delft University in 2020, specializing in Urban Water Engineering. He then joined the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and rapidly rose through the ranks. In 2023, he acted as one of two main organizers of the March 2023 UN Water Conference in New York. Specifically, he was the Policy Advisor and the Private Sector Liaison, and he invited Safe Water Gardens to exhibit at the UNWC as one of 6 examples of a scalable WASH innovation. Wanting to create a real impact in WASH, he is now SWG’s chief policy advisor.

Prof. Dr. Lilik Sutiarso

Board Member

Lilik is a former President of Indonesian Society of Agricultural Engineers (ISAE), a Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Bio-system Engineering & coordinator of “Smart Agriculture – Research Center” at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). He has wide international experience in Asia, having studied in Thailand and completing his Ph.D. at Tsukuba University Japan. His specialty is agricultural system technology but more recently Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economic systems for rural community development in Indonesia.

Dr. Iwan Juwana

Board Member

Iwan is currently the Head of Centre for Research and Community Development at the National Institute of Technology (ITENAS) Bandung. He obtained his degree from Bandung Institute of Technology – Indonesia, the University of New South Wales – Australia, Maastricht School of Management – the Netherlands, and Victoria University – Australia. Iwan is passionate about – and currently working on – research and projects related to water & wastewater technologies, as well as river management in Indonesia.

Achmad

Board Member

Achmad is from the small Ngenang Island, in between Batam and Bintan. He joined LooLa in 2009 as an activity instructor, where he immediately impressed with his communication and people skills. During COVID, he became the main story teller for virtual travellers who brought Safe Water Gardens to Indonesian families through Zoom. He has been part of most of the 700 SWGs we’ve built and, naturally, became SWG’s chief communication officer, connecting people and stories, and bringing sanitation science to life.

Learn more about our vision and team