Mr Jeremy Bird will be the Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) with effect from 1 October 2012 . He was the former CEO of the Mekong River Commission based in Vientiane, Lao PDR, an intergovernmental body responsible for cooperation on the sustainable development and management of the Mekong River. At the end of his term in 2011, he advised the United Nations Environment Programme on development of an operational freshwater strategy and formulated policy recommendations on the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus in conjunction with the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference.