Program Development & Management Specialist

Satish Menon is Atethemis’ Program Development & Management Specialist.
Satish has over twenty-four years of experience as an engineer and program manager leading multidisciplinary and multinational teams in planning and implementing water and wastewater facilities, and working with multi-lateral donors, private companies, NGOs and local governments in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America and United States. He is also a founding Board member of ROCKBlue, an NGO that partners with local public utilities as a facilitator and a collaborator to improve its performance in providing reliable water and wastewater service in urban and rural sectors, and ensuring sustainability of capital assets.

As a developmental specialist, Satish’s approach is to create an “ecosystem” around a proposed infrastructure driven project by integrating various disciplines and stakeholders through its planning and implementation stages for the singular purpose of maximizing the project’s desired outcome. This provides for investing in people responsible for developing and sustaining the infrastructure and the project at large, and providing reliable service to the project beneficiaries.

Satish offers clients the benefit of:
Over 15 years of experience as a project manager or technical manager on myriad international development projects related to water and wastewater infrastructure and its institutions.

Over 20 years of experience as a lead engineer in planning, designing and developing specifications and bidding documents for projects such as water distribution and treatment projects, wastewater collection and treatment projects, potable water and wastewater pumping station, well development, and storm water collection and detention system projects, etc.

Over 10 years of experience assessing institutional capacities and capabilities of organizations providing water and wastewater services and developing programs to enhance skill development and institutional capabilities.

Over eight years of experience conducting risk assessment/risk mitigation exercises with clients and project stakeholders to manage project risks and identify adequate levels of mitigation.

Satish currently lives in Lusaka, where he is leading a team of young and local engineers, social, gender and community engagement specialists and resettlement professionals implement a resettlement action plan for a $350 million MCC compact with Zambia. In course of successfully completing the project beyond contract expectations, Satish mentored this local team to bridge the skill gap in program planning, execution and management, and guided them to establish an independent, private sector consulting firm that provide services for undertaking social, gender and resettlement activities in Zambia, across southern Africa and beyond.

Atethemis provides Satish with the opportunity to engage with fellow African development specialists, mentor them to help realize the desired outcome of developmental projects and help them grow professionally.