Closing 2025: Goodbye Western Leadership, Hello Reality
Notes from someone who has lived the shift, project after project.
As 2025 comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on how the water business has changed since I entered the sector in 2012—and how it feels today to be on the front line, executing real “big” projects.
Welcome to another Tuesday edition of Unfiltered, where we share reflections on our business in an effort to stretch our thinking and make our brains work a little harder.
The dynamics are shifting fast. Some are structural, some are generational, some geopolitical. And honestly, I’m not sure how everything will evolve.
To organise my thoughts, here are the pillars as I see it today:
Geopolitics now defines our business far more than before.
Demographic cliffs and the talent drain are real—and getting worse.
Why does everything feel so fast, chaotic, and unstable compared to 10 years ago?
Are women being pushed out of the new global power structures in our business?
Productivity is shockingly low for such high-value projects.
Is water still a well-paid field? And if I left, where would I go?
Where are the real opportunities ahead?
And the final test: if I had $2M in my bank account today… what would I do tomorrow?
Let’s go through it.