Chris Lombard is an asset management specialist for work pertaining to the financial and operational sustainability of infrastructure assets, and has successfully directed large and multi-disciplinary asset management assignments for clients at the national, provincial and municipal government level, plus donor-funding agencies. Since 1995, he has worked on a diverse array of asset management projects for clients in Canada, the US, Europe and Africa, primarily in the utilities sector with secondary experience in the health sector. He was the main developer of the management model for the benchmarking of Canadian water utilities, and has played a key role in the Canadian National Water and Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative since 2000. He currently leads the Process Task Force on Financial matters for the National Benchmarking Initiative. In 2004, Chris advised the South African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in setting up a national benchmarking program similar to the Canadian initiative.