Dr. A.N. Khosla was the Founder President of ICID. Widely acclaimed as an authority on river valley projects, he chaired various river valley projects and consultancy boards including the Beas, Ramganga, Maneri Bhali, as well as the Narmada Dispute Committee in 1963. Dr. Khosla received international recognition for his researches in the field of hydraulics and hydrology. During the World War I, he invented the Khosla Disc for precision leveling across rivers and wide valleys. He later received the Kennedy Gold Medal for outstanding papers and treatises. Apart from a noted engineer, President Hon. Khosla was also an educationist, administrator, philanthropist and social worker actively involved in the education and socio-economic upliftment of backward and underprivileged sections of society in Orissa, in which state he served as Governor (1962-68).

Mr. Hamed Suleiman (1891-1970) graduated in Civil Engineering from the London University. He embarked upon his career with the Ministry of Public Works, U.A.R., where he specialized in the design and construction of irrigation schemes and projects. He assisted in the construction of the Naga Hammadi Barrage on the main river Nile and in the remodeling of the Assiut Barrage. In 1946 he was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Ministry of Public Works and in 1952 became the Minister of Public Works, UAR. He held numerous top appointments in the international field including President ICID and Vice President ICOLD.

A civil and irrigation engineer, Mr. Dexheimer has been involved in many projects the world over including the Bhakra Dam (India), Mahaweli (Sri Lanka), Snowy Mountains (Australia), Taichen Power (Taiwan), Salto Grande (Argentina), Corani (Bolivia), Fincha (Ethiopia) amongst others. His professional memberships include the American Society of Civil Engineers, the US Committee on Large Dams, USCID, Water Power Conference. Mr. Dexheimer spent 30 years in the service of the Bureau of Reclamation of the United States.

Late President Honoraire N.D. Gulhati was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan) on 15 November 1904. He took his technical education at the Thomson College of Civil Engineering, Roorkee (now Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee) and passed out with honours in 1926. He was appointed to the Indian Service of Engineers in October 1927 and posted to the Irrigation Branch of the Public Works Department, Punjab. From August 1945 to March 1949, he was Secretary of the Central Board of Irrigation and Power.

In 1950 he was responsible, as the Chief of the Natural Resources Division in the Planning Commission, Government of India, for initiating proposals relating to the development of irrigation and power, soil conservation and mineral development in the First Five-Year Plan. He was made Chief Engineer and Joint Secretary in 1953 and Additional Secretary to Government of India in 1958. From 1952 until the lndus Waters Treaty was concluded in 1960 (and ratified in 1961), Mr. Gulhati was lndia's Chief Representative on the Indus Waters negotiations conducted under the aegis of IBRD. He represented India in many international engineering conferences.

He was awarded the high distinction of "PADMA BHUSHAN" by the President of India in 1961 "for distinguished services of a high order".

After retirement President Honoraire Gulhati worked as Water Resources Consultant to many State Governments in India and as Consultant to IBRD (1963), as Consultant to the International Development Association (1963-1973), and as Consultant to United Nations (Economic Commission for Asia and Far East, now ESCAP) in 1969.

He has been rightly called the "Father" of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, as it was he who conceived this organization. The proposal of setting up of the Commission was mooted to the Government of India by him in 1946. The Commission was set up in the year 1950 and Mr. Gulhati was elected as its first Secretary General. He served ICID as founder Secretary General from 1950 to 1957, as Vice President from 1957 to 1960, and as President from 1960 to 1963.

Besides engineering and scientific papers contributed to the national institutes (e.g. Punjab Engineering Congress; Institution of Engineers, India) and the American Society of Civil Engineers, Mr. Gulhati had some 20 books and publications to his name.

Mr. Gulhati was always amongst the foremost supporters of ICID and did everything possible to promote the objects of ICID. He was the founder Editor of the ICID Bulletin. He was responsible for getting the land for the office building of the Central Office of the Commission in the prestigious Diplomatic Enclave. His mature leadership, dynamic personality and diplomatic and adroit handling of all matters won him universal respect and endearment with all the members of the International Executive Council.

Mr. Pierre Danel (1902-1966) was the recipient of many honors and decorations including Chevalier de la Légion d''Honneur and Chevalier du Mérite Agricole. He was member of the Comité technique de la Société Hydrotechnique de France, Société des ingénieurs civils, Association technique maritime et aéronautique, Société scientifique du Dauphiné and of amongst numerous other professional bodies. He was also President of the International Association of Hydraulic Research and ICID. He undertook the study of the erosion of the Suez Canal and of hydraulic problems linked with the management of the Aswan High Dam. He played a major role in the technical development of turbines and hydraulic valves. He also invented simple and ingenious equipment for flow distribution and water level monitoring in irrigation canals.

Mr. R.J. Tipton (1893-1967) was Chairman of the Board of Tipton and Kalmbach, a consulting engineering firm which he founded and built up to eminence over the years. His firm was involved in the building of the Indus Basin Water Project in West Pakistan. Mr. Tipton served as an advisor to and helped negotiate many water projects and treaties including the Colorado River, the Laramie River, the Arkansas River, the Rio Grande, the Salt River, the 1944 Mexican Water Treaty, the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, the Rio Grand Tri-State Compact, the Upper Colorado River Compact and the Pecos River Compact. He was also a member of many engineering and water organizations and at the time of his demise was Vice President of the American Society of Civil Engineers and President of ICID.

A civil engineer from the Ecole du Génie Civil, Paris, Mr. Papadopoulos did his advanced studies on irrigation engineering as trainee of USBR. He was deputed by the Greek Government for studies of Reclamation techniques and practices en many countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. He has worked for 35 years in the field of reclamation with the Greek Ministry of Agriculture. He founded the Greek National Committee of ICID and it is through his initiative that Greece became a member state of ICID in 1957. He has authored more than 70 scientific and technical papers and was decorated by Greek Royal Orders apart from receiving many awards and citations for outstanding activities and service.

Mr. Evgeni Evgenievich Alekseevsky (1906-1979) was a prominent organizer of socialist agriculture, member of the CPSU Central Committee, Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet, the Socialist Labour Hero, USSR Minister of Land Reclamation and Water Management. He has contributed much to strengthening and developing international cooperation in land reclamation and water management. He headed the Soviet delegation to meetings of Heads of Water Economy bodies of CMEA member countries, coordinating the cooperation between the Socialist countries in the field of land reclamation and water management. He also signed the International Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area. At his initiative the Russian versions of "Irrigation and Drainage in the World - A Global Review" and "the Multilingual Technical Dictionary on Irrigation and Drainage" were published. He was honored with the title of Hero of Socialist Labour, awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, 4 Orders of Red Banner, Orders of Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the Order of the Badge of Honour.

Prof. Holy has been engaged in the questions of water management, irrigation, drainage and water erosion. In 1957, he founded the Czechoslovak National Committee of ICID, and under his guidance were organized the Soil Water Symposium (1957), the International Seminar on Irrigation, Drainage and Flood Control (1958), the Conference on Economic Quantity of Irrigation Water (1961), Symposium on Large-area Spray Irrigation (1964) and the Water Erosion Symposium (1967). Also preoccupied with the problems of human environment, he founded the Cabinet on Human Environment at the Technical University of Prague in 1969, and became President of the Scientific Council for Human Environment. He held the membership of many prestigious professional bodies including the International Water Resources Association and the International Society of Soil Science.

Mr. Darves-Bornoz spent his entire career as agriculture engineer in the service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of France. Between 1956 and 1977 he published 120 articles on water issues - irrigation, drainage and water management. He was actively involved in the training of experts, bilateral and international technical cooperation, and participated in many national and international conferences and colloquia. He also served as expert to the FAO and the World Bank. He regularly participated in ICID activities for over a period of 17 years and served also as Secretary General of AFEID.

An expert in water resource engineering, Mr. Rangeley devoted the early part of career to dam design and later on to the planning and design of major irrigation, drainage, flood control and hydro-electric power projects. He has been engaged in river basin planning and irrigation developments in several regions of the world, in the planning and design of major multi-purpose dams and in the operational and economic evaluation of major multi-purpose projects. Mr. Rangeley has to his credit numerous technical articles and papers and has played a lead role in several British Government research committees. He is a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a member of the Société des Ingénieurs et Scientifiques de France.

An agricultural and civil engineer, Dr. Jensen has conducted and supervised irrigation and related soil management research. He has authored more than 100 technical papers and has edited the American Society of Agricultural Engineers Monograph on Irrigation Systems published first in 1980 and revised in 1983. He is the recipient of several awards and honors and has actively been involved in foreign research programs.

An agricultural engineer of national and international acclaim, Mr. Lahlou's expertise lay in hydro-agricultural management and gravity and sprinkler irrigation. He spent his entire career in the service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reforms, Morocco. As an active member of ICID, and in his capacity of Secretary General of ANAFID (Moroccan National Committee of ICID), Mr. Lahlou participated in many missions and conferences at the international level.

Dr. Framji (1908-1994) was Secretary General of ICID from 1963 to 1988. A graduate of civil engineering from King's College, London University, he entered into the service of the Government of India, where he held senior positions such as Director of the Indian Waterways and Navigation Experiment Station (now Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune), Chief Engineer and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power, Government of India. He was the recipient of many awards and honors including Member of the British Empire, Chevalier du Mérite Agricole and the Olympia Prize, and is listed in various editions of the International Who's Who. At the 39th meeting of the ICID international Executive Council held in 1988, Dr. Framji was designated President Hon. ICID as a special case for his distinguished and dedicated services to the Commission over a quarter century.

An expert in water resources development for irrigation, drainage and power generation, Mr. Hennessy has handled major water resource assignments in more than 20 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He has actively been associated with ICID since 1978 in various capacities. He is a fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, U.K., and the Institution of Water & Environmental Management, and has served on a number of engineering and scientific committees and advisory boards. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Engineer and Transport Staff Corps.

He may be contacted at e-mail :<johnhennessy12@btinternet.com>

Ir. Shahrizaila bin Abdullah has contributed immensely to the progress of irrigation, drainage, flood control, river and coastal engineering in Malaysia. A member of the ICID Management Board since its inception in 1991, he later on took up its Chairmanship, as President, ICID in 1993. He has participated in a large number of regional and international conferences and seminars organized by water related bodies, and was also the key-note speaker on behalf of FAO at the International Conference on Water and Environment held in Dublin, Ireland, in January 1992.

He may be contacted at e-mail :<shahsham@gmail.com>

Mr. Shady has a wide experience in policy development, public administration, soil salinity control and reclamation, environmental management, institutional strengthening and capacity building and is a member of several important professional associations such as American and Canadian Societies of Agricultural Engineering, International Soil Science Society, American Society of Agronomy etc. He has organized several international conferences and has served as Office Bearer of many professional organizations including ICID and the International Water Resources Association. He has been instrumental in the setting up of the World Commission on Water of which he is also President. Presently, Mr. Shady is Senior Policy Advisor, Water, Environment and Natural Resources, CIDA, Canada.

Prof. dr. Bart Schultz graduated from the Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, and obtained his PhD degree on the topic ‘Water Management of the drained lakes in the Netherlands’ from the same University. His career spans over 30 years of research, advising and project implementation in the field of land and water development, drainage, irrigation and environmental engineering. Most of the time he worked as head of the Water Management Division in the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority, holding a part time appointment at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. He is senior advisor in the Civil Engineering Division of Rijkswaterstaat. He is responsible for environmental impact studies on major hydraulic works, as well as for advice, design and implementation of large scale environmental engineering projects, among others.

At UNESCO-IHE, Prof. Schultz is responsible for education and research in Land and Water Development. His guidance enabled about 190 overseas participants in obtaining Master of Engineering degree (MEng), about 95 for Master of Science degree (MSc) and 6 for PhD degree. From September 1999 to July 2002 he was President of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).

He is author of more than 180 articles in the field of land reclamation, drainage and irrigation and editor of several proceedings of National and International Conferences. He is Chairman of the Editorial Board of Journal of Irrigation and Drainage of ICID. He visited more than 30 countries to apprise, evaluate, advise, on land reclamation, drainage and irrigation projects. He may be contacted at e-mail :<schultz1@kpnmail.nl>

Dato' Ir. Hj. Keizrul bin Abdullah, born December 1951, possesses B.E. (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering from Malaya (1975) and M.Sc. (Water Resources Systems Engineering) from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK (1991). He was Chairman, MANCID and was Chairman ICID's Asian Regional Working Group, Vice President, ICID (1999-2002). He has actively participated in ICID meetings and has been a member of several workbodies including PCTA (1990-1996).

Mr. Keizrul has presented papers on Irrigation, drainage, floods, rivers and water resources in conferences and seminars at national and international levels. He has been involved in the field of irrigation, drainage, river engineering, flood mitigation and water resources planning and development for the past 26 years. In the 1980's, he was the Chief Counterpart Officer of the National Water Resources Study. He is a registered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia, Member of the Board of Engineers, Malaysia and Chairman of the Malaysian National Committee on the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO. Ir. Keizrul was also Director General of Irrigation and Drainage Department, Malaysia. He may be contacted at e-mail :<keizrul@gmail.com>

Mr. Peter S. Lee (UK), born in 1945, obtained his BSc (Civil Engineering) in 1966 and MSc (Engineering Hydrology) in 1973 from Imperial College, University of London. After his early professional work in Turkey and Zambia, Mr. Lee joined the internationally renowned consultancy firm Mott MacDonald in 1973 and has since been involved with their many international land and water resources and environmental activities.

Besides UK, Turkey and Zambia he has worked in Oman, Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Mr. Lee's broad international water resources and sustainable development experience has given him a deep understanding of many differing forms of public and private sector institutional structures and of the importance of national and regional cultures and characteristics. He also has wide experience of the modus operandi of international funding agencies such as the World Bank, FAO, UNDP, the European Union and DFID (UK).

Mr. Peter Lee was Vice President ICID (1997-2000), and Chair - IPTRID Consultative Group (since 2000), Permanent Finance Committee (since 2003), Special Work Team on Aral Sea Basin (1998-2002), and member ICID Journal Management Team (since 2001), ICID Management Board (since 2004). He has served as Chairman of the British National Committee (1992 - 1994). Mr. Lee has authored many technical publications including "ICID Survey on Funding of Operation, Maintenance and Management of Irrigation Projects". He may be contacted at e-mail :<peterlee.icid@btinternet.com>

Prof. Dr. Chandra A. Madramootoo obtained Ph.D in Agricultural Engineering from McGill University, Canada (1985). At present he holds the prestigious position of Dean, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Canada and Associate Vice Principal of Macdonald Campus of McGill University. Dr. Madramootoo has worked as a member of Canadian National Committee of Irrigation and Drainage (CANCID) during the past 20 years and served in various important working bodies of ICID. He was also the Vice President of ICID from 2000-2003 and presently holding the position of Chairman, CANCID. He participated in numerous ICID IECs and Congresses and was the key force behind the successful organization of 18th ICID Congress and 53rd IEC, Montreal (2002). Prof. Madramootoo is also the member of various professional societies. He has to his credit 15 awards from different organizations and published / contributed papers to more than 300 books, Journals, Conferences etc. He also holds the membership of McGill University Senate, Senate Nominating Committee, Senate Committee on Physical Development and many more. He may be contacted at e-mail :<chandra.madramootoo@mcgill.ca>

Dr. Gao Zhanyi (born in 1962) obtained Ph.D in Hydrology and Water Resources Management from Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), China in 2005.  At present, he holds the position of Director, National Centre for Efficient Irrigation Technology Research, China. He has served in various capacities in several international and national projects of global nature. Dr. Zhanyi has been contributing immensely to the activities of ICID as member and Chairman of Permanent Committee and several workbodies.  He was also the Vice President of ICID for the period 2005-2008.  He participated in numerous ICID events and was the key force behind the successful organization of 19th Congress and 56th IEC in 2005. 

Dr. Zhanyi was also the recipient of various awards like ICID WatSave Award in 1999. Greet Yu Science and Technology Achievement Award from Ministry of Water Resources, China in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and Science and Technology Achievement Award from Ministry of Water Resources, State Council, Ningxia Autonomous Region, Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2008. He may be contacted at e-mail :<gaozhy@iwhr.com, zhanyi_gao@126.com>

Dr. Nairizi began his career in 1969 as an Agricultural Extension Officer with Ghazvin Development Project, a leading developer of Irrigation Projects in Iran, later switched to teaching Irrigation at Faculty of Agriculture at Mashhad University of Iran, and was the Dean of the Faculty and Member of University Board in 1980. In 1983, he joined Mahab Ghods Consulting Engineers, the largest consulting firm in Iran, as its Regional Director at Khorasan, overseeing the projects works in Irrigation, Dams and Water Supply Projects. At present, Dr. Nairizi is Head of the Board and Managing Director of TOOSSAB Consulting Engineers Co. and Chairman of the Board of RAYAB Consulting Engineers Co. of Iran.

Born in 1946 in Iran, Dr. Nairizi holds a Ph.D. Degree in Civil Engineering from University of Southampton (1977) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Soil & Water Engineering from Cranfield University, England in 1974. He obtained his B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from Ahwaz University (Iran) in June 1968. He may be contacted at e-mail :<s.nairizi@toossab.net>