Jacques Bertrand has devoted his 40-year career to water management, the environment, and improving access to vital water and sanitation services.

Having started out as a consulting engineer and then a water and sewerage service operator, he spent 20 years in the executive management of various operating and engineering subsidiaries within the Suez Group, where he also acted as research and operations director.

In 2010, on the strength of this experience, he decided to devote himself full-time to passing on knowledge, in order to contribute to addressing the challenge of access to water and sanitation.
That same year he created the association AquaOrbi, which he chairs and whose mission is to bolster the development of local water and sanitation services in developing countries, by supporting the creation and growth of small enterprises to provide them. AquaOrbi was a reference partner of the Fondation Chirac, within which Jacques Bertrand has acted as scientific committee chairman.
In 2008, with the same goal, he instigated creation of the "Suez-Water for All" Chair at ParisTech engineering school. He created and taught the course on strategic management of water and sanitation services, and chaired its Steering Committee until 2018. 

He trains and advises the leaders of large departments in developing countries in many parts of the world, has set up and leads training seminars on strategic management for executive managers from many geographical areas, and helps them draw up and roll out their own strategic plan for ensuring lasting, universal access to water and sanitation.
Jacques Bertrand is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and of the École nationale du génie rural, des Eaux et des Forêts.