Alicja Solarczyk

Programme Manager, United Utilities

Alicja is a Chartered Project Professional and Chartered Water and Environmental Manager with over 20 years’ experience in the UK water sector. Her career has spanned strategy, operations and major capital delivery, giving her a deep understanding of the human, regulatory and environmental complexity behind successful infrastructure programmes.

She currently leads the delivery of a £300m rainwater management programme focused on accelerating sustainable drainage and partnership solutions across the North West. Alicja is particularly passionate about the behavioural side of programme delivery — building trust across supply chains, creating clarity in complex governance environments, and fostering high-performing teams capable of navigating uncertainty and innovation.

Having delivered projects within the WINEP framework and worked closely with regulators, designers, contractors and operational teams, she brings a pragmatic and collaborative leadership style grounded in accountability, transparency and long-term environmental stewardship. She is driven by the belief that transformational infrastructure delivery depends as much on people, culture and relationships as it does on process and technical excellence.

Session: From grey to green: Delivering a £300m shift to nature-based infrastructure

Alicja and Jack will share how United Utilities is delivering a £300m Rainwater Management Programme, representing the first time a UK water company has secured funding at this scale to accelerate green-blue solutions and trial new ways of working.

Their presentation will explore the people and behaviours behind delivering such a programme, how teams navigate uncertainty, build trust across organisational and supply-chain boundaries, and create the conditions for innovation in a highly regulated environment.

Drawing on practical experience, Alicja and Jack will discuss the leadership and behavioural shifts required when moving early into catchment-based, nature-based solutions: encouraging collaborative decision-making, balancing regulatory drivers with long-term environmental outcomes, and supporting teams to make “best value” and “least regret” investment decisions when the answers are not always clear.

She will also reflect on the importance of culture, governance and stakeholder engagement in enabling organisations to move away from traditional grey infrastructure towards partnership-led, sustainable solutions at scale.