Bert De Bièvre is the technical secretary (head) of FONAG, Quito's Water Fund. Bert has 30 years of experience in the Tropical Andes. For more than 10 years, he worked in academia at the Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador, where he was a co-founder of what is now a consolidated research group in soil and water management with an emphasis in Andean hydrology. Subsequently, Bert worked for 10 years leading projects in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru focused on Andean ecosystems such as the paramo, watershed management, and hydrology of Andean catchments. In a two-year mission, based at CONDESAN in Lima, Peru, he has been advising Peruvian authorities, on the design and implementation of policies supporting incentives and compensation for hydrological ecosystem services. Since October 2015, he leads FONAG in the fulfillment of its mission of conserving and restoring the source water areas for Ecuador's high altitude capital Quito. Bert holds a PhD in applied biological sciences (2002), an MSc in water resources engineering (1991), and a Degree in civil engineering (1990) from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.