William Cosgrove has 50 years of experience in Canada and internationally. Up to 1972, his experience was in was in consulting engineering firms in Montréal, Quebéc, which offered services in civil, municipal, sanitary, and industrial engineering; urban planning; and environmental impact studies. He applied his environmental engineering training as an expert advisor to the Montréal Urban Community and consultant to the World Bank. He outlined the initial environmental impact assessment of the James Bay Hydroelectric Project.
From 1973-1989, Mr. Cosgrove was employed by the World Bank, initially as Water Resources Specialist in the North Africa/Middle East Region and then as Division Chief, Energy, Water Resources and Telecommunications fro Africa. During these periods he was responsible for the preparation, evaluation and supervision of projects financed by the World Bank in these sectors and served on the Task Forceon World Energy Supply and Demand. He later became Director of the Bank’s Administrative Services and Personnel Reorganization of the World Bank. As Vice-President Personnel, he was responsible for reorganization of the Bank in 1987.
In 1989 Mr. Cosgrove left the World Bank to play an active role in Quebec politics. In 1990 he joined Monenco Consultants (now Monenco-AGRA) as Senior Vice President responsible for Strategic Planning and Corporate Development, including development of detailed acquisition and divestiture strategies, and Vice President Environment Services.
Mr. Cosgrove resumed personal private practice in July, 1993. He offers his services under the name of Ecoconsult Inc., located in Montréal, Québec, Canada. His primary fields of consulting are in strategic planning, institution building and sustainable development in the water and power sectors.