Our Mission
The Blue Climate Initiative is a multi-year program engaging innovators, community leaders, scientists, investors and global experts through evidence-based action. We enable innovation, research and collaboration to combat climate change while protecting our oceans, unlocking solutions on urgent challenges like renewable energy, sustainable food supplies, improved human health, flourishing biodiversity, stewardship of the ocean’s resources, and vibrant ocean economies.
Our Core Team
CEO
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Strategic Advisor
Director of Program and Operations
Project Officer, Operations
Steering Committee
Founder & CEO, Beyond Green Travel
Executive Director, University of California Berkeley South Pacific Research Station, Moorea
Chairman & CEO, Pacific Beachcomber
Director, Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory University of California Berkeley, & Senior adviser for Energy, Climate and Innovation for USAID
CEO Blue Climate Initiative
Chairman Tetiaroa Society
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Blue Climate Initiative
Co-Conveners of the Blue Climate Summit
Sovereign of the Principality of Monaco and Founder of Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco
President of French Polynesia
President and Co-Chair, Mission Blue / The Sylvia Earle Alliance
President, Polynesian Voyaging Society
Chairman and CEO, Pacific Beachcomber S.C.
Chair, Captain Planet Foundation
Founder, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce and Owner, Time Magazine
Co-founder of Minderoo Foundation
Summit Program Committee Co-Chairs
Summit Program Committee Members
Ignace Beguin Billecocq
Gigi Brisson
Kate Brown
Alison Clausen
Emanuele Di Lorenzo
Craig Dudenhoeffer
Sylvie Goyet
Dan Hikuroa
Fabien Laurier
Rebekah Shirley Lukera
Megan Morikawa
Hinano Teavai Murphy
Gerard Siu
Torsten Thiele
Ocean Innovation Prize - High Level Judges
Craig Cogut
Richard Bailey
Daniela Fernandez
Françoise Gaill
Margaret Leinen
Vladimir Ryabinin
Jyotika Virmani
Ocean Innovation Prize - Expert Evaluators
Bela Hanratty
Nina Boys
Christian Vanizette
Teresa Christopher
Thierry Chopin
Donna K Hazard
Trisha Atwood
Elena Perez
Tony Charters
Imogen Rose-Smith
Louis Metzger
Alison Clausen
Neil Davies
Craig Dudenhoeffer
Mevin Kistnassamy
Megan Morikawa
Loreley Picourt
Community Award Judges
Biodiversity & Nature-based Solutions Working Group
Co-Leads
Members
Natalie Ban: Associate Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Canada
Jessica Blythe: Assistant Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, Canada
Stacy Jupiter: Regional Director, Wildlife Conservation Society Melanesia Program
Lizzie Mcleod: Global Reef Systems Lead, The Nature Conservancy
Nathalie Seddon: Professor of Biodiversity, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford; Senior Associate, International Institute for Environment and Development; Senior Fellow, Oxford Martin School
Torsten Thiele: Senior Research Associate, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, London School of Economics
Lisa Wedding: Associate Professor in Physical Geography, University of Oxford; Tutorial Fellow, Worcester College
Mineral and Genetic Resources Working Group
Co-Leads
Members
Marcel Jaspars: Professor of Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
Jean-Baptiste Jouffray: Postdoctoral Researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden
Lisa A. Levin: Professor of Biological Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, USA
Hannah Lily: Independent Consultant and Seabed Minerals Lawyer, UK
Beth N. Orcutt: Deep-Sea Microbiologist and Senior Research Scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, USA
Angelique Pouponneau: Chief Executive Officer, Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust, Seychelles
Torsten Thiele: Senior Research Associate, Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany
Colette Wabnitz: Research Scientist at Stanford’s Center for Ocean Solutions and University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Canada
Clement Yow Mulalap: Legal Adviser, Permanent Mission of the Federated States of Micronesia to the United Nations
Sustainable Tourism Working Group
Co-Leads
Members
Jalsa Urubshurow: (Mongolia/USA), Sustainable tourism business leader, Chairman of Nomadic Expeditions, Board Member of Captain Planet Foundation, philanthropist and supporter to conservation and cultural nonprofits.
Judy Kepher-Gona: (Kenya), Founding Director, Sustainable Travel & Tourism Agenda, Publisher East Africa Sustainable Tourism Report, Convenor Green Tourism Summit Africa.
Tony Charters: (Australia), Founder and President, Tony Charters and Associates. Former Director of Tourism Queensland; Co-Founder EcoAustralia; leader in establishing sustainable tourism policy for the Great Barrier Reef.
Food & Nutrition Working Group
Co-Leads
Members
Trisha Atwood: Assistant Professor, Watershed Sciences / Ecology Center, Utah State University</p>
Manuel Barange: Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Thierry Chopin: Phycologist and Professor of Aquaculture, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada
Halley Froehlich: Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara
Ray Hilborn: Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Science, University of Washington
Jane Lubchenco: Distinguished Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University
Martin Quaas: Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Head of Research for Biodiversity Economics, Leipzig University, Germany
Jim Sanchirico: Professor, Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis
Eric Schwab: Former Assistant Administrator for Fisheries, Environmental Defense Fund
Peter Tyedmers: Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada
Health & Well-being Working Group
Co-Leads
Members
Cinnamon Carlarne: Professor and leading expert in environmental law and climate change law and policy. Moritz faculty, previously assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, Harold Woods Research Fellow in Environmental Law at Wadham College, Oxford. Book on comparative climate change law and policy with Oxford University Press; and a forthcoming textbook on seas, society, and human well-being.
David Kamp: Author, speaker, academic and international leader in healthcare and landscape design. Loeb Fellow at Harvard University, Fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Cofounder of the Center for Design and Health at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Patrick Rampal: President of the Scientific Center of Monaco; Gastroenterology Professor; former President of the French Society of Gastroenterologists
Ursula Scharler: Associate Professor at the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Current chair of the South African NMO committee to IIASA, co-chair of the Global Ocean’s Global Seamount Initiative, past representative to the South African Network for Ocean and Coastal Research (SANCOR)
Bruce Maycock: Secretary General of the Asia Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health (APACPH); Honorary Professor, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, College of Medicine and Health at the University of Exeter; Head, School of Public Health Faculty of Health Sciences Curtin University, Australia; WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health Impact Assessment.
Dr. Timothy A. Bouley: Medical doctor and environmental scientist. He is the co-founder of Emergent Ocean and CEO of BioFeyn Biotechnology. He previously led programs at World Bank on climate change, health, infectious disease, oceans, and fisheries. Researcher at UCSF, US Nat Acad of Sciences, World Health Organization. Degrees from Oxford, Duke, Harvard, and Tufts.
Pál Weihe: Led the Department of Occupational Medicine and Public Health in the Faroe Islands and, for part of this period, as Medical Director of the Faroese Hospital System. He also is an Adjunct Professor at the University of the Faroe Islands, a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Visiting Scientist at the Institute of Public Health at the University of Southern Denmark.
Dr. Lilian Corra: Medical doctor with a strong commitment to environmental education and protection. She is the director of the Medical Specialist Program on Health and Environment in the School of Medicine at University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Energy and Marine Transportation Working Group
Lead
Members
Teresa Christopher: Principal at TRChristopher LLC, Former White House Ocean Policy Advisor.
Chip Fletcher: Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii
Michael Gerrard: Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School; Member and former Chair of the Faculty of Columbia's Earth Institute
Haunani Kane: NSF Research Fellow, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
Heather Leslie: Director, Darling Marine Center, School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine
Jessica Reilly-Moman: PhD Student, Darling Marine Center, University of Maine
Ben Wolkon: Manager of Sustainable Investments, MUUS Investment Management, New York
Jack Chang: PhD Student, Energy & Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley