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.

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Our Core Team

Director of Strategic Partnerships

Strategic Advisor

Director of Program and Operations

Project Officer, Operations

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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

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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

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Summit Program Committee Members

Ignace Beguin Billecocq
Ignace Beguin Billecocq
Ignace Beguin Billecocq

gigi brisson
gigi brisson
Gigi Brisson

Kate Brown
Kate Brown
Kate Brown

Alison Clausen
Alison Clausen
Alison Clausen

Emanuele-di-lorenzo
Emanuele-di-lorenzo
Emanuele Di Lorenzo

Craig Dudenhoeffer
Craig Dudenhoeffer
Craig Dudenhoeffer

Sylvie Goyet
Sylvie Goyet
Sylvie Goyet

Dan Hikuroa
Dan Hikuroa
Dan Hikuroa

Fabien Laurier
Fabien Laurier
Fabien Laurier

Rebekah Shirley Lukera
Rebekah Shirley Lukera
Rebekah Shirley Lukera

Megan Morikawa
Megan Morikawa
Megan Morikawa

Hinano Tevai Murphy
Hinano Tevai Murphy
Hinano Teavai Murphy

Gerard Siu
Gerard Siu
Gerard Siu

Torsten Thiele
Torsten Thiele
Torsten Thiele

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Ocean Innovation Prize - High Level Judges

Craig Cogut
Craig Cogut
Craig Cogut

Richard Bailey
Richard Bailey
Richard Bailey

Daniela Fernandez
Daniela Fernandez
Daniela Fernandez

Françoise Gaill
Françoise Gaill
Françoise Gaill

Margaret Leinen
Margaret Leinen
Margaret Leinen

Vladimir Ryabinin
Vladimir Ryabinin
Vladimir Ryabinin

Jyotika Virmani
Jyotika Virmani
Jyotika Virmani

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Ocean Innovation Prize - Expert Evaluators

Louis Metzger
Louis Metzger
Louis Metzger

Bela Hanratty
Bela Hanratty
Bela Hanratty

Nina Boys
Nina Boys
Nina Boys

Christian Vanizette
Christian Vanizette
Christian Vanizette

Teresa Christopher
Teresa Christopher
Teresa Christopher

Thierry Chopin
Thierry Chopin
Thierry Chopin

Donna K Hazard
Donna K Hazard
Donna K Hazard

Trisha Atwood
Trisha Atwood
Trisha Atwood

Elena Perez
Elena Perez
Elena Perez

Tony Charters
Tony Charters
Tony Charters

Imogen Rose-Smith
Imogen Rose-Smith
Imogen Rose-Smith

Alison Clausen
Alison Clausen
Alison Clausen

neil davies
neil davies
Neil Davies

Craig Dudenhoeffer
Craig Dudenhoeffer
Craig Dudenhoeffer

Mevin Kistnassamy
Mevin Kistnassamy
Mevin Kistnassamy

Megan Morikawa
Megan Morikawa
Megan Morikawa

Loreley Picourt
Loreley Picourt
Loreley Picourt

Biodiversity & Nature-based Solutions Working Group

Members

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

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Members

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

about us
Members

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

Members

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

Members

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

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Members

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