Governance

Tim Slingsby is Director of Skills and Education at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, an independent global charity that supports research, innovation, and education to make the world a safer place. He is part of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation executive leadership team, providing expertise, strategic and operational leadership and taking responsibility for all skills, education and learning-related grants. In addition, he is lead director for the Foundation’s work in Safety of Food, Public Understanding of Risk and is responsible for building a diverse portfolio of international programmes and activities all aimed at the Foundation’s mission to protect the safety of life and property, and to advance engineering-related education and research. Tim is very proud of the incredible diversity of work that the Lloyd’s Register Foundation funds towards engineering a safer world. In this space, the Global Seaweed Coalition is a hugely exciting and unique opportunity to take proactive steps that ensure the growing, global seaweed industry is scaled up safely to produce a sustainable and safe source of food.

Erik Giercksky has led the UN Global Compact’s ocean work since 2018. Erik started his career as an Advisor for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was part of the team that led Norway’s work with peace processes in different parts of the world. He has previously worked as Communications Director for the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, Communications and Marketing Manager for the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue, External Relations Director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Business Director for Tellus Works Television. For Erik, the potential of seaweed production lies in the rare combination of scalability of local production, nature-based climate action, and supporting local communities and economies over time. He currently serves as the head of the Compact’s Ocean Stewardship Coalition.

André Le Bivic is a CNRS exceptional grade Senior Researcher specialising in cellular biology. Appointed Senior Researcher in 1999, Deputy Scientific Director of life sciences at the CNRS in 2006, then Deputy Scientific Director of the CNRS Institute of Biological Sciences in 2011, he has also served as CNRS Scientific Leader of the ATIP-AVENIR programme since 2009. A member of the scientific board of Vaincre la Mucoviscidose (an association to combat cystic fibrosis) from 2004 to 2010, he has also been sitting on the scientific board of the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer since 2012. The co-author of 90 publications and laureate of the Madame Jules Martin Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 2017, André Le Bivic has been the Director of the CNRS Institute of Biological Sciences since 1 February, 2019 and currently serves as Director of the Developmental Biology Institute of Marseille (IBDM).

Philippe Potin currently serves as Scientific Director of the Global Seaweed Coalition and Chair of the Scientific Council, and works as a Senior Scientist at CNRS in France. He holds a PhD in Marine Biology, specialising in the biochemistry of degrading enzymes of seaweed cell wall polysaccharides and biological properties of added-value derived oligosaccharides. For over 15 years Philippe has led the team “Oligosaccharide signaling and defense mechanisms” at the Roscoff Biological Research Station. He has over 90 peer reviewed articles and 8 patents including on the biological properties of algal oligosaccharides and novel enzymes from brown algae and marine bacteria. He was also the Scientific Coordinator of IDEALG, a 10-year French integrative research project and of the EU H2020 SC2 Blue Growth Innovation Action GENIALG.

John J Bolton is a lifelong seaweed biologist (PhD, Liverpool, UK, 1978) and has taught at the University of Cape Town, South Africa since 1983. A former President of the International and Southern African Phycological Societies, he has successfully supervised 20 PhD students, and has more than 160 journal publications. He is an author on more than 40 species new to science, and the known seaweed flora of South Africa has increased by over 50% during this time, mostly due to projects he has led. He has also published widely on seaweed biogeography, resource use and aquaculture, and kelp forest ecology. A joint project with Max Troell (Beijer Institute, Stockholm) laid the basis for the commercially successful integrated aquaculture of abalone with Ulva, with these studies now extended to sea urchins. He is a member of a partnership in the EC-funded project ASTRAL: All Atlantic Sustainable, Profitable and Resilient Aquaculture (2020-2024).

Alejandro Buschmann is a Full Professor and researcher at i-mar Research Center, Universidad de Los Lagos and is also a senior researcher at the Centre for Biotechnology and Bioengineering and the Millenium Nuclei on Marine Agronomy both supported by ANID (Chile). He has contributed to over 160 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, covering coastal ecology and seaweed aquaculture, with a particular focus on the contribution of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) to sustainable aquaculture development. He previously served as the Director of Research and the Graduate School at the Universidad de Los Lagos and head of i-mar Research Center. In addition, Dr. Buschmann has served on different scientific panels of the Chilean Science Agency (ANID) as well as in national commissions for graduate program quality certification (CNA). As a scientific consultant, he has been able to support seaweed culture developments with industry and promote the use of sustainable environmental technologies for aquaculture with different stakeholders around the world. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Junning Cai is an economist and Aquaculture Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). His work at FAO has been focused on economic analysis, sector assessment and monitoring, policy and planning, business development and planning, and bioeconomic modelling of aquaculture operations. He has been devoted to the development of the World Aquaculture Performance Indicators (WAPI), which is an FAO initiative to facilitate evidence-based policymaking and sector management in aquaculture. He has authored/edited/developed various information and knowledge products under WAPI, one of which is the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Circular 1229 – Seaweeds and microalgae: an overview for unlocking their potential in global aquaculture development.

Dr. Thierry Chopin was born and educated in France. He moved to Canada in 1989 and is Professor of Marine Biology at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. His research focuses on the ecophysiology, biochemistry, and cultivation of seaweeds and the development of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) for increased environmental sustainability, economic diversification, and societal acceptability. He was the Scientific Director of the Canadian IMTA Network. He is the President of Chopin Coastal Health Solutions Inc. and Turquoise Revolution Inc. He is a former President of the International Seaweed Association and the Phycological Society of America. He promotes a greener Blue Economy, the Turquoise Economy, in which ecosystem services, provided by extractive aquaculture (seaweeds and invertebrates), are recognized, valued, and used as financial and regulatory incentives within a circular economy approach.

Elizabeth Cottier-Cook is Head of the United Nations University/Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) Associate Institute and Programme Leader for the Erasmus+ Joint Master Degree in Aquaculture, Environment and Society-STAR. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Global Seaweed Coalition, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Biology and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She recently led a £6.2M research programme “GlobalSeaweedSTAR” funded by UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund, bringing together UN Development Assistance Committee (DAC)-list countries from around the world involved in seaweed aquaculture. She is currently working on two seaweed-related programmes in Malaysia (Innovative Seaweed Aquaculture) and Thailand (Safe Seaweed Thailand). She is also a member of the FAO Technical Working Group on Aquaculture Biosecurity and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Working Group on Introductions and Transfers of Marine Organisms.

Alan T. Critchley is a career phyconomist and is currently a Research Fellow at the Verschuren Centre for Sustainability in Energy and Environment, Nova Scotia. His PhD from Portsmouth University, UK, focused on the introduction of invasive Sargassum muticum, now a naturalised member of many coastal flora. Alan has twenty years’ experience in southern Africa at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal, Pietermaritzburg, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and Univ. Namibia, as an academic with research focused on the phyco-geography and biological activities of tropical and cold-water species of seaweeds. Alan continues to undertake collaborative research and support the development of early career scientists in varied phyconomic activities. He has also co-edited several books on cultivation of seaweeds and marine ranching. Alan’s focus is now in promoting adaptive phyconomy and improved commercial production of many types of seaweeds for their multiple and varied benefits.

Professor Catriona Hurd is a seaweed ecophysiologist whose research focuses on the environmental regulation of seaweed growth and primary production, including by carbon and nitrogen supply, light, water motion, and temperature. She currently focuses on the climate change factors ocean acidification, warming, and marine heat waves, and applies her knowledge to the development of aquaculture in Tasmania, Australia, and the assessment of seaweeds for use in carbon trading schemes. She has supervised to completion more than 70 postgraduate students and co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers. In 2015, she won the Phycological Society of America’s Gerald Prescott award for her textbook Seaweed Ecology and Physiology 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press). 

Prof. Gwang Hoon Kim, President of the Pyropia Aquaculture Research Coalition in Korea, is a cell biologist who does research on a broad range of issues related to processes of cell signaling, sexual differentiation, cell-cell recognition, stress responses of algal cells, protein isolation and characterization. His area of scientific expertise also includes seaweed aquaculture and algal breeding using combined methods of mutation breeding and algal proteomics and genomics. His name appears on more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His laboratory has been chosen as National Research Laboratory of Korea. He served as a director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Dean of College of Natural Sciences in Kongju National University, where over the years 67 Masters’ and 13 PhD students have defended dissertations in his laboratory under his direct supervision.

Phaik-Eem Lim is a Professor at the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya. Her primary research interests are the taxonomy, biodiversity, and phylogenetics of seaweeds. Over the past 10 years, in light of the challenges facing the carrageenan industries, especially the lack of genetic diversity of eucheumatoid cultivars, she has focused her research on Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Her research also includes detection of diseases and pests, farm management and legislation, conservation and exploration of genetically diverse seed stocks, and socio-economic resilience of the eucheumatoid aquaculture industry. 

Dr. Zizhong Qi became Director of the Seaweed Base for International Science and Technology Cooperation in China in 2021. In 2017, he was named Director of International Cooperation for Aquaculture and Fisheries Technology of Shandong Province, and since 2012 he has worked as a Senior Engineer and Associate Professor at the Ocean University of China. He conducts research in the fields of aquaculture, seaweed, live food production, microbial technology, and underwater bio-survey, and trains students and industrial researchers at various levels. He obtained his PhD in applied bioscience at Ghent University, Belgium in 2008, a master’s in aquatic science from Ghent University in 2001 and a master’s in marine biology from the Ocean University of China in 1999, and a bachelor’s in ecology and environmental biology from Ocean University of China in 1995.

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Dr. Yoichi Sato has been a member of the Research and Development Institute of Riken Food Co., Ltd., Miyagi, Japan since 2005. Before 2005, he was an officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2001–2002), and an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Agricultural Science at the Faculty of Agriculture of Tohoku University (2002–2004). His main interests are physiology and ecology of macro algae, especially brown seaweeds (Wakame, Kombu, Mozuku). His efforts have supported deeper understanding of the plasticity and adaptability of seaweeds to environmental changes and aided the development and improvement of cultivation technology. Additional fields of interest are development of the optimum processing methods of seaweeds suitable for markets and customer demands. He obtained a PhD (life Science) at the University of Tokyo in 2016.

Jorunn Skjermo works as senior scientist at SINTEF in Norway and has been project manager or contributor in more than 50 research and development projects. Over the last 15 years she has focused on scaling up kelp cultivation, especially farming in offshore conditions and how industrial kelp farming can contribute to CO₂  removal and climate positive effects. She initiated the joint industry project Seaweed Carbon Solutions in 2022, coordinates the Green Platform project GP Seaweed and the SIG Seaweed Conferences in Norway, and contributes to strategic research for the development of the seaweed industry worldwide through the Global Seaweed Coalition. She obtained a PhD in marine aquaculture from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 1996.

Anoushka Concepcion, Chair of the Strategic Advisory Council, is an Associate Extension Educator focusing on marine aquaculture with the Connecticut Sea Grant Program based at the Avery Point Campus in Groton, Connecticut. She is also a faculty member in the University of Connecticut’s Department of Cooperative Extension. Her programming focuses on supporting marine aquaculture stakeholders in Connecticut, including the nascent seaweed aquaculture industry and associated stakeholders. Anoushka collaborates with industry and regulators to address emerging challenges associated with seaweed aquaculture. Specifically, she assists with the development of guidance on potential human health hazards associated with seaweed grow-out and processing, market development, and permitting. She leads the National Seaweed Hub, a collaborative effort of 11 Sea Grant programs and their stakeholders, which addresses the emerging needs of the national seaweed aquaculture industry. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Minorities in Aquaculture. Anoushka is passionate about providing the world’s population with responsibly produced food through aquaculture.

Dr. Helena Abreu is a co-founder and managing director of ALGAplus-Seaweed Ltd, based in Ílhavo, Portugal, a seaweed production and commercialization firm that is the first European company to sell seaweed produced in an organic certified land based integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) system to international food and cosmetic markets. She has a research background of more than 15 years in seaweed ecophysiology and cultivation. Helena has collaborated as a researcher or SME partner in over 20 international projects and networks, aimed at fostering the sustainable exploitation of seaweed of commercial value, looking into harvesting, cultivation (in IMTA systems), applications, and socio-economic impact in coastal communities. Helena was recently elected as a member of the International Seaweed Association Council (ISAC) and participates in the International Society for Applied Phycology (ISAP), the Portuguese Association of Applied Algology (R&D and Industry), BlueBioAlliance (BlueBiotech), the Portuguese Association of Aquaculture Producers (APA), and the Portuguese Association of Algae Producing Companies (PROALGA).

Raul Socrates Banzuela is a community organizer by profession. In a career spanning 41 years, he has been involved in helping set up, manage, and lead a number of social, environmental, political, economic, cultural, and professional movements and institutions and in waging direct-action campaigns in pursuit of asset reforms and good governance in the Philippines. For the past 16 years he has been the National Coordinator of PAKISAMA, a national family farmers confederation which received the 2015 ASEAN Rural Leadership Award. He was also finalist in the 2015 Global Award of the International Land Coalition, the home organization of mariculture farmer-leader Roberto Ballon (himself a 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee).

Lisa Boulton is an experienced Program and Portfolio Manager working on sustainability, with a focus on ocean regeneration, and seaweeds in particular, at Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland. Lisa has a background in leading complex, global, and multi-functional projects, and solid knowledge of financials, realizing business value and strategic alignment. She completed the CISL Sustainable Business Management training, which led to her passionate interest in nature-based solutions to help achieve the SDGs. She set up a Seaweed Focus Group in 2020, bringing together stakeholders from across all parts of the Nestlé organization to work together on developing the potential of seaweed (including Food, Agriculture, Packaging and Climate). Lisa is a strong believer in the power of the private sector to make a positive impact at scale and is proud to be part of the Global Seaweed Coalition.

Leticia Carvalho is an oceanographer, now working as the Principal Coordinator of the Marine and Freshwater Branch, United Nations Environment Programme. She also serves as Acting Secretary for organizational and substantive preparations for the ad hoc open-ended working group and the intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. Previously, she worked as Director of Environmental Quality at Industry in the Ministry of the Environment of Brazil, responsible for chemicals and air quality, was the President of Brazil’s National Commission for Chemicals Safety, and served as Head of Oil Spills Contingency Planning at the Marine and Coastal Division and Coordinator of Sustainable Fisheries at the National Fund of the Environment. Leticia has published nationally and internationally on chemicals management, air emissions, fisheries, Brazil’s marine and coastal policies, and international environmental law. She has a master’s in sustainable development from the University of Brasília.

Shenggen Fan is currently Chair Professor at the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University in Beijing. He is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition; the Advisory Council of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford; the Board of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and the Council of Advisers of the World Food Prize. He also serves as a member of the Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement appointed by the UN Secretary General. He previously spent over 20 years with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), including as Director General for the ten-year period until his departure in December 2019. His earlier professional experience also includes time as a Research Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Arkansas and as a Post-doctoral Fellow and Associate Research Officer at the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics. He was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.

Dr. Harrison Charo Karisa has over 25 years’ experience working in fisheries and aquaculture research and development. As Senior Fisheries Specialist (Aquaculture) at the World Bank Group, he currently works with the Aquabusiness Investment Advisory Platform and PROBLUE to support governments and the private sector to assist aquaculture development, strengthen livelihoods, and enhance food and nutrition security. In addition, he offers direct cross support for several aquaculture projects within the World Bank. Previously, he served as WorldFish Country Director for Egypt and Nigeria, and Secretary for the African Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society. He holds a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences (fish breeding, genetics, and aquaculture) from Wageningen University of Life Sciences in the Netherlands and an MSc in Biodiversity from Swedish Agricultural University, Sweden.

Asma Lateef is policy and advocacy lead at the SDG2 Advocacy Hub. She previously served as director of Bread for the World Institute, interim executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger, and director of policy and programs at Citizens for Global Solutions. She was also involved in efforts to establish and support the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, and served on the SUN Movement’s Executive Committee. In 2003, she led Bread for the World’s campaign to support the establishment of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. She also co-chaired a national coalition that worked on its authorization, funding, and implementation. She has also worked for the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Asma holds a master’s in economics from the University of Maryland, and degrees from the London School of Economics and McGill University.

Audun Lem has been with FAO for 25 years, where he is currently the Deputy Director of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Division. Audun was for many years also the Secretary of FAO’s Sub-Committee on Fish Trade (COFI:FT), the main international body for discussion and recommendations on trade and market issues in the sector, as well as the Coordinator of the GLOBEFISH project. His thematic work areas include aquaculture policy development and management, commodity price trends and price indexes, policy issues related to international trade and market access, market-based instruments, social responsibility, certification, traceability, trade and food security, gender issues, and domestic and regional market development. Before joining FAO, he worked as an independent agribusiness consultant, project manager at Norway’s Embassy in Italy, and financial analyst on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Audun has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences from the Sea Fisheries Institute in Poland, a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics.

Árni M. Mathiesen has been Senior Advisor at the Iceland Ocean Cluster since 2020 and is an active member of the Aquatic Blue Food Coalition. Since 2022, he has been a founding Member and Member of the Board of the Iceland Aquaculture and Oceans Forum. In 2021 he joined the Board of the Global Seafood Alliance and became Independent Chair of the Global Round Table on Marine Ingredients. He has served as Chairman of the Transport for the Capital Area Plc. since 2020. From 2010 to 2020, he worked as Assistant Director-General of the FAO in Rome and Head of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. From 2005 to 2009 he was Minister of Finance in Iceland and from 1999 to 2005, Minister of Fisheries. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Faxalax Fish Farm from 1988 to 1989 and served as veterinary officer for fish diseases 1985 to 1991. He studied veterinary medicine at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying as veterinarian in 1983, and earned an MSc in Aquatic Veterinary Science from the University of Stirling in 1985.

Bailey Moritz is the Program Officer for Seaweed and Shellfish Farming at WWF-US. Bailey supports the seaweed industry in reducing barriers to growth and advancement for ecosystem, climate, and community gains, with a current focus on kelp in the Eastern Pacific and North Atlantic regions. Prior to WWF, Bailey ran a commercial kelp nursery, taught aquaculture in classrooms, and worked on seaweed farming projects in Madagascar and Belize. She holds a BA in Earth & Oceanographic Science and a Professional Science Masters in Ocean Food Systems from two schools in Maine where kelp farming has been taking off during the past decade.

Stefan Schmitz joined the Crop Trust as Executive Director in January 2020. He previously worked as Deputy Director-General and Commissioner for the “One World – No Hunger” Initiative at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). He also chaired the Steering Committee of the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP). For more than 10 years, Stefan was leading the food security, agriculture and rural development work at BMZ. From 2007 until 2009 he worked as senior advisor to the Secretariat of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Before joining the BMZ in 2001, Stefan held various posts in the German federal administration in the fields of geographical information systems, regional planning and international cooperation on urban issues. He received scholarships of the McCloy Fellowship of the American Council on Germany and of the German Academic Exchange Service. After studying in Bonn and St. Andrews, he graduated from Bonn University in geography and mathematics and received a doctorate in geosciences from the Free University of Berlin in 2000.

Maris Stulgis has served as a Policy Officer with the European Commission’s DG MARE since 2005, and since 2020 he has been responsible for Blue Bioeconomy, Algae and Aquaculture. Previously, he has dealt with fisheries control policy development and implementation (e.g. development of new control technologies, leading the group of EU inspectors monitoring EU rules implementation in the Baltic and North Sea countries), and fisheries data management, and he has worked on marine pollution, biodiversity, and environmental policies files. The Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries is responsible for driving forward EU policies in area of fisheries, the Law of the Sea, and Maritime Affairs. Directorate A drives forward EU maritime policy and sustainable blue economy. Before joining the Commission, Maris worked (1993-2005) in the Latvian national administration dealing with fisheries and environmental policies development and implementation.