Marc Taconet, FAO-FI, Chief Fisheries Statistics and Information Branch (FIPS) & BlueBRIDGE External Advisory Board Chair

Marc Taconet has been with FAO since 1999. Prior to being the Chief Fisheries Statistics and  Information Branch, he was a Senior Fisheries Information Officer. He graduated in 1984 with an engineering degree in agronomy, and in 1985 with an engineering degree in fisheries.

Nicolas Bailly, Biodiversity Informatics Scientist, Lifewatch

Nicolas  Bailly has 32 years experience in Biodiversity Informatics as Biodiversity Information System developer and manager. 
After a brief time in industrial informatics, he joined the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, where he developed and managed databases on fishes. Starting late nineties, he became the main focal point for Biodiversity Informatics in the museum being involved in many European projects as listed below. He Achieved a PhD thesis on theoretical and organizational issues in Biodiversity Informatics. He was also involved in the creation of the FishBase Consortium meeting in year 2000. 

He joined the WorldFish Center between 2005 and 2014 to manage the FishBase Team in the Philippines and the FishBase Consortium work plan, but also the gathering of Global Species Databases for the Catalogue of Life. He was officer in Charge of the WorldFish Center Philippines Outreach Office between May 2005 and December 2010 with about 30 staff. Since 2011, he acting as the Scientific Director for FIN (FishBase Research and Information Group, Inc.), a Philippine NGO running FishBase, SeaLifeBase, AquaMaps, and participating to Catalogue of Life with about 25 staff.

In 2014, he joined the LifeWatch Greece Team at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology & Aquaculture (IMBBC). He is the Scientific Director, and in charge of the taxonomic and species distribution information.

Julian Barbière, Senior Program Specialist, UNESCO

Julian Barbière is a Senior Program Specialist at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.
For over ten years, he has coordinated the activities of the Commission on issues related to integrated coastal management and marine spatial planning, as well as contributing to the establishment of a world ocean assessment.
He also led the implementation of a number of regional projects on marine ecosystem management in South America, the Mediterranean and West Africa. In preparation for the Rio+20, he coordinated the preparation of the UN Blueprint report on Ocean and Coastal Sustainability.
He is involved in a number of UN initiatives related to the ocean, including UN-Oceans, and the Sustainable Development Goal process.
 

Mariagrazia Graziano, Marine Protected Areas Specialist, JRC

Mariagrazia is a biologist with a PhD in marine ecology, marine resources management and conservation. Mariagrazia has a background in experimental ecology methods to highlight biodiversity changes in relation to human impacts and protection measures (Marine Protected Areas) and in applying causal framework (such as Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) to describe the interactions between society and the environment. She joined the JRC in October 2013 to support the BIOPAMA project. She is also a contact point within JRC for the Caribbean region in BIOPAMA. 

Jerome Guitton, Software Developer, Agrocampus Ouest

Jerome Guitton is a member of the Fisheries and Aquatic Science Centre of Agrocampus Ouest.
He supports projects by setting up, populating, and disseminating fisheries databases.
To manage fisheries information systems, he develops database-linked websites to enable users to access the data provided by projects. He regularly implement an online atlas to disseminate an organised view of the data he manages. He is also involved in the development of the popular Ecopath software for ecosystem modelling.

More information here.

Ray Hilborn, Professor, Washington University

My research aims to identify how to best manage fisheries to provide sustainable benefits to human society. This involves a combination of building data bases on how fisheries are managed and measures of their performance, analysis of fisheries data sets to evaluate performance, and for Pacific salmon in Alaska extensive work in the management process and field work on the biology of the salmon.

Long-term efforts in my laboratory include maintenance of the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment data base which contains data on the biological status and history of 500+ major fish stocks from around the world that constitute about 50% of global catch, and a range of projects and data sets on fisheries in different parts of the world. A major tool we use is international study teams looking at important and often controversial topics such as the status of fish stocks, the impact of bottom trawling on benthic biota and impact of Marine Protected Areas on fisheries yields.

Larry Hildebrand, Professor,  World Maritime University

Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Hildebrand joined the faculty of the World Maritime University on April 1, 2013, as Professor and Canadian Chair in Marine Environment Protection.

Dr. Hildebrand comes to WMU from Halifax, Nova Scotia on Canada's east coast where he served for the past 35 years in a variety of leadership capacities directly related to integrated coastal and ocean management (ICOM). 

Dr. Hildebrand has taught ICZM at the graduate level for over 25 years, has supervised Masters and Ph.D. research, published extensively on current developments in the field and led training and capacity-building courses worldwide. He is a frequently invited keynote speaker at international conferences on ICOM and ocean governance and is the recipient of the H.B. Nicholls Award for Leadership in Coastal Zone Management in Canada, the Canadian Public Service Award of Excellence, and the Distinguished Service Award with the US-Canada Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment.  Dr. Hildebrand has degrees in marine biology (B.Sc. Hons) and environmental studies (MES) from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in coastal and ocean governance from Cardiff University in Wales.
 

Mark Luckins, Director of IT, MSC (Marine Stewardship Council)

Senior IT leader with over 20 years experience delivering IT projects internationally. Natural visionary and innovator able to move the IT agenda forward for business benefit. Capable of running large "business as usual" operations whilst managing a portfolio of complex investment projects.

• Able to drive ambitious programmes, increasing cooperation and communication across multiple groups, unlocking resources and talent to increase effective delivery of business priorities.
• Capable people manager; collaborative relationship builder
• Responsible for annual budgets of over £5m+
• Recent focus has been international projects in developing countries (ICT4D)
• Varied and deep skill-set able to talk strategy and operations, business and technology, innovation and process optimisation.
 

Michael Melnychuk, University of Washington

Michael Melnychuk is a Research Scientist at the University of Washington in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. His research focuses on identifying management strategies and tactics that lead to successful conservation outcomes for marine populations and positive socioeconomic outcomes for the fisheries they support. Much of this work relies on estimates of stock status of fish and invertebrate populations from around the world, assembled in the RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database. Michael completed his Ph.D. research at the University of British Columbia in 2009, which involved quantifying mortality patterns of migrating juvenile Pacific salmon to identify periods of high mortality.

David Ramm, Data Manager, Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

David Ramm is the Data Manager at the Secretariat of the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), and he was appointed to this position in 1997. He is responsible for the management and operation of the Secretariat’s Data Centre which holds fishery, research and compliance data used in the work of the Commission and its Scientific Committee. This work includes managing Antarctic fisheries and developing a representative system of Antarctic marine protected areas.

Prior to his appointment to CCAMLR, Dr Ramm was Research Coordinator with the Northern Territory Fisheries Division, Darwin, Australia from 1986 to 1996. There, his research focused on the assessment and sustainable management of tropical fishery resources, and the implementation of responsible bottom fishing techniques. He gained a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1986 for his ecological study of the role of temperate estuaries in the early life-history of fish.

Dr Ramm has extensive experience in data management including data collection, integration, quality assurance and systems re-development. He also has wide-ranging experience in fisheries and ecosystem research, field work, program management, training, administration and industry liaison, and he has collaborated with leading national and international research and fishery management agencies.

Braddock Spear, Systems Division Director, SFP (Sustainable Fisheries Partnership)

Braddock Spear is head of the SFP’s Systems Division, which oversees science/analysis, FIP ratings/standard, IT infrastructure, and systems design for SFP's information tools. Brad also serves as liaison with McDonald’s, providing technical support and advice to its global team. For 8 years before coming to SFP, Braddock worked at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (US), ending his tenure as Senior Coordinator for Policy. At the Commission, Brad developed an expertise in the US fisheries management system, coordinated the legislative program, and initiated collaborative efforts involving government, industry, and NGOs. He received a MA in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island.