GeoBluePlanet Participation & Governance

PARTICIPATION
& GOVERNANCE

GEO Blue Planet functions as a network of ocean and coastal-observers, social scientists and end-user representatives from a variety of stakeholder groups, including international and regional organizations, NGOs, national institutes, universities and government agencies.

GEO Blue Planet is an open community and all who share the interests of the GEO Blue Planet community are welcome to join.

Participation in Working Group activities is open and we have regular calls for contributing to our formal governance structure which is outlined below.

Get in touch

GEO Blue Planet diagrams_Organizational chart

Secretariat

The GEO Blue Planet Secretariat provides scientific and logistical support for GEO Blue Planet activities. It also assists in the coordination of operations and the development of new partnerships.

The GEO Blue Planet Secretariat is split between offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. The U.S. Office is hosted by the NOAA and the University of Maryland.

The European Office is hosted by Mercator Ocean International supported by the European Commission’s Foreign Policy Instrument Action on International Ocean Governance: EU component to global ocean observations (EU4OceanObs).

The Asian Office is hosted by the Korea Maritime Institute.

Secretariat Staff

Audrey Hasson | Executive Director and Head of the European office

Natalie Lema | Knauss Marine Policy Fellow at NOAA, U.S. office

Sung-Jin Cho | Head of Asian office

Sang-Hyeok Lee | Programme officer, Asian office

Get in touch

GeoBluePlanet_office locations_27.01.2023

Patrons Group

The Patrons group underpins operations by funding the secretariat and works to identify opportunities to further sustain GEO Blue Planet.

Patrons Group Members

Paul DiGiacomo, Chief, Satellite Oceanography and Climatology Division (SOCD) in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR); NOAA CoastWatch/OceanWatch Program Manager; NOAA/NESDIS MOBY Project Manager, USA

Pierre-Yves Le Traon, Scientific Director, Mercator Ocean; Research Director, Ifremer, France

Advisory Group

The Advisory Group provides advice on high level strategic directions and connections.

Advisory Group Members

Advisory Group members are selected as “ex-officio” members, invited based on the organisations they represent. The Advisory Group members will be nominated by the Executive Committee and the list of members will be made available here.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is the main decision-making body, responsible for coordinating GEO Blue Planet’s activities, identifying and, where possible, contributing resources.

Steering Committee Members

Co-chairs

Kwame Adu Agyekum, Lecturer & Earth Observation Scientist, Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, Global Monitoring for Environment & Security – Africa, University of Ghana, Ghana

Ana Carolina Ruiz-Fernandez, Senior Researcher at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

Jose Luiz Moutinho, Chief Business and Network Developer, Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre), Cascais, Portugal

Members

Elham Mahmoud Ali, Head, Department of Aquatic Environment, Suez University, Egypt

Stewart Bernard, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Eric Chassignet, Director, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Distinguished Professor of Oceanography, Florida State University, USA

Hee-Jung Choi, Ocean Policy Analyst, Korea Maritime Institute, South Korea

Elvadivari, Researcher, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany; Former Conservation Research Manager, WWF, Jakarta, Indonesia

Laura David, Professor, Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

Samy Djavidnia, Senior Project Officer, Sustainability, European Maritime Safety Agency, Portugal

Anton Ellenbroek, Consultant – Fisheries information systems development, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy

Elva Escobar-Briones, Director of the Marine Sciences and Limnology Institute of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico

Rene Garello, President, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society; Professor, Télécom Bretagne, France

Kelly Hayden, Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Johnathan Hodge, Program Director, CSIRO Chile, Chile

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji, Water Security and Infrastructure Strategist, Nigeria

Nelly Isigi Kadagi, Director, Education for Nature Program and Conservation Leadership, USA

Rahanna Juman, Director (Ag.), Institute of Marine Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago

Rory Scarrott, Oceanographic and Climate Services, Marine Institute, Ireland

Hans-Peter Plag, Professor, Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Director, Mitigation and Adaptation Research Institute (MARI), Old Dominion University, USA

Ralph Rayner, Chairman, Sonardyne International Limited; Professorial Research Fellow at the London School of Economics in the Centre for Analysis of Time Series, UK

Alvaro Scardilli, Meteorologist, Naval Hydrographic Service, Argentina

Sophie Seeyave, Chief Executive Officer, Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, UK

Osvaldina Silva, President, National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development (INDP), Cape Verde

Keith VanGraafeiland, Product Engineer, ESRI, USA

Martin Visbeck, Professor for Physical Oceanography, GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel and Kiel University, Germany

Christoph Waldmann, Senior Scientist, University of Breman – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences-Geosciences, Germany

Working Groups Participation

To see a summary of our active working groups and their expert members (listed on the individual working group pages), click on the button below.

Working groups

PARTICIPATION & GOVERNANCE