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Francisco Seixas da Costa is president of the Lisbon Club. He is a non-executive director of Jerónimo Martins SGPS and Mota-Engil Africa NV and a consultant for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He was Ambassador to the UN, OSCE, UNESCO, and in Brazil and France. He was Secretary of State for European Affairs and executive director of the North-South Center of the Council of Europe. Since 2013 he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the Nova Lisbon University. He teaches at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa. He has published several books and articles on international relations and security and is a columnist in two daily newspapers. He is graduated in Social and Political Sciences from the Technical University of Lisbon.

Maja Markovčić Kostelac is the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) since January 2019. Starting out as a maritime lawyer, she has since gained wide experience in the maritime field, in both the public and private sector. Before joining EMSA, Maja Markovčić Kostelac was State Secretary for Croatia’s Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure. In this role, she led the Croatian delegation in a range of international forums at the United Nations, the International Maritime Organisation and the International Labour Organisation. She has also served as Director of the Croatian Shipowners’ Association (Mare Nostrum).

Tiago Pitta Cunha is Chief Executive Director of the Oceano Azul Foundation. Previously, among other functions and positions, he was advisor for Environment, Science and Maritime Affairs to the President of Portugal and to the President of the General Assembly of the UN where he was Counsellor at the Portuguese Permanent Mission. He represented Portugal in the Convention for the Law of the Seas. Tiago was a member of the Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs. For two decades he has advocated the strategic importance of the oceans and seas for Portugal and Europe. Tiago has a graduation in Law from the Catholic University of Lisbon and a Legis Magister in European and International Law of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Bernhard Friess is since 2017 Director for Maritime Policy and the Blue Economy of the European Commission Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Directorate-General DG MARE. His career within the European Commission included assignments in the areas of Internal Market Policy, Competition Policy, Maritime Policy and Fisheries, and Education and Training. He held positions as Head of Unit responsible for competition enforcement in banking, insurance, securities and financial services markets, as Head of Unit responsible for coordinating internal market policy, as Director for planning, personnel and communication and as Director for maritime policy and fisheries in the areas of the Atlantic, Arctic, North Sea, Baltic Sea and the European Union's outermost regions. Bernhard Friess has a graduation in Law from Munich University.

Atsushi Sunami is President of the Ocean Policy Research Institute of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation. He is Executive Advisor to the President and adjunct professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) and Guest Professor at the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, Waseda University. Previously he was at the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the Expert Panel on Basic Policy in the Council for Science and Technology in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. He published extensively and is PhD. and MIA in Political Science from Columbia University and BSFS from Georgetown University.

Eugénia Barroca is a consultant for the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), being the Representative for Lusophone and Europe, and President of the SOA Ocean Hub Portugal. She is also an Ambassador of the Blue School and recently ended her term as an Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador of Portugal, being now a mentor to the new generation. Over the past 10 years, Eugenia has played an active role in several environmental volunteering projects, national and international. With a main focus on scientific communication, she organized community events, such as beach clean-ups, informative lectures, screening documentaries, debates and art exhibitions, in order to involve different elements of our society in the sustainability of the Ocean. Eugénia has a degree in Marine Biology from the University of Algarve.

Admiral (retired) Fernando Melo Gomes is Coordinator of the Monitoring Group for the Extension of the Portuguese Continental Platform. He was Chief of Staff of the Navy and served in the Military House of the Presidency of the Republic. In the service of the EU and NATO, he was commander of the European Maritime Force, and the STANAVFORLANT, the current Standing NATO Maritime Group One, in the period when Article 5 was first activated after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. He was Deputy Commander of the NATO Joint Allied Command, based in Lisbon. He distinguished himself by successfully leading a rescue operation in Guinea-Bissau, during the civil war of 1998, in which about 1200 people of different nationalities were evacuated.

Duarte Bué Alves is Deputy Permanent Representative of Portugal to the OECD, in Paris. He is a Portuguese diplomat since 1999, having been posted in Luanda, Brussels and Tokyo (2004-2011). He was Head of Cabinet and Diplomatic Adviser of the Minister of Agriculture and Sea (2011-2015). Envoy to Guangzhou/ China in view of the opening of the future Consulate General of Portugal (2015). Head of Unit for Transnational Threats (2016-2017). He wrote "Diplomacia Azul - o Mar na Política externa portuguesa" and several articles and essays in Portuguese and international magazines and journals. He studied law and has an LLM in European Studies.

Tetsuo Kotani is Senior Fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and Professor of Global Studies at Meikai University at Urayasu. Prior to these positions, he performed several jobs in a dozen academic and professional institutions in matters related mostly with the US-Japan Alliance, Maritime Security and Geopolitics and Geostrategy. He wrote several publications on related matters, including in academic journals and reviews. Kotani received a Security Studies Fellowship from the Research Institute for Peace and Security and was awarded in 2004 with the Defense Minister Prize. He has a completion of course in the PhD Program in Political Science and a master´s degree in American Studies from the Doshita University and a B.A. in Education from Oska Kyoiku University.

Larry Mayer is a Professor and Director and founder of The Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire and co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. Larry has participated and been chief or co-chief scientist of numerous sea expeditions and has many publications in marine geology and geophysics. He was a member of the President’s Panel on Ocean Exploration and of the State Department’s Extended Continental Shelf Task Force. In 2017 he was elected to the Hydrographic Society of America Hall of Fame, in 2018, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering and in 2019 he was elected as a foreign member in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Carlos Ventura Soares is Rear Admiral from the Portuguese Navy and director-general of the Portuguese Hydrographic Institute (National Hydrographer). He is specialized on hydrographic and oceanography issues. He authored various communications and publications in the areas of marine sciences and maritime policies and strategies. He represented Portugal in several international "fora" in the military and scientific fields. Presently he is theChairman of the Steering Committee of the NATO Maritime GEOMETOC Centre of Excellence and the Chairman of the Eastern Atlantic Hydrographic Commission. He is a member of the Portuguese Marine Academy, Lisbon Geographic Society and the Portuguese Engineers Order. He holds a master's degree in physical oceanography from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, USA.

Jorge d’Almeida is a managing partner at SACONSULT. He has over 40 years of experience in the maritime-port sector. After 15 years at the Navy, he worked for 12 years in the USA, with leadership roles at JJHenry Co. and USLines Inc, where he led the construction of the, until then, largest commercial shipbuilding project in South Korea. In Portugal, he directed Portline's commercial operations and was Soponata's managing director. He participated in the launch of the container mega-terminal in Sines, where he was Managing Director of PSA Sines. He collaborates with Clover Venture Partners and is a visiting professor at the Nova School of Business and Economics. He holds a master's degree in Naval Architecture and Engineering from MIT and an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University.

Kristina Maria Gjerde is senior high seas advisor to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Global Marine and Polar Programme. A graduate of New York University, School of Law, she has published widely on fisheries, shipping, law of the sea and marine conservation and serves as an advisor to governments, international organisations and non‐governmental organisations. Kristina Gjerde initially specialised in admiralty law at the New York City law firm of Lord, Day & Lord and represented World Wildlife Fund at the International Maritime Organisation in London. She co‐founded and serves on the boards of the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, the Sargasso Sea Alliance, the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative, and the High Seas Alliance.

Karen Sack is the CEO of Ocean Unite. She brings over 20 years of experience working for international non-governmental organizations on environmental issues. She was formerly the Senior Director for International Oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts where she helped initiate the Global Ocean Commission. Before that, she was the Head of Greenpeace International’s Political & Business Unit and the Head of their international oceans campaign. In 2004, Karen was the first person from a non-governmental organization to speak at a regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, representing the concerns of over 60 groups from around the world over the plight of our oceans. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network.

Francisco Duarte Lopes is, since 2017, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the UN in New York. He is a career diplomat and served at the Islamabad and Copenhagen Embassies as well as at the Portugal Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels. In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Lisbon, he worked at the General Directorate of Consular Affairs, at the General Administration Department of European Affairs and at the Directorate General of Foreign Policy. Francisco Lopes also served as diplomatic adviser to the Prime Minister and as Chief of Staff of the Secretary of State of European Affairs.

João Gomes Cravinho is Minister of National Defense. Previously, he was Ambassador of the European Union to India and Brazil, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and chaired the Portuguese Cooperation Institute. He was a consultant for the National Defense Institute, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the European Commission and the World Bank. Author of the book “Visões do Mundo”, published several articles on defence policy, cooperation and international relations. He was Professor of International Relations at the University of Coimbra and Guest Professor at ISCTE and at Nova Lisbon University. He completed the Leadership for Senior Executives course at Harvard Business School and is PhD in Political Science from the University of Oxford, with a master's and BA degree from the London School of Economics.

Leendert Bal is Head of Department Safety, Security and Surveillance at the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The Department deals with a number of issues, such as ship safety, places of refuge, maritime security, cybersecurity and maritime surveillance. He started working at EMSA as a policy adviser of the Executive Director and was part of the ESA-EMSA initiative to create a SAT-AIS capability for Europe. Previously he was Transport Attaché in Brussels for the Permanent Representation of The Netherlands to the European Union and has been working for the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael” and the Utrecht University. He has a master’s in history of International Relations from the University of Utrecht.

Kaitlin (Kate) Meredith is a Programme Coordinator at the Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). She has worked with the UNODC GMCP for eight years, based in various duty stations including Nairobi, Mogadishu, Bangkok and Lisbon, leading the development and implementation of national, regional and global capacity-building programmes aimed at combatting maritime crime. Prior to joining UNODC Kaitlin worked for the Government of Canada in its Departments of Justice and its Border Services Agency. She holds degrees in Common Law and Civil Law and an MBA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada – also her home city. In Lisbon, she is co-located with the Portuguese Navy.

Timothy Walker is Maritime Project Leader and Senior Researcher in the Pretoria office of the Institute for Security Studies. He joined the ISS in 2011 as an intern in the Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Programme and passed through various steps until his current working position. He became an ISS Consultant in September 2011, was appointed as a Researcher in April 2013 and Senior Researcher in October 2017.Tim authored ISS Today on relevant issues concerning African water security. His areas of interest include maritime security, piracy, the blue economy, China-Africa relations, international relations theory and human security. Tim has a BA, BA Hons and MA degrees in Political and International Studies from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa.

Ricardo Serrão Santos is the Portuguese Minister of the Sea. He was Professor at the University of the Azores, where he also was Pro-Rector for Maritime Affairs, Director of its Department of Oceanography and Fisheries and President of IMAR - Institute of the Sea. Ricardo Serrão Santos has been dedicated to the study of marine biodiversity and ocean ecosystems and has more than 400 hundred published works. He is member of the Portuguese Academy of Sciences and Emeritus Member of the Portuguese Navy Academy and has received several honorable mentions and awards in Portugal and abroad. He was Member of the European Parliament between 2014 and 2019. He holds a PhD in Biology and Animal Ecology, from the University of Liverpool.

Naoko Ishii is Director of the Center for Global Commons and Professor at the Institute for Future Initiatives, Tokyo University. She was CEO and Chairperson for the Global Environment Facility and prior to that Deputy Vice Minister of Finance. She led the Japanese delegation at the Transition Committee for designing the Green Climate Fund. Naoko Ishii worked at the World Bank, the IMF and the Harvard Institute for International Development and taught sustainable development and environment at Keio University. She published several papers and books, two of them awarded with the Suntory Prize (1990) and Okita Memorial Prize (2004). She is the inaugural recipient of the 2006 Enjoji Jiro Memorial Prize. She holds a BA and a Ph.D. from the Tokyo University.

António Costa e Silva is the CEO of Partex Oil & Gas and Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST-UL) of the University of Lisbon. In 2020, he was invited by the Portuguese Government to present the plan of economic recuperation of the country as a result of the crisis caused by the pandemics. He initiated his career at Sonangol in Angola and, within his professional trajectory, he was executive director of the Compagnie Générale de Geophysique, Director of Reservoir Engineering and Director of Operations on the corporation branch of the French Oil Institute in Paris. He has a BA in Mining Engineering from IST-UL, an MA in Oil Engineering from the Imperial College and a PhD from the Imperial College and from the IST-UL.

Marina Porto works as Sustainability Consultant at Sofies and is the current Co-chair of the Youth Policy Advisory Council of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. She has previously engaged in several projects and firms related to sustainability, circular economy, climate change and public policy, such as COWI and UN Environment. She has also founded two entrepreneurial projects in São Paulo, Flor+1 and BeGreen Produtos Naturais. Marina participated in the COP 24 and 25, UNEA 4, Paris Peace Forum, C40 Summit, Our Ocean 2019 and other international events. She holds a master's degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics from the University of Copenhagen and a bachelor’s degree of Economics from Insper.

Manuel Heitor is Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education. Previously, amongst other activities, he was Secretary of State with the same portfolio and, in the Academy, Deputy President of the Instituto Superior Técnico of the Lisbon University (IST-UL). He founded the IST-UL Center of Studies in Innovation, Technology and Development Policies, IN+, which was nominated in 2005 as one of the Top 50 Global Centers of Research on Management of Technology by the International Association for the Management of Technology (IAMOT). Manuel Heitor was Research Fellow at the Texas University in Austin, at the IC2 Institute, Innovation, Creativity and Capital, and a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He is Full Professor at IST-UL and he got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Imperial College in London.

Samuel Collins is a Project Manager at the Oceano Azul Foundation, his role includes managing and expanding the Foundation’s international initiatives and network, working to raise the profile of ocean issues at the political and decision-making level. Currently working on the initiative RISE UP – A Blue Call to Action which is building multi-stakeholder support around an ambitious and transformative ocean agenda and which was presented to the UN Member States and their Secretary-General during the UN Ocean Conference Preparatory Meeting. Sam has extensive experience as a field technician collecting data for population genetics studies. He has an MSc in Quantitative Methods in Biodiversity, Conservation and Epidemiology from the University of Glasgow and a BSc in Molecular Biology from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Daniel Cáceres Bartra is SOA Representative for Hispanoamerica, founder and executive director of SOA Perú. Founder of the collective group "Cuidando el Mar" and "RELLAC", he is a Marine biologist and worked in and supported various projects of Marine Policy, Ecotourism, Management, Education and Communication for marine conservation and youth empowerment. Daniel held the first Young Climate Change Meeting in the Congress of Peru. He has been part of the Peruvian delegation for COP 22, 23 and 25. In 2015 he was the youngest Divemaster in Peru, in 2016 he received the Hreljac medal for his contribution to the sustainable development of the country and, in 2017, the Agent of Change award by the Scientific University of South.

Nagisa Yoshioka is Research Fellow at the Ocean Policy Research Institute in Tokyo. She is an expert on Climate Change Adaptation and Environmental Development Economics. She is involved in the projects Climate Change Induced Migration in Pacific Small Islands Countries, Roadmap to Oceans and Climate Action Initiative, Marine Litter, Climate Change and Security, Risk Finance for Climate Change Adaptation and Blue Economy (Blue Financing). She has also engaged in youth activities since 2013 as the former leader of Climate Youth Japan. She has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Kyoto University and a master’s degree in International Studies from the Environmental Studies Division of the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo.

Aristyo Rizka Darmawan is Lecturer and Researcher at the Center for Sustainable Ocean Policy at the Law School of the University of Indonesia where he is also Member of the Pacific Forum Young Leader, a Honolulu based foreign policy research institute. He has several articles on the South China Sea and the law of the sea that have appeared in international outlets. In 2020 he spoke at the Young Leaders Special Session of the annual 12th South China Sea Conference. He has a Bachelor of Law majoring in international law from Universitas Indonesia and a master’s in international law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Daniela Risaro is Argentina All-Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassador. Currently, she works in the public administration offices of the Department of Science and Technology of the province of Buenos Aires. She is a physical oceanographer living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Daniela Risaro lectures at the University of Buenos Aires on dynamics and circulations of the Ocean. She has a doctorate with a thesis on the long-term variation of the sea surface temperature in the Patagonian shelf of the Argentinean Sea and its ecological impact. Now, she is doing a master´s in public policy at the University Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.

Ailars David is an Aquatic and Aquaculture early career professional and an ocean activist. He is an ocean leader of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Hub Tanzania. He is Chief Operational Officer of Arena Recycling industry. He is also executive director of the NGO Viva Aqua Farm in Dodoma. Prior to working at Arena, he worked at FETA (Fisheries Education Training Agency), at the Sota sub-station of Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIR), as a volunteer at Melck Sadik (Sameki), a private company that deals with aquaculture of tilapia fish, at the Marine hatchery in Zanzibar and as a Researcher at the University of Dodoma. He is a BSC in Aquaculture and Aquatic Science from the University of Dodoma.

Peter Thomson is the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean. Ambassador Thomson was Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN and President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly. He was Elected President of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority's 2011-2012 session and President of the Council of the Authority's 2015-2016 session. Peter Thomson chaired the Group of 77 and China (2013) and served as President of the Executive Board of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Office for Programme Support (UNOPS). As a civil servant in the Government of Fiji, he devoted many years of his life to working in the fields of rural development and then foreign affairs.