Michael W. Lodge has an LL.B. from the University of East Anglia and an MSc in marine policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a barrister of Gray’s Inn, London. Before he was elected Secretary-General, Mr. Lodge served as Deputy to the Secretary-General and Legal Counsel of the International Seabed Authority. Other professional experiences include serving as a Counselor to the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and as Legal Counsel to the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency. He has also held appointments as a Visiting Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, London, and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Oceans. Mr. Lodge has 30 years of experience as an international public lawyer with a strong background in law of the sea and ten years of judicial experience in the UK and the South Pacific. He spent many years living and working in the South Pacific and was one of the lead negotiators for the South Pacific Island States of the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. He has also worked as a consultant on fisheries, environmental and international law in Europe, Asia, Eastern Europe, the South Pacific and Africa. Mr. Lodge has published and lectured extensively on the international law of the sea. He has over 35 published books and articles on the law of the sea, ocean policy and related issues.

Michael W. Lodge has an LL.B. from the University of East Anglia and an MSc in marine policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a barrister of Gray’s Inn, London. Before he was elected Secretary-General, Mr. Lodge served as Deputy to the Secretary-General and Legal Counsel of the International Seabed Authority. Other professional experiences include serving as a Counselor to the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and as Legal Counsel to the South Pacific Forum Fisheries Agency. He has also held appointments as a Visiting Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, London, and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Oceans. Mr. Lodge has 30 years of experience as an international public lawyer with a strong background in law of the sea and ten years of judicial experience in the UK and the South Pacific. He spent many years living and working in the South Pacific and was one of the lead negotiators for the South Pacific Island States of the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. He has also worked as a consultant on fisheries, environmental and international law in Europe, Asia, Eastern Europe, the South Pacific and Africa. Mr. Lodge has published and lectured extensively on the international law of the sea. He has over 35 published books and articles on the law of the sea, ocean policy and related issues.

Dr. Ulrich Schwarz-Schampera is Programme Management Officer (Mining Geology) at the International Seabed Authority (ISA). He has 30 years of working experience in the field of marine geology, participating in and leading 25 resource-related scientific and exploration cruises. Prior to ISA, he was leading the Ore Deposit Research Group at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in Hannover, Germany. Activities included research on ore deposits in South Africa, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Indonesia and Canada. Marine research in the Southwest and Central Pacific (sulphides, nodules, crusts) was followed in 2011 by prospecting and exploration in the Indian Ocean for polymetallic sulphides, within the context of the International Seabed Authority, until 2020, when he joined ISA.

Sir Michael Wood is a member of the UN International Law Commission, and a Senior Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. He is a barrister at Twenty Essex Chambers, London, where he practises in the field of public international law, including before international courts and tribunals. He was Legal Adviser to the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1999 and 2006, having joined as an Assistant Legal Adviser in 1970.

Miss Walker is the Deputy Solicitor General, International Affairs Division at the Attorney General’s Chambers in Jamaica where she is responsible for providing expert legal advice to Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies on a range of international law matters including law of the sea matters. She also represents the Government of Jamaica in the negotiation of international agreements. Before joining the Attorney General’s Chambers in 2020, Miss Walker was the Legal Adviser and Director of Legal Services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in Jamaica where she also represented the Government in multilateral and bilateral negotiations on a range of issues including maritime delimitation negotiations and provided advice to the Ministry on an array of international law matters which faced a small developing island state with major maritime concerns. Prior to joining the Ministry, she served as Senior Legal Officer in the CARICOM Secretariat, Guyana, from 1998 to 2001. There she worked on treaty issues related to the establishment of CARICOM Single Market and the creation of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Miss Walker began her legal career in the international law division of the Attorney General’s Chambers where she dealt with a variety of matters including maritime delimitation and international environmental law.

Dale Squires is an Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego. He has decades of experience in marine and natural resource economics across the globe. He has worked with the ISA and the deep-seabed industry and environmental stakeholders on the payment regime, incentive-based approaches to environmental regulation, and the fair and equitable allocation of deep-seabed mining royalties. He is the co-author of eleven books and 150 peer-reviewed scholarly papers. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in applied economics from the University of California Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Since 2004, Sven Petersen is a senior scientist at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany. He received his PhD in economic geology from Freiberg University (Germany) after spending a number of years in Germany and Canada working on seafloor hydrothermal systems. His research focuses on the formation, distribution, and evolution of marine mineral resources in the deep sea. He participated in over 40 research cruises in all ocean basins. At present, he uses mobile drilling techniques, various geophysical methods as well as the use of autonomous underwater vehicles for investigating the distribution of mineral

Saleem H. Ali is Chair of the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences and the Blue & Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware (USA). He is also a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric Corporation. His laurels include being a National Geographic Explorer, with field experience in more than 160 countries and all continents; being selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum and serving on the boards of notable non-profit charitable organizations including RESOLVE, Adventure Scientists and Mediators Beyond Borders International. His books include Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life (Oxford Univ. Press) and Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale Univ. Press). Prof. Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an Masters in Environmental Studies from Yale University, and his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (summa cum laude) from Tufts University. Dr. Ali is a citizen of the United States of America by birth; Pakistan by parental lineage; and Australian by naturalization.

Prof. Madureira is an Auxiliary Professor at the University of Évora where he got his PhD in igneous petrology and geochemistry. Currently, he is working as a geologist in the Task Group for the Extension of the Portuguese Continental Shelf. He coordinates the scientific and technical work related to the acquisition of data and information to support the outer limits of the continental shelf as submitted by Portugal to the United Nations. In his career, Prof. Madureira served as a principal investigator of several oceanographic campaigns in the North Atlantic and as a member of the Legal and Technical Commission of the International Seabed Authority. His main academic interests include the formation and distribution of deep-sea mineral resources, marine environment and deep-seabed exploration.

Joshua T. Tuhumwire is a geologist and founder of Gondwana Geoscience Consulting Ltd and director/chairman of Sipa Explotation Ltd. He holds a B. Sc. degree in Geology and Chemistry from Makerere University and a M. Sc in Mineral Prospection from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In his professional career, he worked at Uganda’s Department of Geological Survey and Mines for a period of 30 years, as a geologist, senior geologist, principal geologist and eventually as the Commissioner for Geological Survey and Mines till early retirement in 2010 after which he joined the private sector in mineral exploration and forestry. Joshua has served as member of the UN Group of Experts for World Ocean Assessment I and II and currently a member of the Legal and Technical Commission.

Noémie Wouters is a marine scientist by heart and training and complemented her scientific training with business and managerial experience. She graduated magna cum laude as a Master in Marine and Lacustrine sciences from Ghent University in 2006. She obtained her PhD at the University of Lisbon, Portugal in 2014. Her research focussed on the effectiveness of marine resilience assessment tools. She has contributed to marine policy-making through my appointment at the at the European Marine Board (EMB). EMB is leading European think tank in marine science policy that engages in foresight activities shaping the research landscape and priorities in Europe. She returned to my alma mater Ghent University in 2015 as a liaison officer to launch and initiate Blue Growth activities and projects. In 2016 the first edition of the pluridisciplinary UGent Blue Growth Summerschool kicked off and the initiative continues to thrive. In 2018, she was appointed CEO of Bluebridge. Located at the Ostend Science Park, Bluebridge is the Blue Economy innovation centre of the University of Ghent. It is a beehive for blue economy entrepreneurs, scientists, policy makers and the industry. A milestone during her time at Bluebridge was the organisation of a strategic think-tank on the demand of critical minerals in collaboration with a contractor and Ghent University. While exercising her CEO responsibility, she graduated with an executive MBA with honors at the Vlerick Business School, Belgium. Her thesis addressed green hydrogen to reach net zero emissions and hurdles and opportunities for Belgium to become a front-runner. This work was carried out in cooperation with Belgian multinational company active in the offshore industry. In her free time, she enjoys sports, nature and is also a board member of the Flanders Marine Institute and the Twins Surf club in Belgium. She joined the International Seabed Authority in 2021 as Programme Coordinator Marine Scientific Research where she coordinates the further implementation of the Marine Scientific Action Plan.