Koen Broker is an environmental scientist with demonstrated history of applying expertise in marine biology, environmental science and ecology to environmental risk management. He holds expertise in E&P and offshore wind environmental risk assessments, renewable energy developments, biodiversity conservation, underwater acoustics, sound and marine life management, marine mammal ecology, ecological monitoring, stakeholder engagement and management of research programs. Broker lead authored and co-authored over 20-peer reviewed scientific publications related to monitoring and mitigation of impacts on marine life.

Giulia Carbone, Ph.D. is the Director of the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance, a platform supported by WBCSD and the WEF, bringing together public and private stakeholders to identify opportunities and barriers to investment into carbon credits in new, and existing markets, to increase financing for natural climate solutions. Previously Giulia served as Deputy Director of the Global Business and Biodiversity Programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). During her tenure at IUCN, she headed projects in renewable energy, tourism, sport, agri-food, apparel, mining, infrastructure, and oil and gas sectors. She also convened numerous multistakeholder processes, such as the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, bringing together global companies in the aluminium value chain and civil society organizations, that led to the first global aluminium sustainability standard. She designed the Cerrado das Aguas Consortio, uniting Nespresso and other global coffee companies with local stakeholders to collectively tackle land restoration; and coordinated the Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel, enabling scientists to provide independent advice to oil and gas representatives and NGOs.

Dr. Leila Hatch is a marine ecologist at NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. She studies the ways that animals use sound underwater and supports the development of tools to reduce the impacts of noise produced by human activities on marine environments. Dr. Hatch serves as a lead for several national-scale sound monitoring and policy initiatives for NOAA, including NOAA's Ocean Noise Strategy, Noise Reference Station Network, Sanctuary Soundscape Monitoring Project and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Archive. Dr. Hatch began working for NOAA after serving as a John A. Knauss legislative fellow with the U.S. House of Representatives' Resources Committee. She received a doctoral degree from Cornell University in evolutionary biology, where her research used molecular genetic and acoustic tools to identify population boundaries among Northern Hemisphere fin whales. Prior to her graduate work, Dr. Hatch participated in global research programs to study potential impacts from a variety of human activities on whale and dolphin populations.

Nadia Deckert is a French environmental diplomat specialized in ocean protection affairs. For several years she has been working as a negotiator and policy advisor for France, representing her country to regional sea conventions or marine species-related international agreements and initiatives. She was also involved in several development-aid projects focused on marine biodiversity. She has worked as a policy advisor on shipping and marine mammals for OceanCare. Deckert has been working for the Crisis Centre and for the Press and Communication Department of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Michael Jasny is a Senior Policy Analyst at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) and Director of its Marine Mammal Protection Project. He is an expert on the law and policy of underwater noise pollution, having worked for more than two decades through litigation, lobbying, science-based policy development, and public advocacy to improve management of this important problem. He is an author of numerous publications on marine mammal conservation, and has served on government advisory groups on underwater noise and endangered species in the United States and Canada. In 2017, he received an Emmy for Best Nature Documentary for the film “Sonic Sea.” Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Jill Lewandowski, Ph.D. is the Chief of the Division of Environmental Assessment within the Office of Environmental Programs. She also serves as the Director of BOEM’s Center for Marine Acoustics. Collectively, Jill leads a team of experts in providing national oversight of BOEM’s compliance with environmental laws and driving bureau-wide improvements to understanding, assessing and communicating environmental risk. With close to 30 years of professional experience, Jill has worked as a protected species biologist for BOEM, NOAA, and the National Wildlife Federation and remains a key expert internationally on marine sound issues. Jill holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia and a MSc. and Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University.

Kathy Metcalf was appointed the President and CEO of the Chamber of Shipping of America (CSA) in June 2015 after serving as CSA’s Director of Maritime Affairs from 1997 to 2015.  CSA is a maritime trade association which represents a significant number of U.S. based companies that own, operate or charter oceangoing tankers, container ships, and other merchant vessels engaged in both the domestic and international trades.  Kathy has been working on underwater noise associated with commercial shipping since 2000.  Prior to coming to the Chamber of Shipping, Kathy served in various positions in the energy industry including deck officer aboard large oceangoing tankers, marine safety and environmental director, corporate regulatory and compliance manager and state government affairs manager.  Kathy is a 1978 graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy (BS in Marine Transportation and Nautical Sciences) and a 1988 graduate of the Delaware Law School (JD).

Dr Sónia Mendes works for JNCC as a scientific adviser to the government of the United Kingdom. She has more than 15 years experience working at the interface of science, policy and regulation on the effects of offshore industries on marine mammals and their habitats. Sónia has collaborated with regulators, academics, the Navy, non-governmental organizations and industry, on projects related to the effects of underwater noise, risk assessment processes, mitigation measures and monitoring. Sónia is a contributor to several UK and international working groups on the subject, has co-authored reports on underwater noise and manages the UK marine noise registry.

Dr. Doug Nowacek’s activities represent a mixture of research tool development, coupled closely with the science driving the need for those tools, and the dissemination of resulting research to students at all levels as well as the broader society.  Since starting graduate school and continuing to the present, Nowacek has pioneered several marine research tools and methods that seek to create knowledge as well as integrate and transfer it.  He has worked to apply the tools and teachings of basic science to conservation driven research, including teaching innovative and experiential courses such as ‘the history and future of ocean energy’ and ‘ocean engineering'.

Brandon Southall, Ph.D. is a Research Associate with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Duke University. He obtained Masters and Ph.D. degrees from UCSC, studying communication, hearing, and the effects of noise on seals and sea lions. He directed the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Acoustics Program and has been centrally involved in developing systematic noise exposure criteria for marine mammals and the first-ever acoustic guidelines for the agency. He founded and runs SEA, a research and consulting small business conducting and applying science to support environmental management assessments and environmentally responsible development. He is the former director of NOAA’s Ocean Acoustics Program where he helped develop acoustic exposure criteria for marine mammals.  He continues to study the behavioral responses of marine mammals to human produced sounds.

Howard Rosenbaum, Ph.D. is a Senior Conservation Scientist and Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Ocean Giants Program, which aims to secure the future of whales, dolphins, and other marine species. He is a Senior Scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, core faculty member at Columbia University E3B Department, a member of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group and Important Marine Mammal Areas Task Force, and the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee. Rosenbaum has led marine mammal conservation projects around the world, including the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans and the Arctic. In the New York Bight, Rosenbaum leads WCS’s efforts for research and conservation of marine mammals, which includes a collaborative effort to use state-of-the-art near real-time acoustic monitoring and other technologies to study whales and ocean noise. Rosenbaum earned his PhD from Yale University.

After obtaining a PhD in Applied Mathematics, Bastian Blonk joined Shell and worked for 25+ years in roles involving geophysics, project management, leadership and staff development in the Netherlands, Oman, USA, India, and Russia. During 2015-2019 he worked as Chief Geophysicist for Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) in Far-East Russia, where he led a seismic acquisition project over all of the SEIC-operated offshore fields, part of which covered the environmentally sensitive feeding ground of the western gray whale. During this project, he extensively worked together with the IUCN-led Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel (WGWAP) that was critical in advising SEIC on reducing and mitigating seismic-operations risks for the gray whales. After leaving Shell in 2020, he now lives in Canada and focuses on transition and development coaching and on volunteering projects.