Harnessing Accountability & Transparency to Accelerate Progress in Seafood Sustainability: Where are we now and Where to Next?
Tuesday, November 15 from 10:30am-12:35pm ET
The Seafood Sustainability Movement has successfully fostered awareness and engagement over the past 15 years. Progress has been significant. Yet, there remains much to do to achieve our goal. Accountability & Transparency are key to accelerate progress by advancing performance, learning, collaboration and progressive action while creating strategic value for accountable stakeholders. It is time to evolve beyond “Engagement” and champion “Accountability & Transparency.” Examples of Accountability & Transparency initiatives will be presented, followed by an interactive discussion.
Michael Cohen
Market Outreach Associate, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation
Michael Cohen is the Market Outreach Associate for the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). In this role at the intersection of conservation and commerce, he engages with diverse stakeholders (e.g., buyers, NGOs, fleets, industry) to inform, encourage and support them to use their influence to advance science-based sustainability of tuna fisheries. Michael joined ISSF from his career as a consultant in the field of sustainable business development where he assisted both artisanal, small-scale enterprises and multinational corporations to achieve their aspirations. He provided support in areas including strategic planning, change management, capacity building, process improvement, and marketing. Prior to this experience, Michael was General Manager at the H.J. Heinz Company where he led growth and transformation assignments in various product and service sectors in the U.S., Europe, Africa and South America.
Aisla Jones
Partnership Program Director, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership
Aisla Jones is Partnership Program Director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), where she works with some of the world’s largest seafood buyers to implement sustainable seafood policies and goals. Jones joined SFP from The Co-op, where she worked as the Fisheries and Aquaculture Manager for six years, focused on how retail and supply chains can create demand for more sustainable aquaculture feed. At Co-op, she collaborated with seafood suppliers and developed and maintained responsible sourcing policies. She has also worked with WWF UK as a Seafood Sustainability Officer and is on the Governing Body Committee for MarinTrust Ltd. She is based in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Helen Packer
Lead, Seafood Sustainability Index, World Benchmarking Alliance
Helen Packer leads the Seafood Stewardship Index at the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA). Prior to WBA, Helen was the Sustainability Manager at Anova Food USA, a subsidiary company of Bumble Bee, where she contributed to the implementation of various environmental, social and traceability improvement projects in various tuna fisheries. Helen holds a BSc in Marine Biology from the UK, an MSc in Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management from Wageningen University (NL) and an interdisciplinary PhD from Dalhousie University (Canada).
Tom Pickerell
Executive Director, Global Tuna Alliance
Dr. Tom Pickerell is a marine biologist with nearly 20 years’ experience in seafood sustainability, including wild fisheries and shellfish aquaculture, certification schemes and consumer guides, and social responsibility in seafood. Before becoming the Executive Director of the Global Tuna Alliance, he was the Global Tuna Director for the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and led SFP’s fresh & frozen and canned tuna programs. Previous to that, he worked in a variety of roles at several NGOs and the UK government. Dr Pickerell is the founder of Tomolamola Consulting Ltd., a sustainable seafood advisory service for businesses.
Mallika Talwar
Senior Ocean Campaigner, Greenpeace
Mallika Talwar is a Senior Oceans Campaigner on the Beyond Seafood team at Greenpeace USA. She leads Greenpeace USA’s work in moving corporations and the US government to address human rights and environmental issues in global seafood supply chains. Mallika is a graduate of the Yale School of the Environment. Prior to her time at Greenpeace, she worked with the Yale Program on climate Change Communication helping climate advocacy organizations apply data driven strategies for effective campaigning. She also has extensive experience working in India on a range of marine and coastal conservation issues.
Robin Teets
Lead, NGO Tuna Forum
Robin has worked broadly with seafood industry leaders, conservation organizations and philanthropies to help advance collaborative efforts to improve fisheries and ocean ecosystems. A seasoned facilitator and strategic planner, Robin has extensive experience in helping organizations and collaborative groups surface opportunities and issues, and to find the common ground required to move opportunities forward. Robin is the Project Leader for the NGO Tuna Forum, which brings together NGOs, individuals and organizations that work comprehensively on tuna sustainability issues globally. In addition, Robin coordinates the U.S. IUU/Labor Rights Coalition – a group focused on using U.S. policy mechanisms to address issues at the intersection of IUU and human, labor and social challenges in fisheries – and also consults for the Anti-IUU Forum Japan.
