Speakers

Joshua Brien has acted for a range of Governments throughout the world, including small-island States and the developing world. This has included engagement in matters before the International Court of Justice, the Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in contentious and advisory proceedings, including provisional measures applications and prompt release cases.
He has extensive experience advising on law of the sea, with particular expertise concerning maritime boundary delimitation, the management of offshore resources including petroleum and minerals, the preparation and defence of continental shelf submissions to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (‘CLCS’) made under UNCLOS, and the legal aspects of the pioneer activity of deep- seabed mining both in the Area managed by the International Seabed Authority and within areas of national jurisdiction, including areas of extended continental shelf.
Joshua has been directly engaged in the successful conclusion of over 15 maritime boundary delimitation agreements in the Caribbean, African and Asia-Pacific regions over the past decade and has prepared over 19 Submissions to the CLCS. He continues to advise a range of States on the preparation of new submissions and in respect of the examination of existing Submissions.
He also provides advice to States and other clients on the policy and legal aspects of the development of the blue economy and the integrated management of ocean space. This includes advice concerning the reform and development of national laws and policies and management of marine resources including international fisheries and the development of new and innovative ocean-based industries in support of sustainable development.
Joshua has presented papers on the legal aspects of maritime boundary delimitation, the preparation of continental shelf submissions and on the international regime for seabed mining and has participated in and run training courses and workshops on maritime boundary delimitation and natural resource management for foreign governments and capacity building (Pacific maritime boundary workshops at the University of Sydney; NUS Singapore; and Dalhousie University).
Joshua is also listed in the most recent edition of the Who’s Who of Public International Law directory of public international lawyers of standing and prominence in the judicial, academic and professional fields.

Mark Eddo is an international journalist and CEO of Mark Eddo Media Ltd. Between 2006 and 2009 Mark was the Senior Correspondent Business and Economics for ITV News in London. On most week nights Mark joined Sir Trevor Macdonald on the News at Ten and kept ITV’s 5 million regular viewers informed on all the major business stories.

Before ITN, Mark spent 4 years working as a presenter and reporter at the BBC in London. He regularly hosted ‘World Business Report’ on BBC World. Mark provided BBC reports from Asia, South Africa, the USA and the Middle East. Until March 2012, he continued to work for the BBC as the roving reporter for BBC World’s Africa Business Report. Mark has also reported for Al Jazeera, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC in San Francisco and The Wall Street Journal TV in New York.

Mark is a respected public speaker who has moderated many major international business events such as the United Nations Habitat conference in Naples and Kigali and Economist Magazine Conferences in Abuja, Lagos and Addis Ababa. Mark is the son of a Nigerian engineer and a British nurse. He grew up in Lagos and London.

Marta has been directing the Ocean Governance programme at the Conservancy since 2016. She is an environmental lawyer with over 10 years of experience protecting nature through international and European Union policy and law. For over 6 years she has worked to tackle the issue of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing globally, as well as helping to establish groundbreaking legislation to protect the deep sea. She works with public and private partner organisations around the world to enable accurate fisheries management decisions and monitoring. Marta also brings experience working with the European Commission on multilateral environmental agreements. 

She holds a Masters degree in Environmental Policy and Management from the University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain; as well as a Masters in Energy and Environmental Law from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

The Nature Conservancy is committed to conserving and sustainably managing our ocean, seas and marine resources. We are working in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America and Australia in order develop this global strategy. 

Christian Neumann works for GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian foundation collaborating closely with UN Environment. He’s joined the organisation seven years ago, and todays leads its Programme on Ecosystems, Economies and Sustainable Development, bringing together a range of projects focusing on the interface between healthy marine ecosystems and human well-being, both globally and with a focus on the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Christian has served as the chief editor of UN Environment’s 2012 Green Economy in a Blue World report, and has worked with hundreds of practitioners over the past years, to develop their knowledge on integrating natural capital and ecosystem services into marine planning.

Before joining GRID-Arendal, he was led the World Wide Fund for Nature’s initiative to create Marine Protected Areas in the High Seas.