Neil Holdsworth is a data management specialist with a background in both private and public sectors. He leads Data and Information at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), an inter-governmental organisation that provides science-based management advice for the sustainable use of the oceans. 

As the head of Data and Information at ICES, Neil oversees data collaborations with various partners primarily in the North East Atlantic, such as OSPAR, HELCOM, European Commission and the European Environment Agency, providing them with a range of data hosting and dissemination services. ICES contributes to the coordination of ocean monitoring, best practices in data collection and as a key user of data collected by Governmental agencies, as well as industry data, in order to provide the a reliable and sustainable evidence base that can be used by as many stakeholders as possible. He is also involved in several projects related to ocean observation and data sharing, such as Mission Atlantic, EMODnet Chemistry, EMODnet Biology, EMODnet Physics and DTO Bioflow among others.   

Paul Holthus has been advancing ocean business, investment and sustainable development since the 1990’s and launched the World Ocean Council (WOC) in 2009. As the global Blue Economy Business and Investment Organization, the WOC brings together shipping, fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, offshore energy, investors and others in the international business alliance to create leadership, collaboration and action on “Corporate Ocean Responsibility”. 

The WOC includes a global network of 35,000+ ocean industry stakeholders, the Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS) - the only annual gathering of the global ocean business community on sustainability and the Global Blue Finance Summit (BlueFIN). The WOC work program advances action on the key global ocean sustainable development and ocean, climate and biodiversity challenges and opportunities facing business. In 2011, he launched the WOC SMART Ocean-SMART Industries program, which is expanding ocean industry efforts to host or deploy instruments that collect ocean and climate data from commercial vessels, platforms and cables. 

Paul is a frequent speaker at international ocean, industry, sustainability and investment events. He was one of 5 people invited to be a member of the UN Secretary General’s Expert Group on Oceans for the 2012 Rio+20 conference. He is the first international ocean industry organization representative invited to address the UN General Assembly. 

Mr Holthus has worked on ocean, coastal and island sustainable development for over 40 years and in over 30 countries - working with UN agencies, companies, communities, industry associations, international non-governmental organisations and foundations. He has held senior positions with UNEP, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy and other international environmental organisations. 

Paul is a graduate of the University of California and University of Hawaii, was a Fulbright scholar in Australia and is an East-West Center alum. 

IONA Athanasia (Sissy), Physical Oceanographer, PhD in Physical Oceanography, M.Sc. in Physical Oceanography, and B.Sc. in Physics. Since 2008, Head of the Hellenic National Oceanographic Data Centre (HNODC) of the Institute of Oceanography, HCMR. More than 25 years of experience in marine data management.  Participation in a numerous of National, EU and International Projects (as scientific coordinator in EMODnet Data Ingestion 2016-2019 and 2019-2021, 2022-2024, EMODnet Chemistry as Mediterranean eutrophication products leader, EMODnet Bathymetry as regional leader for the Eastern Mediterranean bathymetry generation, Blue-Cloud 2026, SeaDataCloud, SeaDataNet I and II, ODIP 1 and 2, BlackSeaSCENE Upgrade, CaspInfo) -  with more than 100 publications in international scientific journals (20 peer-reviewed articles), conferences, and editions. From 2009-2017, Coordinator of the Data Management Programme Area of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)-IOC Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) and Chair of the JCOMM Data Management Coordination Group. From 2011-2015, Co-Chair of the UNESCO/IOC Programme on International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE). Since 2008, National Coordinator for Oceanographic Data Management in the IOC's IODE Committee.