Our Governance

Independence, transparency, impartiality and multi-stakeholder governance are central to the MSC’s values and commitment to continually maintain and strengthen world-leading standards.

We work hard to ensure our standards, strategy and decision-making take account of the views, expertise and experience of a wide range of stakeholders, from academia and government, the fishery and market sectors, and the environmental NGO community.

Our governance structure involves a wide range of stakeholders with different perspectives to ensure that the MSC’s decisions are balanced, reflecting many sectors and interests.

In addition to our governance groups, stakeholders are invited to participate in consultations on our standards and requirements, and are encouraged to participate in independent fisheries assessments.

In addition to our governance bodies, standing and ad hoc working groups may be established by the Board, Technical Advisory Board or Stakeholder Advisory Council to address specific regional or topical issues. Their members come from the MSC Board, Technical Advisory Board and Stakeholder Advisory Council, and may include other independent experts who are invited to advise the MSC.

The Board of Trustees is also supported in its work by a number of Board Committees, which meet throughout the year to reflect in detail on specific areas of the MSC’s activities and operations. Their membership is primarily drawn from the Board of Trustees.

If you are interested in participating in the MSC’s stakeholder consultations, or if you have any questions about our governance structures and processes, please contact the MSC’s Chief Operating Officer.

The MSC Board of Trustees

The MSC Board of Trustees is our governing body. With advice from the Technical Advisory Board and Stakeholder Advisory Council, it sets the strategic direction of the MSC, monitors progress and ensures the MSC meets its objectives.

The Board of Trustees meets 4 times a year and has a maximum of 15 members.

Main activities

Ensuring the MSC meets its charitable aims
Setting the strategic direction of the MSC, and monitoring progress in delivery of strategy
Ensuring that the MSC is financially secure
Publicly accounting for expenditure and income
Ensuring the MSC operates in a legally compliant manner in relevant jurisdictions
Appointing new Board members and key MSC staff
Appointing members of the Technical Advisory Board and Stakeholder Advisory Council

Leadership

The Chair of the Board of Trustees leads the Board and is elected for a term of three-years, and may serve up to three terms. Another trustee may be elected as Vice-Chair.

Appointments

Trustees are chosen for their knowledge, expertise and support for the MSC. Membership is balanced with representatives from different sectors and geographical regions (as well as other relevant demographic criteria) to reflect the broad mix of stakeholders who have a stake in the MSC's mission.

Potential new Board members are identified by existing members, and following a review process, suitable nominees are approached for interview. Favourable references must be provided, and there must be consensus amongst all Board members on the appointment of a new candidate.

Trustees are nominated by the Board in a personal capacity, not as representatives of their organisations. They serve a maximum three-year term and may stand for reappointment.

The Chair of the Technical Advisory Board and both Co-Chairs of the Stakeholder Advisory Council have a seat on the Board to ensure that these important governance bodies are represented in Board decisions. The Chair of the MSCI Board is also an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees.

MSC Board trustees

Dr Werner Kiene - Chair

Werner Kiene Commenced appointment as Chair in July 2013, Dr Werner Kiene has over 40 years' experience in key strategic positions in global development, leading international multi-stakeholder initiatives in the fields of food security and sustainable resource management. He has a background as an agricultural economist and previously served as Chair of the World Bank Inspection Panel and as Chair of the Compliance Review Panel of the Inter-American Development Bank. He has been involved in Fairtrade Certification and held leadership positions in the UN World Food Programme, the Ford Foundation, and German International Cooperation-GIZ.

Prof Simon Jennings - Chair of the Technical Advisory Board

Dr Simon Jennings Chair of Science Committee at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen; expertise in ecosystem impacts of fishing and marine environmental management.

Mr Paul Uys - MSCI board chair

Mr Paul Uys, MSCI board chair MSCI board chair. Appointed July 2015. Paul Uys is a senior executive with 40 years global retail experience specialising in brand creation, product development & sourcing. He was recruited from Woolworths South Africa to join Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest supermarket, to head the emerging product development department of their control brands. In his latter days he spearheaded its sustainable seafood procurement initiative and played a key role in establishing their responsible sourcing position "Food for the Future." In 2013 he retired from Loblaws, and now advises various organisations, including WWF-Canada on strategic ocean industry matters. He became Senior Director, External; heading up the University of Guelph's Food Institute, Canada’s food university. He currently is a board member of both Ontario’s Livestock Research Institute and The Ontario Farm Agenda for Sustainable Agriculture.

Mr Eric Barratt - Finance Committee chair

Mr Eric Barratt, Finance Committee chair Appointed January 2014, Mr Eric Barratt joined Sanford in 1982, became a Director in 1986 and was Managing Director of Sanford Limited from 1998 until he retired from that role in December 2013. He is also a former Chairman and a Director of Seafood New Zealand Ltd. Mr Barratt now operates his own investment and consultancy business and acts as Chair of the Harvest Sector CEO Council (a group of 30 CEO’s of some of the largest seafood harvest companies in the world that meets twice per year). Mr Barratt has had extensive involvement in the development of the New Zealand Industry and the Quota Management System.

Mr David Lock

David Lock Appointed November 2018. David is an experienced Australian director, currently serving on a number of agribusiness and infrastructure companies. He has extensive experience in the Australian seafood industry, having been the Managing Director, and currently Chairman, of Mareterram Limited. Mareterram is a fishing company based in Western Australia, catching prawns, scallops, crabs and Spanish mackeral. Prior to Mareterram, David was Chief Executive of the Craig Mostyn Group for 12 years. Craig Mostyn Group was involved in the lobster and abalone industries, as well as being the distributor of a range of globally sourced seafood

Mr Lock is also Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee of Water Corporation. He has previously been Chairman of the West Australian Food Industry Association. In 2012 Mr Lock was awarded the National Australia Bank Agribusiness Leader of the Year, and in 2013 he was recognised as an Australian Export Hero by the Export Council of Australia. Mr Lock is a Chartered Accountant with a background in insolvency and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr Jim Leape

Appointed December 2015. Mr Jim Leape has worked in conservation for more than three decades. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Jim began his career as an environmental lawyer: bringing environmental protection cases in the United States; advising the UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya; and co-authoring the leading American text on environmental law. Mr Leape joined WWF-US in 1989, and led their conservation programmes around the world, serving ultimately as Executive Vice President. From 2001 to 2005, he directed the conservation and science programme of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, one of the largest philanthropies in the US. In 2005, Jim was appointed Director General of WWF International, serving as the chief executive of WWF International and leader of the global WWF Network. He held that position until 2014. He is currently the Cox Consulting Professor in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Mr Giles Bolton

Giles Bolton Appointed January 2019. Giles is Director of Responsible Sourcing and Packaging at Tesco, one of the world's largest retailers. He leads a team of 60 environment, human rights and packaging experts across 10 key sourcing countries, responsible for ensuring good working conditions and sustainable practices across Tesco's supply chain. Prior to Tesco, he had a 10-year career as an aid worker for the British Government, managing development programmes in Kenya, Rwanda, Iraq and on trade.

Giles is on the Board of the Ethical Trading Initiative and co-chair of the Consumer Goods Forum working group on Forced Labour. He Chairs the aid transparency NGO Publish What You Fund and is author of the activist book Aid and Other Dirty Business.

Ms Stefanie Moreland - Stakeholder Advisory Council Co-Chair

Stefanie Moreland Appointed November 2018. Stefanie Moreland is the Vice President of Government Relations, Seafood Sustainability, and Corporate Social Responsibility for Trident Seafoods. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Trident operates a fleet of modern offshore vessels and more than a dozen shore-based processing plants in coastal communities throughout Alaska. Trident's global presence includes secondary processing facilities & sales offices located around the globe. Trident has grown to become the largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company in North America serving markets in 50 countries.

Ms. Moreland has 20 years of experience in natural resource management and policy development, primarily in the Alaska region, including representing the State of Alaska and U.S. interests in intergovernmental forums and treaty negotiations, developing fishery management measures responsive to current science and stakeholder and community input, and working with seafood industry trade associations to tackle challenges facing the seafood industry and promote and develop best practices.

Ms Amanda Nickson

Amanda Nickson portrait Amanda Nickson directs Pew's international fisheries efforts to conserve important marine species through science-based policy development and advocacy. Her work includes reducing overfishing; minimizing the impact of destructive fishing gear; and eliminating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. She also helps lead advocacy efforts with regional fisheries management organizations, the international bodies that govern the treaties regulating commercial fishing on the high seas. Nickson’s work also addresses the overfishing of other valuable marine species in international waters and helps to protect the ocean environment.

Before joining Pew, Nickson worked for the World Wildlife Fund, most recently directing international efforts to protect threatened charismatic species such as tigers, pandas, and marine turtles. She also developed and led WWF’s Bycatch Initiative, a major policy and field program aimed at reducing the incidental catch of non-target species in fisheries in more than 20 countries throughout the world.

Maria Damanaki

Maria Damanaki

Appointed August 2019. Global Managing Director for Oceans from The Nature Conservancy. She leads a global team focused on transforming how the world manages its oceans, including sustainable fisheries management, large-scale protection and restoration of coral reefs and other ecosystems.

Damanaki also chairs the UN Sustainability Committee for Blue Growth. She is a member of the Friends of Ocean Commission of the World Economic Forum.
She sits on the Board of Directors in Oxford Martin School Ocean Programme at the University of Oxford, Monaco Ocean Foundation, and Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS). Former European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

Stuart Green

Close-up profile photo of Mr Stuart Green Appointed June 2020. Stuart J. Green is a marine science and policy practitioner who specialises in fisheries governance for small scale fisheries through Blue-Green Advisors Ltd in the UK. Stuart has extensive technical and scientific experience from over 25 years of conservation and fisheries governance work during his residency in the Asia-Pacific. His work has focused on impactful partnerships between marine conservation donors and implementers working to improve some of the world’s most socially, economically and ecologically significant marine resources. Over the last decade, Stuart has been advising the David and Lucile Packard and Walton Family Foundations on ocean governance.

Dr Kevin Stokes

Appointed July 2020. Dr Kevin Stokes is a fisheries science, management, and policy consultant with extensive international experience. He has held senior management positions in both the public and private sector as a fisheries scientist, manager, and adviser. He has provided advice nationally and internationally at senior governmental and ministerial levels, as well as to the fishing, processing and retail sectors. Kevin has acted as a fisheries assessor, auditor, and peer reviewer for multiple MSC certification assessments for a number of Conformity Assessment Bodies.

The MSC Technical Advisory Board

The Technical Advisory Board advises the MSC Board of Trustees on technical and scientific matters relating to the MSC Standards, including developing methodologies for certification and accreditation and reviewing the progress of fisheries certifications.