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 the 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 an interview. Favourable references must be provided, and there must be a 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.
The MSC Board of Trustees
Dr Werner Kiene - Chair
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
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 chairAppointed 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
Appointed January 2014, Mr Eric Barratt was Managing Director of Sanford Ltd from 1998 until he retired in December 2013. He had been a Director of Sanford Ltd since 1986. He is also a former Chairman and a Director of Seafood New Zealand Ltd and Chair of the Korea New Zealand Business Council, and also acts as Iceland's Honorary Consul in Auckland. Mr Barratt has had extensive involvement in the development of the New Zealand industry and the Quota Management System.
Mr 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 Jean-Jacques Maguire
Appointed July 2014. Jean-Jacques Maguire is currently a consultant in fishery science and management. He has acted as chair of the advisory committee of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES); and has been invited to participate in a number of review panels including a review of the performance of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, and a review of the performance of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas. Mr Maguire has extensive experience with stock assessments and has worked as a senior fisheries scientist at the Canadian Department of Fisheries and at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
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
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
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.
Amanda Nickson
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
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.
The MSC Technical Advisory Board
The MSC 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.
Main activities
- Advising the MSC Board on the MSC Standards
- Maintaining documents relating to the MSC Standards
- Developing methodologies for certification and accreditation
- Reviewing the progress of and advising on fisheries certifications.
Leadership
The Technical Advisory Board is appointed by the Board of Trustees, based on recommendations from the TAB. The Chair has an ex officio seat on the MSC Board of Trustees, so is involved in all Board activity.
Appointments
The MSC Board of Trustees appoints new members to the Technical Advisory Board, with the aim of bringing a range of experience, skills and geographical representation. Members are nominated in a personal capacity, not as representatives of their organisations. Members serve a 3-year term and may stand for reappointment.
Read the MSC Technical Advisory Board Terms of Reference and Operating Framework
The MSC Technical Advisory Board members
Prof Simon Jennings (UK) - Technical Advisory Board Chair
Appointed December 2014
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.
Dr Chris Zimmermann (Germany)
Appointed June 2010
Director of the Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries, expert on fisheries stock assessment and management systems.
Adam Swan (UK)
Appointed September 2008
Brakes, expert understanding of the seafood industry and chain of custody.
Dr Tim Essington (United States)
Appointed July 2011
Professor of Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington, focussing on fisheries, aquatic ecology, predator-prey interaction, ecological modelling and food webs.
Lucia Mayer Massaroth (Germany)
Appointed January 2011
Program Manager, Chain of Custody, Forest Stewardship Council. Expert on certification and accreditation.
Dr Keith Sainsbury (Australia)
Appointed March 2005
Fisheries assessment scientist working for Sainsolutions; expert on aquatic ecosystems and fisheries management systems.
Mr Alex Olsen (Denmark)
Appointed September 2013
Head of sustainability at Espersen; expert understanding of the seafood industry and chain of custody.
Dr Victor Restrepo (USA)
Appointed July 2012
Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee, and Vice-President for Science, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). Expert in tuna, large pelagics and Regional Fisheries Management Organisations.
Dr Juan Carlos Seijo (Mexico)
Appointed December 2014
Professor of fisheries bioeconomics at the Universidad Marista de Merida; expert in bioeconomic analysis and modelling of marine fisheries.
Ms Michèle Stark (Switzerland)
Appointed June 2016
Executive Advisor, Seafood Advisory Ltd, with expertise in sustainable aquaculture analysis, impact assessments, seafood standards, and certification and accreditation systems.
Dr Florian Baumann (Germany)
Appointed January 2017
Head of Quality Assurance, Frozen Fish International GmbH, Chair of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the German Fish Trade Association, with expertise in auditing and traceability.
Sergey Sennikov (Russia)
Appointed January 2018
Chief Sustainability Officer at Norebo Group with expertise in fishery sustainability and CSR in all Norebo's operations (in Russia and other countries), legal practices (fishery), international and national fishery law, international relations and communications with mass media.
Dr Rebecca Lent (USA)Co-opted June 2019
Executive Secretary of the International Whaling Commission, a marine economist with expertise in Endangered, Threatened and Protected Species.
Mr Jose Augusto Pinto de Abreu (Brazil)
Co-opted June 2019
Managing Director of Sextante Consultoria, expert on management systems, standardization and regulation, conformity assessment, risk management, and sustainability.
The MSC Technical Advisory Board Meeting Summaries
The 31st MSC Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting summary, 2-5 December 2019.
The 30th MSC Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting summary, 3–6 June 2019.
The 29th MSC Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting summary, 4–6 December 2018.
The 28th MSC Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting summary, 11–15 June 2018.
The 27th MSC Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting summary, 11–13 December 2017.
The MSC Stakeholder Advisory Council
The MSC Stakeholder Advisory Council (STAC) provides advice to the MSC Board of Trustees and input into the MSC’s review processes. It includes representatives from the seafood industry, the conservation community, market sector and academia. Its membership reflects diverse experiences, geographies and interests in relation to the work of the MSC.
The Stakeholder Advisory Council is also a formal channel through which all stakeholders, whether members of the Stakeholder Advisory Council or not, can provide their views to the MSC.
Formal correspondence sent directly to individual Stakeholder Advisory Council members or to the STAC collectively will be forwarded to MSC’s executive (Alene Wilton – MSC’s Chief Operating Officer) and copied to the Stakeholder Advisory Council Co-Chairs. The MSC will respond, as appropriate, in accordance with its public correspondence protocol. The Stakeholder Advisory Council will not enter into direct correspondence.
Main activities
Provides views, advice, recommendations and informed opinions to the MSC Board of Trustees on the MSC Fisheries and Chain of Custody Standards, their implementation and application.
Provides strategic and tactical advice on other functions of the organisation, including where appropriate, commercial, development, outreach and communications programs.
Provides advice and views on existing and emerging issues which may affect the ability of the MSC to implement its program and achieve its strategic goals, and to bring new issues that may affect the MSC’s ability to achieve its mission to the MSC for consideration.
Addresses and gives views on specific matters on which the Board of Trustees requests advice.
Submits its views to the MSC Board of Trustees, which considers this input when making decisions.
The Stakeholder Advisory Council meets at least once per year.
Leadership
The Stakeholder Advisory Council has two Co-Chairs, serving 3-year terms. These are arranged so that the Co-Chairs have staggered appointments. Each Co-Chair serves as an ex-officio member of the MSC Board of Trustees.
Appointment and structure
Appointments to the Stakeholder Advisory Council are made by the MSC Board of Trustees. Members normally serve three-year terms and may be appointed for up to two terms.
The Council comprises up to seventeen members, six of whom are from the seafood industry (processing or harvest), six of whom are from the conservation community; and two from the market sector. Within this membership, the MSC strives to ensure adequate representation from developing world and small-scale fishery interests. The remaining three seats on the Council are undesignated and used to ensure a balanced membership in the light of the MSC’s strategic objectives.
Further information
Please email Alene Wilton, MSC Chief Operating Officer for further information on the MSC Stakeholder Advisory Council.
The MSC Stakeholder Advisory Board Members
Stefanie Moreland, Co-Chair, Trident Seafoods, USAAmanda Nickson, Co-Chair, The Pew Charitable Trusts, USA
Peter Trott, Fishlistic, Australia
Christine Penney, Clearwater Seafoods, Canada
Yumie Kawashima, Aeon, Japan
Ghislaine Llewellyn, WWF International
Agathe Grossmith, Carrefour, France
Heather Brayford, Government of Western Australia, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Australia
Carmen Revenga, The Nature Conservancy, USA
Johann Augustyn, SADSTIA, South Africa
Ivan Lopez, Pesquera Ancora, Spain
Marco Quesada, Conservation International, Costa Rica
Rory Crawford, Birdlife International/RSPB, UK
Tor Larsen, Norwegian Fishermen’s Association, Norway
María José Espinosa Romero, Communidad y Biodiversidad A.C (COBI), Mexico
The Marine Stewardship Council International Board
The Marine Stewardship Council International (MSCI) is a wholly owned trading subsidiary of the MSC. Its Board provides oversight of MSCI’s commercial and marketing activities, which are primarily focused on ecolabel licensing, and supporting public education campaigns and growing awareness and understanding of sustainable seafood and the MSC ecolabel.
Membership includes the Chair of the MSC Board of Trustees and the MSC’s Chief Executive.
The Chair of the MSCI Board is an ex officio member of the Board of Trustees.
The MSC International Board members
Mr Paul Uys, MSCI Chair
Dr Werner Kiene, Board of Trustees Chair
Ms Valentina Tripp
Mr Eric Barratt
Mr Rupert Howes, MSC Chief Executive
Mr Jeff Davis
Subsidiary boards
The MSC has established several other subsidiary companies in key jurisdictions, most of which are registered charities. These are separate legal entities for the purposes of taxation, regulation and charitable activities. Each has a board to oversee its operations.
All our main governance bodies include representatives from different geographical regions, ensuring that our strategies, standards and policies are globally applicable. All members must conform with our Declaration of Interest policy.
Find out more
What does the blue MSC label mean?
The blue fish label is only applied to wild fish or seafood from fisheries that have been certified to the MSC standard, a scientific measure of sustainable fishing.
Real life stories
The best way to understand the impact of the MSC program is through those involved. Read about the passionate people taking care of our oceans.