Mark Young is currently the Executive Director of the International, Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (MCS) Network. He has over 30 years of experience working in fisheries compliance and enforcement and a broad interdisciplinary background in international relations and maritime law enforcement including twenty-three years in the United States Coast Guard. He holds a Master’s Degree in Marine Policy from the University of Washington and previously spent three years as the Director of Fisheries Operations at the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency and over five years as a Senior Manager with The Pew Charitable Trusts on their Ending Illegal Fishing Project. Mark brings to the table extensive expertise in international and domestic fisheries compliance and enforcement mechanisms and their intersection with fisheries management and policy development including wide exposure to facilitating bilateral and multilateral cooperation to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and the use of MCS tools such as vessel monitoring systems (VMS), fisheries observer programs, aerial and surface monitoring and surveillance and electronic monitoring and reporting.

Dr. Tupou-Roosen is the first woman to be appointed the Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency. She was appointed unanimously by the Fisheries Ministers at the conclusion of the 15th Forum Fisheries Committee Ministerial meeting in Cook Islands in 2018. Dr Tupou-Roosen has researched and worked in fisheries for over 20 years, including over a decade as the FFA Legal Counsel. She gained a Masters of Law in 1997 under a New Zealand scholarship, focusing on international fisheries and achieved First Class Honours. She was also awarded a PhD in Law in 2004 under a Commonwealth Scholarship, with a focus on international and regional fisheries compliance.

Chris Wilcox is a research scientist with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, based in Hobart, Tasmania. His research covers a wide range of topics in population management including control of invasive species, conservation of threatened biodiversity, and management of commercial and recreational harvesting. His work integrates field data, statistical analysis and predictive models to synthesize information to support decision-making. He has worked with NGOs, government and private enterprise over a 26-year career as a professional biologist to develop cost effective solutions to natural resource management problems. Originally from the USA, he has a Masters degree and a Ph.D. in ecology and conservation biology. He has been in Australia for 18 years, first working on effects of groundwater withdrawal by mining on wetlands. Since coming to CSIRO in 2005, his research has included biodiversity offsets, population estimation, analysis of satellite tracking data, optimization of feral animal eradication, management of fisheries, reserve design and management. He currently co-leads two large research programs, focused on the impacts of plastic pollution (http://www.csiro.au/marine-debris) and the development of tools for tackling illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (https://research.csiro.au/mcsanalytics)

Austin Brush is a senior analyst on the Natural Resources Cell at C4ADS where he primarily manages the team's IUU fishing projects. Austin is the author of Strings Attached, a C4ADS report on IUU fishing networks. Prior to his work at C4ADS, Austin received degrees in International Relations and Environmental Studies from Tufts University.

Richard Holmquist is a sales executive for the Americas for radio frequency geolocation products at Hawkeye 360 with more than 20 years’ experience focusing on maritime tracking and remote sensing.

Melissa Schiele is developing low-cost multi use water-landing fixed-wing UAVs for marine and freshwater area managers. Applications include, but not limited to, wildlife monitoring, mapping and illegal fishery surveillance. Melissa is exploring technology acceptance of these UAVs by creating a new model specifically for drone use in emergent nations and is developing a toolkit of methodologies for managers.