Wendy Watson-Wright (Chair)

Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright is the Chief Executive Officer of the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI), the Canadian-led transnational interdisciplinary research institute that aims for the safe and sustainable development of the ocean frontier. From 2010 to 2015, Dr. Watson-Wright was the Executive Secretary and Assistant Director General of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris. For most of her career, she held various senior positions within Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including eight years as Assistant Deputy Minister of Science. Dr. Watson-Wright has been on several boards and panels including the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Ocean and Atmosphere program review panel, the Strategic Advisory Board for the European Union’s Joint Programming Initiative on Oceans (JPI Oceans), the Council of Canadian Academies’ Expert Panel on Ocean Science, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health X-Prize.

A Killam scholar, she holds a PhD in Physiology from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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