LEONARD SONNENSCHEIN
Founder, Chief Science Officer
Leonard has accomplished much in the area of Coral Ecology, Fisheries Science, Land-to-Sea Relationships, and Community Engagement including extensive global field studies. Since 1999, Professor Sonnenschein has been leading multi-stakeholder initiatives driven to increase community involvement toward better sustainable solutions to balance the conservation needs with the societal demands; especially in agriculture technologies.
As president of World Aquarium he has led a number of innovations for public aquariums throughout the world including co-founding the World Ocean Network. Also by founding the Conservation for the Oceans Foundation he has provided grant support for projects in numerous countries and has sat on several other granting committees that has led to 100s of projects being supported worldwide. As an author, Leonard has published numerous books, articles, and abstracts (150+). Over 50 universities regularly provide students for internships in the laboratories at the World Aquarium in St. Louis,
MO. His consultative participation with United Nations agencies includes UNEP, UNDP, FAO, WHO, and UNESCO. He contributes regularly with the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts and Islands; forums on the future of fisheries. This work includes collaborations with The World Bank, MSC and WWF.
TIBERIOUS BRIAN ETYANG
Managing Director, Africa
Tiberious is trained with Masters of Science in Agricultural Information and Communication Management with wide breadth of working and technical knowledge in matters of rural development, innovative financial solutions, farmer training, development communication, ICT4 Ag, farming systems research, food security, technologies adoption and agricultural developments having worked in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system for over 10 years in different capacities. HE worked with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as the lead consultant for the impact assessment for the Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa (SARD-SC).
The Outcome of that is the current ongoing project led by IITA called Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) that is funded by Africa Development Bank. At the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) he worked for the Tropical legumes-II project on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through enhanced grain legume production and productivity; with Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) as a Communication lead consultant in documenting impact stories and at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT) as a Project Assistant and Communication Assistant