Chalermchai Suwannarak is the Director General of the Department of Fisheries, Thailand. He had been working as a fishery biologist at the Department of Fisheries since 20 November 1896. He has a great reputation of being a pioneer in fisheries and aquaculture. Particularly, he manipulated the Marine Fisheries Development Plan of Thailand 2009 – 2018 and the Fisheries Development Policy of Thailand, providing significant impact throughout the supply chain, including capture fisheries, aquaculture, post-harvest processing, and related industry. Since 2005, he has led many successful projects which contribute to promoting fisheries and aquaculture in Thailand to become more efficient, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient. In 2022, he initiated a project on Fisherman Shops to assist and support small-scale aquaculture farmers and artisanal fishers for their better livelihoods. Currently, the branches of Fisherman Shops are successfully expanded in all 77 provinces of Thailand as a new marketing channel for selling fishery products obtained from artisanal and small-scale producers. Moreover, he has launched various projects to address food safety issues in the production of aquatic animals in Thailand as well as other issues to promote Thailand as the Kitchen of the World. 

Nicole Franz is a development economist with 18 years of experience in intergovernmental organizations. She holds a Master in International Cooperation and Project Design from University La Sapienza, Rome and a Master in Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Human Rights in the Mediterranean Region. From 2003 to 2008 she was a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In 2009-10 she was Fishery Planning Analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, focusing on fisheries certification. Since 2011 she works for the FAO Fisheries and Aquculture Division where she coordinates the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) with a focus on inclusive policy processes and stakeholder empowerment. Since 2021 she leads the Equitable Livelihoods team.

Zainal Arifin Fuad is the Chair of Indonesian Peasant Union (SPI) for Foreign Relation. He is also active in La Via Campesina – International Peasant Movement as SPI is its member. He is a member of International Coordination Committee of La Via Campesina -representative of South East and East Asia region, and a member of the Collective work of La Via Campesina on the rights of peasant (United Nation Declaration on the Rights of Peasant and other people working in rural areas/UNDROP) and  the Seed, biodiversity and Agroecology as well. He is also a representative of La Via Campesina in the second vice Presidency of the Global Steering Committee of UN-Decade Family Farming. Now, he is also a member of the Regional Advisory Group VGSSF of Asia from 2020.

Nakazato Tomoko is the Deputy Secretary-General of SEAFDEC and the Deputy Chief of SEAFDEC/Training Center. Before taking on these roles, she was the Director of the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Office International Affairs Division, Fisheries Agency.

Dr. Jie Huang serves as the Director General of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), a regional intergovernmental organization. He dedicates himself to strengthening the network and its contribution to sustainable aquaculture development in the region. As an expert in aquaculture epidemiology and biosecurity, Dr. Huang previously held positions such as a Principal Investigator at the Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute (YSFRI) within the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS), the Chief Scientist of CAFS on disease control, and the Designated Expert of the OIE Reference Laboratories for WSD and IHHN. Since 1990, Dr. Huang has conducted research on diagnostics, epidemiology, and control technology for aquatic animal diseases, reported on emerging pathogens and diseases, established new diagnostic methods, developed disease prevention techniques, and actively promoted the biosecurity concept for aquaculture. He has published 400 papers, of which 180 were as the corresponding author, been awarded 57 patents, and achieved other notable accomplishments. He has also mentored over a hundred doctoral and master-level students and postdoctoral scientists. 

Ravadee Prasertcharoensuk has an educational background in social administration, community development, and human rights.  She has worked in the field of development since 1975. Before she started playing an active role in advocacy and campaign for structural change toward people-centered Sustainable Development at the National and International level, she worked in the rural sector. Since 2018, she has been the director of Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF). SDF is a Rights-based environmental non-government organization promoting inclusion, governance, customary rights on ecosystem-based sustainable natural resource management, people-centered, and women's rights.

Oscar Amarasinghe is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Ruhuna and present Chancellor of the Ocean University of Sri Lanka. He is also the president of Sri Lanka Forum for Small Scale Fisheries (SLFSSF). He pioneered work in Fisheries Economics and Management in Sri Lanka and has been instrumental in training students in fisheries social sciences. His most important contribution to fisheries development of Sri Lanka include work on the national fisheries policy development process, transboundary fisheries issues in the north, ILO Work in Fishing Sector Convention 188, addressing issues in small scale fisheries through island-wide consultations, implementing FAO Voluntary Guidelines for securing sustainable small scale fisheries and strengthening fisheries cooperatives. He has worked with FAO and the World Bank for a number of initiatives aimed at achieving economically, socially and environmentally sustainable fisheries sector, with major emphasis on addressing community issues.

Shirlene Maria Anthonysamy is the director of INFOFISH. Shirlene brings with her more than 20 years of experience in monitoring and reviewing the Asia Pacific fishery industry; carrying out consultancies related to international fishery trade for private companies and national bodies; publishing articles related to international fishery trade and markets; conducting training and facilitation on trade promotion, marketing and database; and coordinating national and international workshops and conferences. She holds a Masters in Food Biochemistry and Bachelors in Biochemistry and Microbiology from University Putra Malaysia. Shirlene has been heading INFOFISH as Acting Director since May 2016 and became Director of INFOFISH in December 2018. Prior to that she was Trade Promotion Officer at INFOFISH for
16 years. 

Ratana Chuenpagdee is a University Research Professor in Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in St. John’s. She is leading a major global research partnership, Too Big To Ignore (TBTI), which aims at elevating the profile of small-scale fisheries and rectifying their marginalization in national and international policies. As part of this project, she’s coordinating research and activities to support the implementation of the SSF Guidelines and transdisciplinary research for fisheries and ocean governance around the world. Ratana also co-leads a research module on informing governance responses in a changing ocean for the Ocean Frontier Institute, another major collaborative research initiative between universities, governments, private sectors and communities. Together with colleagues, she co-edits several TBTI books about small-scale fisheries, the latest of which is titled “Blue Justice: Small-Scale Fisheries in a Sustainable Ocean Economy.”