Paul Holthus

PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE WORLD OCEAN COUNCIL, USA

Paul Holthus is the founding CEO of the World Ocean Council, which is the international business leadership alliance on “Corporate Ocean Responsibility”. The WOC brings together shipping, fisheries, aquaculture, oil/gas, tourism, offshore renewables, other ocean industries and investment. It is a growing network of 35,000+ ocean industry stakeholders, and Paul’s efforts are focused on creating global ocean business community leadership and collaboration on sustainable development, science and stewardship.

Paul has held senior international positions, e.g. with UNEP, IUCN, The Nature Conservancy, and has worked in over 30 countries with companies, communities, industry associations, UN agencies, NGOs, foundations and governments. He is a frequent speaker at international industry, ocean and Blue Economy conferences. At the 2017 UN Ocean Conference, he organized business and finance participation and was invited to speak to the UN General Assembly on behalf of the ocean business community.