Khadija Stewart, Senior Campaigner at RISE UP for the Ocean

Khadija leads the coalition’s Ocean and Climate work and its deep sea mining advocacy. She has participated in International Seabed Authority meetings since July 2022, first engaging as a youth voice and now contributing deeper policy and governance analysis, including on the Common Heritage of Humankind and emerging links to underwater cultural heritage. Khadija holds a dual MSc in Climate Change and Development and Sustainable Development with Business Management. With years of experience working at the ocean–climate nexus, she blends science, policy advocacy, and creative storytelling to advance ocean and climate justice across the Caribbean, while designing and delivering capacity building initiatives that strengthen frontline participation in global ocean governance.  

Alec Taylor, Director of Policy and Research for Oceana UK

Alec leads all policy and research across Oceana’s campaigns in the UK, from ending new oil and gas to protecting ocean life from destructive fishing. 

He is an experienced policy advocate across land and sea, having led both marine and food production policy teams at WWF UK over almost nine years. This included launching WWF’s seagrass restoration programme and setting its positions on marine protected areas, spatial planning and fisheries. Prior to WWF, Alec led on similar work areas for the RSPB and led the cross-NGO campaign to ban the global discharge of a series of harmful chemicals at sea. 

He is a cited lead author for several reports, including marine chapters of the first State of Nature report, and Measuring Up, which tracked the UK’s progress in meeting its Sustainable Development Goal commitments. 

Ruth Williams, Head of Marine Conservation at The Wildlife Trusts

Ruth is a marine biologist and conservationist who has worked within the Wildlife Trust movement for over 25 years and is currently Head of Marine Conservation at The Wildlife Trusts, the national organisation that working to bring wildlife back across the UK. In this role, Ruth advocates for effective national policy to enable nature’s recovery at sea, as well as supporting local Wildlife Trusts to develop and deliver marine programmes and initiatives. This includes lobbying for and providing evidence to support effective management of our Marine Protected Area Network, and minimising human impacts on wildlife and wider marine resources, including blue carbon. 

Craig Bennett OBE - Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts

Craig is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), and a Fellow of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also a Commissioner on the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission. He was awarded an OBE for services to the environment in the King’s New Year 2026 Honour’s List.

He has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and has also been listed in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists.

Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth where he led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against airport expansion. 

Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010). 

Craig has twenty-five years experience of designing and contributing to Executive Education and Leadership programmes at numerous universities and business schools around the world, and of providing advice and constructive challenge direct to CEOs and company boards. He is currently Chair of the Independent Challenge Group for Anglian Water.

He is also a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy and a member of the Churchill Sustainability Practitioners Network at The University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, a judge on The Wainwright Book Prize, a Trustee of the think-tank Green Alliance, and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). He regularly appears in the print and broadcast media

He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography from The University of Reading and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from University College London, and Honorary Doctoral degrees from University College of Estate Management (UCEM), and Anglian Ruskin University (ARU).