Conservation Speakers

Adam Broadbent is the co-founder of ZuBlu, a travel platform helping scuba divers and marine enthusiasts discover and book their next underwater adventure in Asia. With its unique search tool, over 150 eco-friendly resorts and liveaboards to choose from, and a commitment to conserving the marine environment, ZuBlu helps you explore the blue and dive green.

Alex Rose is a biologist, diver, musician, and underwater photographer. She is the Science Editor of Ocean Geographic Magazine, the Managing Editor of Ocean Geographic Explorers, and founder of ocean conservation company Blue Ring. Her driving goal is to find ways to protect our world’s precious marine habitats through diving, writing, photography, education, and research.

Born and raised in Singapore, Dr Andrew Chin is a researcher at James Cook University, Australia. He has won many awards for research excellence and science communication. The current president of the Oceania Chondrichthyan Society, Andrew is a contributor to SportDiving Magazine, and the editor for Pacific Conservation Biology, a scientific journal. Today, Andrew’s research covers shark and ray biology, ecology and conservation. He’s spent the last two years tagging hammerhead sharks and is the programme director of Shark Search Indo-Pacific, a region-wide programme that documents shark and ray diversity and values, country by country.

Anne K Adijuwono is a one of a kind, multi-talented artist from Indonesia who cannot dive without her compact camera. Not only being a professional underwater photographer, she also models, mermaidings and paints her vision of her connection to the underwater world on big canvases and fashion items. She also built huge coral reefs gates from trashed styrofoam and plastic bottles to create awareness. She became ADEX Ocean Artist in 2015. She has prepared 25 hand painted pieces representing the endangered species for ADEX 25th anniversary celebration.

Founder of Ocean Quest Global and ADEX Coral Reef Ambassador since 2013. Creator of the Seashepherd Dive-Coral Propogation Program. Manages Coral Rehabilitation Projects in the South East Asia region.

Benjamin is a marine ecologist specialising in oceanic cetaceans such as whales and dolphins. He has lived and worked in Indonesia for close to two decades, and has an intimate knowledge of the Coral Triangle. As the director of APEX Environmental and co-founder of Planet Deep, he has partnered with government and industrial groups to protect oceanic hotspots for marine life migration in the region. He also serves on two IUCN Commissions and three IUCN Specialist Groups. In his free time, he is an avid diver, blue-water sailor, and novice kite-surfer.

An Indonesian actress and an activist for social justice working with philanthropic organisations, Chelsea helps create the poor to gain access to water, electricity, and improved education. As President and Founder of Youth Of Indonesia, she received the Innovative Young Leader award at the 2017 Southeast Asia Leaders Summit for her contribution to the youth community. Appointed the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Indonesia Sustainable Development Goals Mover and National Ambassador for Goal 14 & 15 (Life on Water & Life on Land), she works with the UNDP by using her massive social media following to raise awareness about sustainable development goals.

Dan Orr, President of Dan Orr Consulting, provides expertise to the global diving community. Retired from the position of President of Divers Alert Network, he has authored over 200 articles, books and manuals. He is the recipient of the NOGI Award and a member of the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.

The Conservation Manager for Scuba Junkie SEAS on Mabul Island, Sabah, Malaysia, David hails from Ireland where he gained his BSc Marine Biology and MSc Environmental Management & Conservation Biology at Queen’s University Belfast. He spent more than a decade working in conservation in Ireland, New Zealand and Malaysia. A former divemaster for Scuba Junkie, he has over 7,000 dives logged in SE Asia, including thousands as a guide at Pulau Sipadan. His current work includes raising awareness of marine conservation issues, as well as developing and implementing solutions.

Denise was honoured to be the first ADEX Ambassador in 1994. She is currently part of the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources campaign for sustainability. As a travel host she is best known for her work on MTV, TLC and Discovery. She won the Best Presenter trophy at the Asian Television Awards for her work on the Passage Series. She was also part of the Climate Reality Project with Al Gore’s global education initiative.

Dr Merrin Pearse is a facilitator and connector with The Purpose Business. He has a wide range of international experience working for Government Departments, SMEs, international companies and NGOs in stakeholder engagement roles, quality assurance, auditing, and sustainability. He brings with him his land surveying and engineering expertise, as well as, his experience in delivering experiential leadership learning programs on sustainability. With a problem-solving engineer’s mind, he is able to come up with alternative scenarios for issues that are being implemented by some of HK and Asia’s well known brands.

Dr Hutchinson has worked as a marine ecologist in the Asia-Pacific region for almost 20 years. He is based at James Cook University in Singapore, coordinating the environmental science program and conducting research on coastal marine ecosystems.  Currently he studies near-threatened sharks and raises awareness of their status in Singapore.

Currently an associate professor at Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, Dr. Suchana Apple Chavanich has a broad base of ecological research interests that involve the study of nearshore species from tropical to polar regions. Her research focuses on conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems particularly on coral reefs and polar regions. She has received the Explorer Award by National Geographic Magazine, Thailand in 2018, the UNESCO- IOC/WESTPAC Outstanding Scientist Award in 2014, and was chosen as one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in Thailand in 2013.

Director of the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Dr. Lin promotes sustainable tourism. He started scuba diving when he was the Director of East Coast National Scenic Area, which covers the east coast of Taiwan and Green Island, two of the most famous scuba diving spots in Taiwan. Dr. Lin works closely with the public sector and volunteers in ocean cleaning and environment protection issues. He also actively promotes ecological sustainability education to local residents and tourists.

Dr. Voranop Viyakarn received his Ph.D. in Fisheries Science at Tokyo University of Fisheries, Japan. He is currently an associate professor and head of the Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. His research interest include conservation and restoration of marine ecosystems and the impact of climate change and marine debris in both tropical and polar regions. He is considered to be Thailand’s first scientist to go to Antarctica with the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition in 2004. Later, in 2018, he is considered to be one of the 2 Thai scientists who conquer diving in both north and south poles. In addition, he is one of Thai researchers who first succeed in coral restoration using sexual propagation technique in Thailand. His research work on Arctic-Antarctica and coral reefs has been well known and has inspired Thai and young people on the value of polar and coral reef ecosystems.

Ernest Goh is a photographer and visual artist whose work looks at natural history and ecological relationships. His animal portraits have been published in The Fish Book (2011), Chickens(COCKS 2013), and The Gift Book (2014). In 2015. Ernest presented Breakfast at 8 Jungle at 9, a participatory artwork interpreting the great British naturalist and explorer, Alfred Russel Wallace’s time in Asia. His work has been commissioned by and installed at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Singapore, collected by the Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, and also resides in corporate, public and private collections internationally.

Eve Young is a freelance writer, Sea Shepherd’s Ocean Quest Trainer, and Ambassador for Swarovski Optik. She is also partnering with Swarovski Optik Marine Conservation Education Programme. She founded the MissVsea Marine Solution Workshop, where she organizes marine conservation forums, sharing research on marine conservation efforts and raising awareness for the protection of the ocean.

Hazel Oakley is the Managing Director of Tracc, the Tropical Research And Conservation Centre. Based on Pulau PomPom, Sabah, Malaysia, Tracc works principally on reef restoration, rebuilding the ecosystem shattered by bomb fishing. They also advocate widely for shark and turtle conservation, sustainable fisheries and alternative livelihoods. Hazel says "All waste leads to the sea. The diving community is united in its commitment to clean seas and that must extend to making low waste choices a way of life."

Hidy started her modelling career when she was just 18, quickly moving on to acting where she starred in eight films. Diving for 13 years, she became a qualified Dive Instructor Trainer by National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), thereafter being named the NAUI Worldwide Ambassador. At the same time, she is a qualified SSI Dive Instructor. Finding her passion for the ocean, she became the 2011 Miss Scuba International Ambassador.

HRH Princess Zatashah received the French highest recognition award Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour) for civil merit in 2017. She is also an environmental activist in Malaysia with her campaign #sayno2plastic since 2016. She has been actively campaigning to the public and has shown tirelessly through her social media to #stopsingleuseplastic. She is also passionate about wildlife preservation and loves to dive; she is currently Sharksavers Malaysia Ambassador against no more sharks fin soup with #ImFINishedwithFINS. Furthermore, she launched her initiative #zerofoodwastage in 2016 getting hotels and supermarkets to channel their surplus food to Kechara Soup Kitchen to feed those in need.

Judi Lowe is an Australian PhD candidate with Southern Cross University. Judi is a social scientist researching the impact of dive tourism on conserving coral reefs and livelihoods for local fishermen. Before commencing her PhD, Judi practiced as an international lawyer specialising in fisheries law enforcement and climate change with the Australian Government. Judi is a Certified Practicing Accountant, a PADI scuba instructor and a commercial coxswain. Judi’s research has been awarded at the highest levels of coral reef science, winning Best PhD Student Presentation from around 500 postgraduate presentations at the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium in Hawaii, 2016.

Kaeshi Chai is a New York City based artist who integrates dance, theatre and teaching to empower and shift consciousness through performance projects such as “Ocean Stories” and PURE (Public Urban Ritual Experiment). She produces the annual PURE Conference focused on topics like Love, Peaceful Warrior and the five elements. She is the artistic director of Bellyqueen, the school and dance company, and facilitates creative labs in which participants generate full-length theatrical dance shows in three to four days.

Laura Francois is a leading environmental creative based in Singapore. She is the country coordinator of global non-profit Fashion Revolution in Singapore, co-founder of Clothing The Loop and ANEWKIND. Both are empowering organisations which globally to think circularly and holistically about social and environmental impact. Laura has been featured on BBC News, Forbes and The Ellen MacArthur Foundation Disruptive Innovation Festival.

Louise Hardman is an Environmental Science/Chemistry teacher, started Plastic Collective in 2016, to provide waste plastic solutions for remote and islands communities through education, technology and empowerment. Her goal is to provide Resource Recovery micro-enterprises for the 4000 inhabited islands throughout Asia-Pacific region where waste plastic pollution is prolific.

Mark Rausch, (HSA) Handicap Scuba Association Course Director, a Michigan native, started travelling the world, putting Handicap Scuba Association (HAS) programmes into the lives of the people after his son was born with disability (and subsequently passed away.) This was so that they could enrich the lives of disabled individuals through the recreational sport of Scuba Diving. An old man once told Mark when he was diving in the Maldives: “A person can do great things, if they don’t care who gets the credit.”

Artist Mary Sayre is known for her sea life and waterscape paintings. Her love of the ocean is illustrated in oils on canvas and acrylics on marble. Her innovative art form utilizes the veins of the crystalline in the marble creating an elegant yet organic canvas. Her works are exhibited and collected internationally. Scuba diver, sailor, avid traveler and passionate artist, Mary recently traveled to Indonesia serving as “Artist of the Exhibition” with the Ocean Geographic Elysium – Heart of The Triangle Expedition.

Max Ammer, the founder of Papua Diving, first came to the region more than 25 years ago following his passion to search for submerged World War II aircrafts. After spending some time in Raja Ampat Max fell in love with the Papuan people and started a number of initiatives to support the local Papuan communities. Papua Diving was one of the projects. The mission: to bring much needed money to the local people by enabling divers who had never heard of the region to be amazed by the wonders of the unspoiled aquatic world here.

Originally from the north of England, Mik moved to Phuket in 2003 to become a dive instructor and has never looked back. After spending almost 8 years as a cruise director in Thailand, Burma, and the Andaman Islands, he hung up his professional fins and joined Worldwide Dive and Sail in 2011. After joining the company to look after bookings on Philippine Siren, Mik climbed the ranks and now oversees all the commercial activity both for and within blue o two Dive Travel and WWDAS.

Exposed to the ocean since young, Chin is an avid scuba diver diving for 19 years. After 2 years massively volunteering with Trash Hero Borneo, now she set herself onto a bigger platform – Marine & Environmental Research, Education & Conservation Centre at Dinawan Island.  As an influential Women Diver in North Borneo and conservationist, she wants to inspire more people raise awareness to protect the underwater world and educate the young generation.  She quoted Ocean is not our Garbage Bin!

Pete has been around the ocean his entire life, whether surfing, diving or boating. Frustrated with the shocking infestation of plastics in the oceans, Pete used his background of product design to develop a trash bin for the water. The Seabin is now a reality and bins are installed across the globe cleaning the oceans 24/7. The Seabin Project gathers data on debris and micro plastics collected. The Seabin Foundation now supports extensive research into ocean plastics, and runs education programmes.

Robert Scales is a Canadian living in Bali since 2011. He is the co-founder of Ceningan Divers and Ceningan Resort, a Green Fins eco-friendly PADI 5 Star Dive Resort based on a small island located on the east coast of Bali. Scales is a former media executive and college professor. He is passionate about sustainable development and conservation. Robert is a repeated ADEX speaker, over the past years he has shared his sustainable tourism and best business practices knowledge with our audience. He is the co-founder of the Trash Hero Ceningan chapter, they conduct weekly street, beach and mangrove clean ups. He describe himself as a simplicity expert, resort owner, scuba diver, dungeon master, renaissance man & bon vivant!

The Philippines archipelago, in the heart of the coral triangle, offers diverse divers the chance to immerse in incredibly diverse diving. From Whale Sharks to Pygmy Squid, pristine reefs and dramatic drop offs, critter diving and Japanese WWII wrecks, between over 7000 islands, we have it all! Join to learn where we dive with various sharks, frog fish and more among the Philippines dive destinations. Escaping the corporate world to chase sand grains around the world, Roni has guided divers, and held marketing and management roles in various aquatic nations of Caribbean, Central America, SE Asia and the Pacific. Roni leads Atlantis Dive Resorts and Liveaboard Philippines partnerships in Asia and Europe, and resides in Visayas, Philippines.

Sarah-Jo Lobwein is an avid SCUBA diver, marine scientist, volunteer, teacher and traveller, and as a passionate conservation educator she has globally experienced first hand the beauty and pressure fragile marine and coastal environments face, and believes education is essential for attitude and behaviour change. Founder of Ocean Tidings, and the Australian non-profits Plastic Free Sutherland Shire and SO Shire, she promotes and advises initiatives to increase the sustainable practices of businesses and individuals in their journey in waste and pollution reduction, focusing on ocean positive and marine debris #swapforthesea solutions through the awareness of alternatives or ‘simple swaps’ to single use disposable plastic consumption in our everyday lives to stop the seas drowning in plastic.

Ar. Tan Szue Hann, M. Arch, Managing Director of MINIWIZ Singapore, an award-winning global Circular Economy RD&D design firm. He also conducts Design Studio as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Architecture & Sustainable Design Pillar, Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD). Szue Hann graduated with M Arch from the National University of Singapore (NUS), with a visiting fellowship to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2007. He was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Medal, Board of Architects Prize, and the ICI Gold Medal. A registered architect, Board Member of the Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), and Council Member and Chairman, Sustainability, of the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), Szue Hann is also an appointed World Cities Summit Young Leader (from 2016), and BCA Built Environment Young Leader (from 2016), both by the Ministry of National Development.

Founder of Seven Clean Seas, Tom has lived in S.E.A for 6 years and travelled extensively off the beaten track. Having encountered shocking amounts of marine pollution seemingly everywhere, it was clear that he needed to join the fight against ocean plastic. Seven Clean Seas has removed over 12,000kg of plastic from the marine environment to date and are just getting started.

Wayne Sentman is Oceanic Society’s director of conservation travel programs and an experienced naturalist. He has a diverse background in the recovery of threatened and endangered species, and researching marine plastic pollution. In 2013, Wayne completed his master’s degree in Sustainability and Environmental Management at Harvard University. In his role at Oceanic Society, Wayne designs mission-driven expeditions that support conservation and research of marine species and habitats and strive to deliver transformational experiences that motivate public behaviour changes for marine conservation.

Yanitza, founder of Save The Plastic, is a marine conservationist. Since 2013, she has devoted her life to protecting the ocean with the New Heaven Reef Conservation Programme in Thailand and Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. With an Ocean Policy degree from the University of Hawaii, she has decided to combine, develop and apply her experience to follow her heart and spread her knowledge and respect for the ocean by giving communities the skills they need to implement change. Marine plastic pollution alleviation is her motto!