Speaker — Neptune Forum 2026
Sophie Seeyave
CEO of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO)
Introduction and moderation — Executive Director, Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO)
Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO)
Sophie Seeyave is the CEO of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK. She provides leadership to POGO, an international organisation and UK charity, whose membership consists of 59 oceanographic research institutions in 34 countries, working together towards global ocean observations, through innovation, capacity development and outreach/advocacy. She has been involved in the development and oversight of scientific programmes such as the International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE) and the Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON), and previously the GEO Blue Planet Initiative, for which she served as Co-Chair from 2016 to 2020. She is also actively engaged with other international and intergovernmental initiatives, such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO), the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She holds a BSc in Oceanography and PhD in Marine Ecology from the University of Southampton (UK).
