He provided insights on the role of individuals, or institutional entrepreneurs, in developing new ideas and strategies for change, identifying barriers and leverage points, creating networks, seizing windows of opportunity and brokering across organizational levels.

He also talked about how he used his experiences from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, in the work in international contexts such as the Coral Triangle Initiative and  WWF Global Marine Program.

About John Tanzer
John Tanzer has high level experience in both fisheries and marine protected area management and policy, a combination that provides a useful basis for working on more integrated approaches to marine conservation. In 1998 he was appointed as Executive Director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). In this position he was responsible for the oversight of the spatial rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This initiative has been widely acknowledged domestically and internationally as the most comprehensive and successful example of large marine ecosystem based conservation ever devised, politically supported and implemented.