Bureau Speakers

click on the photograph of the Speaker for the bio.

Mr. Douglas Woodring the Founder of Ocean Recovery Alliance, a non-profit organization which is focused on bringing innovative solutions, technology, collaborations and policy together to impact positive improvements for the health of the ocean. Two of its global programs were launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2010, the Global Alert platform, and the Plastic Disclosure Project. In 2008 he co-founded Project Kaisei, which focused on the plastic in the North Pacific Gyre, and he is a UNEP Climate Hero for his efforts. Mr. Woodring has been on the advisory board of the XPrize, and The Economist’s World Oceans Summit, and in 2011, he co-authored the United Nations Environmental Program Yearbook chapter on the danger of plastic in the ocean. The group is the first NGO in the world to be working with both UNEP and the World Bank on plastic pollution and ocean issues. He is on the Advisory Committee of Wharton’s Institute for Global Environmental Leadership, and is the founder of the Plasticity Forum, first launched at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, and since held in Hong Kong, New York and Portugal, with the event focusing on the future of plastic, and where the leaders are going with solutions, innovations, and opportunities, for a world with a reduced waste footprint. He also runs the only ocean film festival in Asia, the Ocean in Motion Film Festival, which was also just launched in Portugal, as well as Kids Ocean Day in Asia. He is a much sought after speaker at major environmental conferences, universities and corporate programs.

 

Mr. Woodring has worked in Asia for over 20 years in a number of industries which have been at the forefront of technology within their sectors, mainly related to the environment and new media platforms. Prior to working with technology startups, while at Merrill Lynch Asset Management Hong Kong in 1998, he proposed the company’s first global environmental technology fund which was later launched in 2001. He started his career in Japan, working for one of the largest fishing companies in the world, which is partly where his drive for ocean protection originates.

 

Mr. Woodring is active in the environmental community, and has been the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce’s Environmental Committee in Hong Kong, and helped to start the Hong Kong Shark Foundation, dealing with the overfishing of sharks around the world. He has been nominated three times as World Open Water Swimmer of the Year for his innovative contributions to the sport, and was recently named as one of the top 50 “watermen” in the world. He is also part of the World Open Water Swim Series organizing team.

 

Born in Northern California, Mr. Woodring has a dual master’s degree from The Wharton School (MBA) and Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he studied Environmental Economics. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.