Thematic Vice Chair, Marine. Felipe Paredes is a marine biologist from Chile, with more than 20 years of experience in scientific research, education and marine conservation public policy. He is currently the National Coordinator of the Marine Protected Areas of the Chilean Ministry of Environment, a MPA systems that covers more than 43% of the Chilean oceans. He has extensive experience in marine protected areas, leading the designation, planning and implementation processes of MPAs in Rapa Nui, Juan Fernandez and Chilean Patagonia, among others, and coordinating the National MPA committee of Chile. He also leads a GEF project on marine and coastal ecosystems governance. In 2017 he organized the 4th International Marine Protected Areas Congress IMPAC4 in La Serena, Chile and today coordinates the CPPS Southeast Pacific MPA working group. In 2019 he coodinated the marine theme of IUCN´s 3rd Latin American and Caribbean Protected Areas Congress III CAPLAC in Lima, Perú. Felipe is a marine biologist from the University of Valparaiso, Master in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island and PhD in Marine Biology from the University of Maine.

Thematic Vice Chair, Marine.
Fabrice Stephenson is a marine ecologist from France and the United Kingdom. He has primarily worked on understanding the distribution and ecology of organisms that live on or near the seafloor. Using statistical modelling approaches, he has developed science that aims to inform strategic policy approaches to managing the marine environment, in particular the development of marine spatial plans. Using a systematic conservation planning approach, he has contributed both as a researcher and then as the New Zealand Head of Delegation, to the science that informed the development of a marine spatial plan for deepwater fisheries in the South Pacific RFMO area while mitigating the impacts of bottom fisheries to Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs). From 2020 – 2023 he co-led an interdisciplinary research project ( Communicating risk and uncertainty to aid decision-making, University of Waikato, New Zealand) which aimed to develop decision-making practices that were more inclusive and multi-sectorial and that explicitly identify risk and knowledge uncertainty in a way that reduces risks to ecological, social, cultural and economic wellbeing. He is currently undertaking a 5-year interdisciplinary research fellowship at Newcastle University which aims to develop improved approaches for estimating spatial distributions of ecosystem services under a changing climate and how these data can inform coherent, efficient and equitable resource management.