Irene Øvstebø Tvedten

Senior Advisor Maritime, The Bellona Foundation

Irene Øvstebø Tvedten is a Senior Advisor Maritime in the Bellona Foundation, which is an environmental NGO with main office in Oslo. Tvedten has a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Oslo. In Bellona, Tvedten works on the Clean Hull Initiative (CHI) to promote sufficiently frequent and safe in-water cleaning. Tvedten is also the project leader of a new ISO standard on in-water cleaning.

Lilia Khodjet El Khil

GloFouling Project Technical Manager, GEF-UNDP-IMO GloFouling Partnerships

After obtaining with honors her PhD in Maritime Law in France, Dr Lilia Khodjet El Khil joined the IMO's  Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC) where she spent nine years supporting Mediterranean coastal States to strengthen their capacity and implement regulations and best practices for marine environmental protection. Lilia was awarded the “Mérite Maritime” from the French government in recognition of her work at REMPEC.

In 2010, Lilia relocated to Montreal, Canada, where she joined the Shipping Federation of Canada, a trade association representing international shipping in Canada, to lead on environment files. During her time with the Shipping Federation of Canada, she engaged with Governments on policy developments, advocated for shipping and guided members through complex regulatory and compliance issues. She later joined the CSL Group Inc., a major Canadian shipping company operating domestically and worldwide, where she held the position of Manager, Sustainability and Government Relations, to implement  a sustainable development  strategy across  the company and also advocate for domestic shipping's interests.

In 2016 Lilia launched her own consultancy business, Maritimis Consulting to provide services to the industry, governments and non-for-profit organizations on environment issues related to shipping. In June 2019, she joined the International maritime Organisation to lead the execution of a multiyear flagship IMO project dealing with marine biosafety, namely the GloFouling Partnerships project.