THE
Advisory Board
CORDIO employs a vertically integrated, research-based approach to marine conservation, ensuring tangible benefits for local communities. Our commitment to environmental stewardship, led and guided by a team of scientists, positions CORDIO uniquely to enact lasting change and advocate for sustainable conservation practices.”
Grant Ramnauth
chair, advisory board
Grant Ramnauth
Mauritius
Grant Ramnauth is a multi-cultural dual-national Mauritian/French who moved to the USA at a young age and has spent the last 30 years between the UK, France, Mauritius and Southern Africa. He joined CORDIO's Advisory Board in 2022 and was appointed Chair in 2024. He is currently Global Business Development for Skybound Capital having previously been a Senior Partner of St. James’s Place Wealth Management, a FTSE 100. Prior to that, he worked at HSBC. Grant has a bachelor's from London University in Science, an MBA in Investment/Finance from Hartford University USA, is a qualified and licenced UK Financial advisor, and a licenced Investment advisor in Mauritius. Growing up in the USA, Jacques Cousteau became his hero. A TV programme "The undersea world of Jacques Cousteau” set the scene for his passion of our ocean world. As an avid diver/seaman, he is a passionate about protecting the ocean for future generations.
Ali Kaka
Kenya
Ali Kaka is a well-known and prominent conservationist in East and Southern Africa, and now serves on several Boards in East and Southern Africa, and Europe. Ali was born and raised in Mombasa and received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado (Boulder), USA. Ali started his career as a Research Assistant in the then Wildlife Conservation and Management Department in 1977 and was promoted through to Warden of Kisite Marine Park in 1989, and later Senior Warden for all marine Parks. Ali left Kenya Wildlife Service in 2000 as a Deputy Director for Parks and joined East African Wildlife Society as its Executive Director. In 2009 Ali was recruited to take over the new region of East and Southern Africa for IUCN. He left IUCN in 2015 to a Senior Consultant role at Adept Conservation, before becoming Senior Wildlife Advisor to the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.
Nicola Frost
UK
Nicola Frost is the Deputy Director of the Ocean Program at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and lives in Cambridge UK. She also serves as the Deputy Head of Secretariat for the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. As a marine scientist, Nicola has experience working in over 20 different country contexts with a range of partners at local, municipal and regional scales to design effective marine protection, with a particular emphasis on community-led or co-managed marine areas, sustainable fisheries and strategies to stop plastics entering the ocean. Prior to joining WRI, she was of the Head of Global Marine Programme for Fauna & Flora International overseeing the development of a global marine programme. Formerly Acting Director of the International Coral Reef Action Network, Nicola supported an applied global learning network for coral reef research, management and education. Nic has a degree in Marine Science from the University of Southampton, UK.
Paul Guyo
Kenya
Paul Mwashimba Guyo is a Professor in Chemistry and is Dean of the School of Pure and Applied Sciences at Pwani University in Kilifi.
Gretta Pecl, AM
Australia
Gretta Pecl is a Professor of marine ecology at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), and the Director of the Centre for Marine Socioecology (CMS), which leads the Future Seas collaboration project, at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She is a marine ‘generalist’ with broad interdisciplinary research interests, building on a background in population dynamics, fisheries biology, and movement and migration of commercial species. She currently focuses on species and ecosystem responses to climate change, and the development of adaptation options for natural resource management. She has a specific interest in exploring the mechanisms and processes underpinning climate-driven species redistribution, and the ecosystem implications of these, including initiating and co-convening the ‘Species on the Move‘ conferences. Gretta also has a very strong passion for science communication and engagement with the public, globally and nationally, and including local grass-roots efforts with school children.