Our Ocean Day Partners

Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda currently serves as Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth & Job Creation. He is assigned portfolio responsibilities for Water, Environment, Climate Change, and the Blue & Green Economies.

Minister Samuda was honoured with the privilege of serving Jamaica through his appointment to the Cabinet of Jamaica, which is the executive arm of the state. This had followed his appointment to the Upper House as a Senator.

Over the years, he has been consistent 

in abiding by the principle of environmental preservation and protection. In 2016, he led the tabling of a private members’ motion in the Jamaican Parliament which resulted in the ban on single-use plastic and “Styrofoam” in 2019.

Minister Samuda resides in Kingston, Jamaica, and attended Campion College and the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Judith Slater succeeded Asif Ahmad CMG as British High Commissioner to Jamaica on October 13th, 2021. She’s the first woman British High Commissioner to Jamaica.

Judith was Consulate-General in Istanbul. Prior to this, she was Deputy High Commissioner and South East Asia Regional Director of Trade and Investment in Singapore until September 2015.

Her previous posts include Deputy High Commissioner in Pretoria, South Africa from 2007-2011 and British Consul-General in Houston, Texas from 2004-2007. In the FCDO in London, Judith’s posts have included Private Secretary to the Minister of State responsible for relations with Asia and Head of Nuclear Policy Section in Non-Proliferation Department. She has also had overseas postings in New Delhi and Canberra.

Judith has a law degree from St John’s College, Cambridge. She attended Howell’s School, Denbigh. She is married to Philip, a Recruitment Consultant and has two children aged 16 and 13. In her spare time she enjoys golf, tennis, jogging, cinema and supporting Stoke City FC.

Ambassador Olivier Guyonvarch currently serves as Ambassador of France in Jamaica and Permanent Representative to the International Seabed Authority since October 2021. He is a career diplomat specializing on China, Asia, the Law of the Sea and Polar affairs.

Ambassador Guyonvarch started his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France (Quai d’Orsay) in 1996 within the Department of Financial and Budgetary Affairs (1996-1998) and was subsequently appointed Vice-Consul of the Consulate General of France in Wuhan, China. (1998-2001). He returned to Paris to work within the Asia Directorate as Desk Officer (2001-2005). He was then posted to the Embassy of France in Beijing from 2005 to 2008 as the Head of the Press and Communications Section, and later at the Embassy of France in Singapore as Deputy Head of Mission (2008-2012).

Ambassador Guyonvarch served as the Assistant Director for the Law of the Sea, River Law and Polar Affairs, within the Legal Affairs Department in Paris (2012-2016), before returning to Beijing in 2016-2017 as Advisor to the Ambassador on questions of international law and security. He was then appointed as Consul General of France in Wuhan (2017-2021), a period marked by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the city.

Rear Admiral Brady has 34 years of military. experience, having served at the highest capacity as Chief of Staff of theJamaica Defence Force. He is the Director General of the Maritime Authority ofJamaica. He is a graduate of the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, was awarded a post-graduate degree in Maritime Management from Dalhousie University, Canada, and has received several accolades including the Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, Commander of the Order of Distinction, and the Legion of Merit (Commander, USA).

He is a Governor of the Board of the World Maritime University (WMU), and its Vice Chair. He was the Chair of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Standards of Training and Watchkeeping Sub Committee for 10 terms and has served as guest lecturer in Maritime Safety Administration at WMU and for Maritime Security at Dalhousie University, Canada. He is a Council member of the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), the Chair of the National Hydrographic Committee of Jamaica, Vice Chair of the National Council on Ocean and Coastal Zone Management (Jamaica) and Honorary Consul in Jamaica for the Principality of Monaco.

Dr. David Smith has over 30 years post-doctoral working experience, in academia, civil society, the private sector and the United Nations; focusing on Sustainable Development, Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Currently, he directs the Centre for Environmental Management and Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at The University of the West Indies. He was a member of the Independent Group of Scientists which produced the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019. He is the Caribbean Chair for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a member of its academic advisory committee. He is also a member of the Science-Policy Advisory Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research and an Associate Editor of the Journal Environmental Policy and Law.

David has moblised resources for National Capacity Self Assessments, National Biodiversity and Action Plans, Protected Areas and the obligations of Jamaica and the Bahamas under the Montréal Protocol. He also established the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme for Jamaica and managed its establishment in the Bahamas.

He has served as president of the Caribbean Conservation Association, served on the Association’s board for five years and was a regional Councilor and committee chair for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. He has also served as the Executive Director of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust and sat on several Jamaica government policy development committees and the Council of the Private Sector Organization of Jamaica.

 Kristeena Monteith is the Communications and Advocacy Officer at the United Nations Environment Programme - Cartagena Convention Secretariat. Her work primarily supports the Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities (LBS Protocol) to the Cartagena Convention, with a specific focus on plastic pollution and marine litter.