Transform Aqorau started his public service career in 1988 as Legal Officer with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he served for 10 years, leaving the Ministry as Acting Deputy Secretary. In that capacity he was involved in a range bilateral maritime boundary, and regional fisheries negotiations, representing the Solomon Islands Government in the negotiations of the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement, and also at the 1992 UN Conference. He later joined the Forum Fisheries Agency as Legal Counsel and Deputy Director-General, and was involved in the negotiations to establish the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC). He also served as International Legal Adviser to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat in Fiji. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) Office in Majuro, Marshall Islands, and in getting the Vessel Day Scheme to be fully functional with hard limits. He has been directly involved in ocean and fisheries related issues in the Pacific Islands region, through the Solomon Islands Government, and regional organizations. He helped established Pacific Catalyst, a research consortium aimed at developing the next generation of fisheries thought leaders in the Pacific Islands. He is currently working as Legal Adviser to the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, and Professor/Director of the Institute for Oceans, Islands and Sustainable Development (IOISD) at the Solomon Islands National University (SINU). He currently serves as a Board Member of the International Seafood Sustainability (ISSF) and Oxfam International. He has written and published extensively on a range of fisheries and oceans governance issues, including writing a book titled "Fishing for Success: Lessons for Pacific Regionalism", published by the ANU Department of Pacific Affairs.

Tuiloma Neroni Slade was one of the first elected Judges of the International Criminal Court and to take office in 2003 in The Hague, The Netherlands. In earlier years, for interims periods, he had served as Acting Chief Justice of Samoa. Judge Slade has had an extensive career, internationally and in Samoa and the Pacific region: the first Samoan to be appointed as Attorney-General; senior counsel in the Legal Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London; Samoa’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations based in New York, and concurrently Ambassador to the USA and to Canada; a Presiding Judge of the International Criminal Court, The Hague; and as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat based in Suva, Fiji. In his earlier career, from 1973-1976 he was leader of Samoa's delegation to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Over the years he has been involved in various Law of the Sea aspects and processes, including as Co-Chairman of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and Law of the Sea, New York, from 2000-2002.

Dr Manumatavai Tupou-Roosen is the first woman to be appointed the Director General of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency. She was appointed unanimously by the Fisheries Ministers at the conclusion of the 15th Forum Fisheries Committee Ministerial meeting in Cook Islands in 2018. Dr Tupou-Roosen has researched and worked in fisheries for over 20 years, including over a decade as the FFA Legal Counsel.  She gained a Masters of Law in 1997 under a New Zealand scholarship, focusing on international fisheries and achieved First Class Honours. She was also awarded a PhD in Law in 2004 under a Commonwealth Scholarship, with a focus on international and regional fisheries compliance.

Dr Camille Goodman is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong, and a Visiting Fellow at the ANU College of Law, where she completed her PhD in 2019. From 2005 to 2020, Camille worked at the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, providing legal and policy advice to the Australian Government, with a particular focus on law of the sea and international fisheries law. Her first book, ‘Coastal State Jurisdiction Over Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone’ was published by OUP in November 2021.