Laura Whitford is the Director of Conservation Partnerships for The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Program. She leads a regional team focused on public and corporate partnerships, as well as TNC’s engagement with the Asian Development Bank. She has worked in the Asia Pacific region for over 15 years, on partnerships, policy and programs that support the joint achievement of sustainable natural resource management, resilience, equity and economic development goals. She is particularly passionate about the intersection of issues relating to environment, climate and gender.

At the age of 19, Daniela founded Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) as a college-room idea at Georgetown University. Six years later, she has built SOA into a global organization that is cultivating and accelerating innovative solutions to protect and sustain the health of the ocean. With phenomenal speed, SOA has created the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders - by establishing a presence in over 165 countries and has successfully launched the world’s first Ocean Solutions Accelerator to develop technological solutions that can address the greatest threats facing our planet.