Torsten Thiele is the founder of Global Ocean Trust and an expert in ocean governance and sustainable blue finance. He advises international bodies on ocean policy, marine biodiversity and innovative financing for ocean solutions, serving as Senior Advisor on Blue Finance to the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance and as Strategic Advisor to the IUCN Blue Natural Capital Financing Facility.
He came to ocean work after more than 20 years in project, technology and infrastructure finance with leading financial institutions, and has since spent a decade in ocean research. He is an Affiliate Scholar at the Research Institute for Sustainability at the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam and an Honorary Fellow of Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and his recent publications cover coastal infrastructure finance, nature-based solutions, high-seas finance and blue bonds. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge, the University of Bonn and Harvard University, including an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from Cambridge.
Torsten brings to OceanWell’s Advisory Board the governance and finance perspective that infrastructure in the ocean requires: how projects at sea are permitted, financed and held to environmental standards, and how blue finance can fund water infrastructure that works with the ocean rather than against it.
