Present and Former Executive Directors
Executive Director
Starting Date: March 11, 2024
Ending Date: March 11, 2028
Prior joining the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat Dr. Griffin has led and represented UPNG and SPREP at national, regional and international meetings. Dr. Griffin have over 20 years' experience of working in government, intergovernmental, and/or international organization. Dr. Griffin also has vast experience in managing, maintain and establishing partnership in work area pertinent to the organizations that he has worked for. Partnership including JICA, AusAID, NZAID, AFD, EU etc. Dr. Griffin leadership approach is about inclusiveness, he works with people and empower them to excel in their positions.
Dr. Griffin holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of York in England; a Master of Science from the Australian National University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Science and Bachelor of Science, both from the University of Papua New Guinea. In the last 20 years, he has expanded his knowledge base and experience to cover terrestrial and marine science, environment, international and regional relations, public policy, public administration and laws and regulations that not only govern organizations but also regional and international frameworks and conventions.
Acting Executive Director
Starting Date: November 11, 2023
Ending Date: March 11, 2024
Dr. Dr. Christovel Rotinsulu was appointed as the Acting Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat upon the authorization by the CTI-CFF Chair of the Committee of Senior Officials from 8th November 2023 until the new Executive Director arrived. For 4 months, he held the AED position where she was concurrently also the Deputy Executive Director for Program Services (DED PS).
Christovel Rotinsulu is a Marine Resources Management professional with over 20 years field experience in marine ecosystem-based management, marine biodiversity conservation, sustainable fisheries management, protected area surveillance, ecological and socio-economic research, and natural resource governance.
Prior to joining the Regional Secretariat, Chris served consultancy in Fisheries Governance Advisor, provided technical advice for co-management in South Misool Marine Protected Area in Raja Ampat, West Papua, as well for the UNDP-UNODC. His long portfolio is in conducting research and coordinating projects and programs of multi-stakeholders both at local and region level.
Executive Director
Starting Date: November 8, 2019
Ending Date: November 8, 2023
Dr. Mohd Kushairi Bin Mohd Rajuddin is the Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat. He was inaugurated as new head of the Secretariat during the 15th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM-15) in Honiara, Solomon Islands last 8 November 2019. Dr. Mohd Kushairi obtained his PhD in Ecology and MSc, in Tropical Coastal Management from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK in 1997 ad 1990, respectively. He obtained his BSc. in Fisheries from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) in 1983. He is a qualified SCUBA diver instructor from PADI US since 2003, and actively diving since 1984.
Dr. Mohd Kushairi has a total of over 35 years working experience, 18 years in the government and the remaining, in teaching and consultation works. Prior to joining CTI-CFF, he worked as a Professor of Science at UNISEL, a private university under the Selangor State of Malaysia. His area of specialization is on coastal ecosystem management, rehabilitation and conservation, namely the coral reef and island ecosystems. He had been the principal researcher and co-researcher to many works, which included those from government research grant and international collaboration research. To date, Dr. Mohd Kushairi has published more than 50 papers in journals and conferences.
Interim Executive Director
Starting Date: October 1, 2018
Ending Date: November 8, 2019
Dr. Hendra Yusran Siry was appointed as the Interim Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat from 1 October 2018 until 8 November 2019 when the new Executive Director has been inaugurated during the 15th Senior Officials Meeting (SOM-15) last 8 November 2019.
Prior to joining the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat, Dr. Hendra assumed several leadership roles as a Deputy Director for Coastal Disaster Mitigation and Climate Change Adaptation of the Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) for eight years and Deputy Director for Spatial and Zoning Plans Region II for almost a year in the same ministry. He was responsible in developing strategic inputs and recommendations; providing policy coordination and technical advice/support for the formulation of standard operating procedures (SOPs); overseeing partnership management and resource mobilization; including managing development, implementation and management of programs in coastal disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation.
He completed his PhD under the Resources Management in Asia-Pacific Program (RMAP), Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) of the Australian National University under the Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) and holds a Master Degree from the School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) – Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) with the support of the Ford Foundation Grant, AIT Partial Scholarship and CUC-CIDA Assistantship programs. He was the recipient of numerous academic grants such as the United Nations – Nippon Foundation Fellow, Asian Scholarship Fellow, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Fellow and Ford Foundation. Dr. Hendra was part of the CTI-CFF Interim Regional Secretariat and member of Transition Team of CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat. He served as Secretary for Coordination and External Affairs from January 2013 up to March 2015 when the permanent Regional Secretariat was established.
Acting Executive Director
Starting Date: July 4, 2018
Ending Date: September 30, 2018
Dr. Sharifah Nora Ibrahim was appointed as the Acting Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat upon the authorization by the CTI-CFF Chair of the Committee of Senior Officials from 4th July 2018 until an Interim Executive Director was sent in. For 3 months, she held the AED position where she was concurrently also the Deputy Executive Director for Program Services (DED PS).
Dr. Nora Ibrahim’s leadership during the 3-month transition has resulted in several achievements at the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat. As the Acting Executive Director, Dr. Nora Ibrahim has successfully facilitated two audits processes as tasked by SOM 2017 and Special SOM 2018, secured funds from USAID for Strategic Assessments consultancies, secured funds from the Australian Government as partial support for a CTI-CFF Seascape Meeting, secured funds from USAID for the Preparatory SOM and MM meetings (PREP-SOMMM) to help smoothen the upcoming Senior Officials Meeting and Ministerial Meeting. At the PREP-SOMMM, the strategic analyses report and draft audit reports were presented. She also assisted the RPOA Review process in her capacity as the RPOA Review Manager in the RPOA Review Steering Committee. Dr. Nora now continues her original functions as DED PS after the Interim Executive Director arrived in October.
Executive Director
Starting Date: April 1, 2015
Ending Date: June 10, 2018
Dr. Widi Agus Pratikto was appointed as Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat in April 2015. He was instrumental in ensuring the smooth transition process from the Interim to the permanent Regional Secretariat and development of CTI-CFF activities and programs in pursuing the Regional Plan of Action (RPOA).
He also ensured the development of cooperation arrangements with other regional/international organizations as well as funding and development agencies such as Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), Coral Triangle Center, Deutsche Gesellschaft fÜr Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH/GIZ, and Pacific Regional Environment Program to ensure continuous implementation of the RPOA. During his term, partnership with 13 universities was established to promote marine conservation, sustainable fisheries, and food security through educational and professional accredited capacity building, research, and outreach activities within Ct6 member countries under the CTI framework.
To facilitate and support Regional and National programs, Dr. Pratikto with support from the Secretariat helped ensure the establishment of practicable protocol and standard procedures for communication management and coordination mechanism structure within the CTI organization; such as CTI-COM, CTI-CSO, the office of the NCCS, TWGs, GWGs, Cross-cutting themes as well as CTI Partners and Collaborators