Matt Rand directs the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Project, an initiative in which Pew and the Bertarelli Foundation work with citizens, governments, and scientists around the globe to protect and conserve some of the world’s most important marine environments by increasing the number of fully protected parks in the sea from nine to 15 by 2022. He also oversees other large-scale marine protection initiatives, and previously launched and directed Pew’s global shark conservation efforts.
Before coming to Pew, Rand spent 10 years with the National Environmental Trust, primarily managing the Conserve Our Ocean Legacy campaign, which achieved reforms of the marine conservation requirements in the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. He also led a campaign to oppose biotechnology in agriculture and worked at the Environmental Defense Fund as senior director of campaigns in the oceans program.
Rand holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental resources management from Pennsylvania State University.