Maria Damanaki
| Maria Damanaki Μαρία Δαμανάκη |
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|---|---|
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| Global Managing Director for Oceans, The Nature Conservancy | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
18 October 1952 Agios Nikolaos, Greece |
| Political party |
Communist Party (Before 1991) Synaspismós (1991–2003) Panhellenic Socialist Movement (2003–present) |
| Alma mater |
National Technical University of Athens Lancaster University |
Maria Damanaki (Greek: Μαρία Δαμανάκη) is the Global Managing Director for Oceans at The Nature Conservancy.
Damanaki leads a global team focused on how the world manages its oceans, including sustainable fisheries management, large-scale protection and restoration of coral reefs and other ecosystems, coastal resilience, and mapping and quantification of the full value of the world’s oceans to people.
She most recently served for four years as European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
In her role as Commissioner, the EU was able to bring fish populations back to healthier levels—from five sustainable stocks in 2010 to up to 27 in 2014. In just the next five years, the continuation of her fisheries policy efforts could lead to 15 million more tons of fish in the sea, 30 percent more jobs in Europe and the equivalent of over US $2 billion in additional revenue. She also introduced and implemented the Blue Growth agenda for Seas and Oceans in Europe, which aimed to create 1.6 million new jobs and the equivalent of US $750 billion in revenue by 2020 in sectors such as coastal tourism, ocean energy, and marine biotechnology. In addition, she established legislation to create a common framework for Marine Spatial Planning to map and better manage maritime activities across EU countries.
She is a Greek politician, including former president of the Synaspismos party of the left and former state member of the Hellenic Parliament within the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK).
Damanaki was born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, in 1952, and studied chemical engineering in the National Technical University of Athens. As a student, she became a member of the Communist Youth of Greece, the youth section of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), but also became actively involved in the antidictatorial struggle and took part in the Athens Polytechnic uprising. Damanaki was the voice of the famous "Εδώ Πολυτεχνείο" ("This is the Polytechnic") radio broadcast from within the uprising, calling Greek citizens out to support; she was arrested and tortured by the regime.
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