It has been one week since OCEANA’s Vice President in Belize, Audrey Matura Shepherd moved away from OCEANA to take up legal practice. Matura-Shepherd had resigned two months ago and today, one of OCEANA’s leaders held a press conference to discuss how far they have reached with finding a replacement. Alex Munoz, OCEANA’s Vice President for South America, said at a press conference today that he is here to search for Matura-Shepherd’s replacement and that the title of the post is no longer Vice President in Belize but Country Director.
ALEX MUNOZ
“WE are very impressed by the quality of the applicants and we are very optimistic of the new office in Belize. We are looking for a Belizean citizen, who has either been born here in Belize or has spent her life here so everybody knows it would be a local; we are not going to bring somebody from outside to lead the Oceana office in Belize. We are looking for a strong leader, someone who is passionate about the oceans, that is knowledgeable about the many threats that are affecting the oceans like oil drilling and over fishing. My role is just to supervise; I will not be the country leader and the new leader will have full authority to define those priorities which we expect to continue; we have a good set of campaigns and we don’t expect much change except maybe to expand our operations here.”
Munoz said that OCEANA is pleased with Matura-Shepherd’s accomplishments over the past four years with the organization.
ALEX MUNOZ
“We’re very satisfied with the contribution that Oceana has made in Belize; we want to build on those successes; we want to stay here and we want to keep bringing our team of scientists, lawyers and other professionals in order to be more effective. Our agenda will not change; we are still engaged in our campaign against offshore oil drilling and we want to make important changes to the fisher’s legislation in order to fight illegal fishing and other fishing practices that can affect the oceans. So, our expectation is that the new leader will become the person that grows the office so we can do an even better job in protecting the oceans here in Belize.”
And while Matura- Shepherd is gone, Munoz assured that whatever the new Belizean Country Representative for OCEANA decides as it pertains to the existing staff, the head office will not interfere in those decisions.
ALEX MUNOZ
“What is important for us is that the new Belizean leader will work effectively towards our goals. The staff is in place right now, they are at the office working normally and I hope that they can keep working with the new leader but the new leader will have the final decision on whether the staff should grow or change. We usually give a lot of room to the leader to define the staff and that’s the case in Chile, Belize and everywhere we work. There is a budget and in the future we expect to bring more resources; we are growing our office here in Belize, we want to stay and we want to become an even more effective organization here in Belize. This has been a very important country for Oceana and we want to keep building on that success and do an even better job here.”
Munoz says that he’s been interviewing candidates this week from a pool of over 30 applicants.