Richard Vevers

Richard Vevers is the founder and CEO of The Ocean Agency, an ocean conservation non-profit accelerating ocean science and conservation through the power of creativity, and collaboration. He is a fellow of the Explorers Club and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Rhode Island. He is best known for his leading role in the Emmy Award-winning documentary Chasing Coral on Netflix and his work has been featured in numerous publications and documentaries.

Before diving into ocean and coral reef conservation, Vevers first worked at some of the top London advertising agencies and then as an artist and underwater photographer. It is this background that has guided his unique creative and business-thinking approach to ocean conservation. His imagery, revealing what is happening to our oceans, is some of the most viewed underwater imagery of all time, and his ideas, projects and public speaking have made him a leading voice in the fight to save coral reefs.

His major successes include: 1) inventing the camera that took Google Street View underwater, 2) pioneering virtual reality ocean education - currently available to over 90 million kids, 3) leading the most comprehensive underwater photographic survey of the world’s coral reefs with over 1 million images captured and analyzed (XL Catlin Seaview Survey), 4) revealing the crisis facing coral reefs due to climate change in the Netflix Original Documentary, Chasing Coral, 5) Developing a science-based global plan for targeting coral reef conservation efforts called 50 Reefs.