Dr. Sharifah Nora Syed Ibrahim is the Deputy Executive Director for Program Services of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat since joining CTI-CFF in mid-November 2017. She was concurrently appointed as the Acting Executive Director of the CTI-CFF Regional Secretariat by the Chair of the CTI-CFF Committee of Senior Officials (authorization letter dated 4th July 2018), until an Interim Executive Director was put in place at the end of that year.
As Deputy Executive Director for Program Services, she coordinates the Program Services on the implementation of the Regional Plan of Action (RPOA), Technical Working Groups, Governance Working Group (e.g. Monitoring and Evaluation WG), Cross Cutting Initiatives (e.g. Women Leaders' Forum WG), as well as new project proposals from CTI Partners and collaborators.
Her professional qualifications and work experience bridge Science, Law and Policy. She graduated with a Ph.D in Marine Biology focusing on effects of elevated temperature and UV on reef organisms. Prior to that, she graduated with a Master of Laws (LL.M) in International Environmental Law from England, where conservation areas under UNCLOS, CBD, UNFCCC, MARPOL, WHC, CMS, UNEP Regional Conventions and other multilateral environmental agreements were covered. She is also an Alumna of the Rhodes Academy of Ocean Laws and Policy, as well as of the IFLOS Summer Academy on Promoting Ocean Governance and the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
Dr. Nora’s multidisciplinary work experience spans Europe and Southeast Asia covering various ecosystems. She worked, inter alia, with European institutions including a Max Planck Institute and with an EU Framework-6 deep sea project.
Dr. Nora is a Malaysian and was based in Europe for more than a decade prior to returning to Southeast Asia in late 2017 in order to join the CTI Regional Secretariat in Manado, Indonesia.