Ben Gilmer
Chair, ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee & Director, Large-Scale Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
Ben Gilmer has over 20 years of experience in environmental conservation and food systems, specializing in fisheries, agriculture, climate, technology, and community development. He serves on the ISSF Board of Directors and as Chair of the ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee.
Mr. Gilmer is the Director of Large-Scale Fisheries at The Nature Conservancy (TNC), where he promotes seafood sustainability policies, commitments, and tools to corporations, NGOs, and governments. He leads a team with projects spanning Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa and provides oversight for fisheries electronic monitoring and reporting technologies and fishery improvement projects.
Before TNC, he was CEO of Stuart Land & Cattle Company, a diversified agriculture company in Southwest Virginia, and founded Refresh Appalachia, a social enterprise that provided on-the-job training in sustainable agriculture to disadvantaged workers in the coalfields of Central Appalachia. He also worked as a sustainability consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank and other clients and was a member of TNC’s Global Oceans team, where he supported international marine conservation and fisheries projects. Earlier in his career, he worked at Downstream Strategies, Radford University, West Virginia University, and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
Mr. Gilmer has a master’s degree from West Virginia University and a bachelor’s degree from Radford University.
