New PNA CEO arrives Friday

Outgoing Parties to the Nauru Agreement CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau (left) with new PNA CEO Ludwig Kumoru, who is scheduled to arrive August 5 in Majuro to take up his new post.
Outgoing Parties to the Nauru Agreement CEO Dr. Transform Aqorau (left) with new PNA CEO Ludwig Kumoru, who is scheduled to arrive August 5 in Majuro to take up his new post.

Starting this week, there is a new man at the helm of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA).

Ludwig Kumoru, former deputy managing director of Papua New Guinea’s National Fisheries Authority, is scheduled to arrive Majuro Friday to take up his post as Chief Executive Officer of the Majuro-based PNA Office.

Dr. Transform Aqorau, who has been PNA CEO since the office’s inception in 2010, stepped down July 31 after six-and-a-half-years as the fisheries bloc’s chief executive. He is expected to stay on in an advisory role for the remainder of the year.

At the time of his appointment in April, Kumoru said he was happy about being selected by PNA members and is looking forward to the many challenges in the management and conservation of PNA waters where 50 percent of the global supply of skipjack tuna is caught.

“I am pleased to be leaving the office in capable hands,” said Aqorau following the decision by PNA members to hire Kumoru. “He brings skills of working with fishing states from a national perspective and has a good understanding of the Pacific tuna fishery.”

Kumoru said PNA has many opportunities for expanding initiatives to the benefit of the islands. Going forward, the “challenge is to come up with ideas to add more value to the PNA fishery,” Kumoru said.

Read more about this in the August 5, 2016 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.