Anote Tong was the President of the Republic of Kiribati from 2003 to 2016 when he retired after holding office for the mandatory three term limit. Throughout his terms in office he highlighted the human dimensions of the climate change challenge with special focus on the existential threat it poses for the Pacific island and other communities on the front line of the impacts of climate change. Whilst in office he was a Board Member of Conservation International (CI) and upon leaving office in 2016 was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow of CI. In 2015 he was awarded the SunHak Peace Prize and has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize, was awarded the Edmund Hilary Award, the Peter Benchley Ocean Award as well as other awards for his work on climate change and ocean conservation. To date he continues his advocacy work on these and other regional issues speaking to various audiences world wide. He is a member and current chair of the Pacific Elders Voice (PEV) group which comprises of former national, academic and diplomatic leaders from the Pacific region. He graduated from The University of Canterbury in NZ with a Bachelors Degree, A MSc from the London School of Economics and was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Pukyong State University, South Korea and from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.