Sian McGuinness

Experience

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  Kaluma Travel

  Dec 2015 - Apr 2016

  Chalet Host
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  Rowan Group

  Jul 2016 - Mar 2023

  Executive Researcher

  Rowan Partners is an Executive Search Firm. I worked specifically on board level appointments, notably Finance Directors and CFOs for privately owned and private equity backed businesses across the United Kingdom.I worked full-time for Rowan Group for 2 years (2016 to 2018) before completing my master's degree in Conservation Studies. I then continued to support Rowan on a freelance basis while conducting my master's and working for environmental NGOs. I continue to conduct work for Rowan as mine and Rowan's capacity allows. Show less

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  Osa Conservation

  Jan 2020 - Apr 2020

  Marine Intern

  Osa Conservation is a non-profit organisation that is dedicated to protecting the globally significant biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. OC works with fishermen associations to ensure that as ecotourism grows in the area disturbance from marine wildlife watching is minimised. As the Marine Intern my focus was working with local communities to promote the sustainable use of marine species in the Golfo Dulce. • Taught English to individuals from local fisherman associations surrounding the Golfo Dulce. Instilling the need for best practice in the community and enabling tour providers to effectively communicate this to tourists on future marine wildlife watching vessels.• Supported the Marine Team on a variety of tasks, including the production of guidelines to be displayed on marine wildlife watching vessels in the Golfo Dulce, to ensure that the public holds vessel users accountable for their actions.• Represented the Marine Team at Alvaro’s Day; an event hosted by OC to engage the local community in conservation issues.Additional experience with Osa Conservation projects while based at the remote jungle camp.• Supported the Wildlife Monitoring Team with the Reef to Ridge Mega Survey, installing camera traps and acoustic devices and participating in an expedition to Piedras Blancas National Park.• Monitored and collected data on sea turtles, including hiking to and patrolling two critical nesting sites on the Osa Peninsula: Piro Beach and Pejeperro Beach. Helped to construct the new sea turtle hatchery.• Worked at the Osa Verde Farm, harvesting organic crops such as hibiscus and mucuna pruriens, preparing beds for planting and general weeding.• Supported the Botanics Team with day-to-day operations, including planting, weeding and watering. Show less

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  Sea Watch Foundation - The Cetacean Monitoring Unit

  Jun 2020 - Dec 2020

  National Whale and Dolphin Watch Assistant

  Voluntary role organising the National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2020.- Identify, contact, and recruit members of the public to be observers. I am responsible for ten regions on the west coast of England and Wales.- Provide support to observers, ensuring that they are fully prepared to conduct watches and understand how to record sightings. - Collect data from all observers; organise and enter the sightings and effort data into an appropriate format for analysis.

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  DMAD - Marine Mammals Research Organisation

  Aug 2020 - Jan 2021

  Montenegro Dolphin Research Researcher

  - Collected dolphin presence and behaviour data in Montenegrin waters. - Utilised RStudio and QGIS to analyse and map four years of data on bottlenose dolphin presence, group size and sub-adult presence.- Project managed a team of six researchers to publish the paper ‘The decline of bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) presence and group size in Montenegrin waters’ in November 2021. - Presented the paper’s findings via MS Teams at the IEEE MetroSea 2021 conference.

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  Natural England

  Feb 2021 - Mar 2022

  Lead Advisor

  Delivered on the assessment of the following licence applications:- EPS bat mitigation (A13)- Sci Cons bat - To displace water voles for development- Piscivorous bird to protect fisheriesCompleted and delivered on NSIPs, Discretionary Advice Services (DAS) and Pre-submission Screening Services (PSS).

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  Marine Management Organisation

  Mar 2022 - now

  Promoted into a newly created role within the Marine Planning team. I am climate change lead and have oversight of net zero delivery within marine planning, including the relevant aspects of net gain and natural capital.I work to mitigate and adapt to climate change through the remit of marine planning in English Seas, incorporating climate-smart marine planning. Key responsibilities:- Leading a team of eight to write five Three-year Reports on the North East, North West, South, South East and South West Marine Plans, simultaneously. Reports to be signed off by the Secretary of State and laid before Parliament.- Incorporating climate-smart marine planning into the second generation of English marine plans.- Producing evidence project specifications and being the technical lead on relevant evidence projects.- Working in partnership with the MMO Global Team, as part of the UK Blue Belt Programme, delivering support to the Turks and Caicos Island's Department of Environment and Coastal Resources on marine spatial planning. Support includes evidence collection, issues identification and options engagement.- Leading the Environment Theme Group, and having oversight of all environmental sectors within the marine plans, such as underwater noise, disturbance, net gain, biodiversity, waste quality, air quality, invasive non-native species.- Lead liaison for the MMO Marine Planning Team and environmental NGOs, and sector buddy for Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS).- Coordinate the cross-MMO working groups on Restoring Meadows Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe) and emerging technologies such as marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR).- Line management of two individuals, including the marine planning renewables lead.I have also collaborated with academics and marine planners from other countries on how climate change should be considered in Marine Spatial Planning (Paper found at https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.25933072). Show less My role focused on the implementation of marine plans. Responsibilities included:- Supporting the delivery of Marine Planning Workstreams. - Marine litter policy lead and natural capital and net gain policy buddy, identifying new evidence and gaps.- Marine planning project lead for evidence project ‘MMO1333 Marine Planning Training’.- Develop internal processes.- Organise online seminars and chair discussions with external stakeholders.- Respond to national and international consultations.- Provide strategic direction for marine plan implementation and facilitating engagement processes. - Line management of South Coastal Planners. Show less

  • Senior Marine Planner - Climate Change and Net Zero

    Oct 2022 - now

  • Marine Planner

    Mar 2022 - Oct 2022