Anne Miller
Founder and director of the Reef-World Foundation.

Anne Miller is a coral reef naturalist and educator. She is a scuba diving instructor and in 2001, she returned to live in North Wales after 9 years in Thailand.

Anne enjoys quietly observing wildlife and the reef environment. She says “there are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between one of our own communities and a coral reef – that’s where the idea for Reef-World originated. I wanted to find a way to quickly illuminate for a snorkeller or diver what was going on in the reef system” and to give people an opportunity to do something to help protect them.

Anne began diving in the Maldives in 1988. She has dived and taught throughout the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean.

In 1988, she graduated from Loughborough University of Technology with a Bachelor of Science Upper Second degree in Management Science. After two years work with a software consultancy firm, Anne began looking for ways to apply management skills to save tropical coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds and to educate the public about them. She has led workshops and presented papers at a number of international seminars.

In 1992, she became a PADI Open Water SCUBA Instructor and spent one year diving and teaching in the Dominican Republic. In 1993, she moved to Phuket, Thailand. Since then, she has taught and dived extensively in both the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Siam. In 1995, she founded Reef-World to educate tourists and community members about how to be active in the conservation of tropical coastlines.

The Reef-World Foundation was established as a Charitable Trust in the UK in 1999. Anne has designed and written Reef-World courses ranging from a one hour slide show presentation, all the way to a full three day Coral Reef Ecology Course, with courses for local fishing communities which focus on English language training and reef monitoring and courses for visiting tourists which are a light-hearted look at life on a reef. She is a Reef-World Instructor who has taught and led field trips for local primary and secondary schools in Thailand. She has developed strong links with the United Nations Environment Programme East Asia Seas Regional Coordinating Unit (now COBSEA) to provide Reef-World training to tropical communities actively working to conserve reefs and tropical coastlines in their area.

Chloe Hunt
Training Director

Chloe Hunt was awarded a First Class with honours degree in Marine Biology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 2005. During and after her degree she gained much experience through working with different conservation organisations and Universities in South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Through this work she has learnt to work with varying cultures in complex social dynamics to achieve conservation impact. Chloe has been a keen diver since the age of 12, is a qualified BSAC Assistant Instructor and spent most of her teenage years enjoying the sights and sounds of the underwater world around the UK coast.

Chloe met Anne while volunteering for the Green Fins programme in Thailand with her partner JJ. She found Anne refreshingly genuine and open-minded and their shared need to pay attention to detail has helped a fantastic working relationship to grow despite the distance of oceans and continents. Chloe has been committed to Reef-World since May 2008 and her work has been mainly focused on the Green Fins Project. Chloe’s background in Marine Biology means that while working with dive operators she understands and can clearly identify how diving related activities are threatening coral reef biodiversity. Her experience as a project manager in the UK has helped her to efficiently organise and manage the Reef-World projects. Her input has also lead to a more ecological approach to training to describe to the diving industry why and how they should take steps to mitigate the threats their activities pose to the environment. This has fuelled the staff of Green Fins operator member’s and Green Fins teams with the background knowledge they need to effectively implement procedures to ensure conservation success.

Throughout her career she has observed first hand the direct impact scuba diving has on the coral reefs and finds her work to help protect reefs extremely satisfying. Chloe is an advocate for Reef-World’s philosophy and believes that we all choose to do things because of how we've been brought up or teachers and mentors, so investing in people as you do the work is an excellent pathway to success.

James Harvey
Fieldwork & Experience Programme Director

James (JJ) was awarded a BSc in Marine Biology with honours from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in 2005. During and after his degree he gained valuable experience through working with different NGO’s, Universities and Government Institutions in the UK, Caribbean, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Through this work he has learnt to work in variety of environments and cultures in complex social dynamics and the challenges that come with them.
It was after school that JJ qualified as a diver which confirmed his choice in becoming a marine biologist. Through his experiences he has witnessed the effect a large population trying to live in close proximity to the sea can have. This is where his inspiration for tying in conservation with marine biology arose.

JJ met Anne while volunteering for the Green Fins programme in Thailand with his partner Chloe. He has been committed to the Reef-World Foundation since May 2008 and his work has been mainly focused on the Green Fins Project. He is a natural teacher and is always wholeheartedly dedicated to educating people about the wonders and fragility of our marine ecosystems. His background and experience has also lead to a more scientific approach to training to help educate to the diving industry why it is important to reduce their threats to the environment and how they can do this.

He also brings to the team a fantastic knowledge of the opportunities the Internet community can bring to Reef-World and its projects and continues to make our work more accessible to everyone, everywhere.

He continues to work hard at a multi level approach to conservation for the marine environment and can be contacted here.