Secretariat

The IWC has a full-time Secretariat with headquarters located near the City of Cambridge, United Kingdom. There are currently twenty full or part time members of staff including the Commission’s Executive Secretary, Dr Rebecca Lent.  

The Secretariat supports the work of the Commission and its subsidiary bodies, and is tasked with implementing the Commission’s decisions. The particular tasks undertaken by the Secretariat include:

• Supporting the Commission’s broad intersessional work programme
• Managing the Commission’s financial resources subject to agreed budgets
• Managing the meetings of the Commission and its subsidiary bodies
• Gathering, analysing and publishing scientific information on cetacean conservation and management, and also where necessary promoting and undertaking relevant research
• Communicating and distributing information to commissioners, contracting governments, other inter-governmental organisations, observers, the press and the public

Secretariat Organisation (interim structure June 2021)