Juan Romero
Ambassador
Juan Antonio Romero has been an Ocean advocate for over 35 years. As a science communicator, marine biologist and filmmaker, Juan has worked worldwide on numerous marine conservation projects. These projects range from film making to the management of some of the largest public aquariums in the world.
After completion of his studies of Marine Biology in France, he began his career at the Museum of Monaco and later became a diver for Captain JY Cousteau aboard the Calypso on expeditions to Indonesia and Borneo. Juan later went on to join the “Fly Team” for the Cousteau Society.
At 29 years old, Juan became the Director of Husbandry of the Genova Aquaruim in Italy. During this time he was director and presenter of his own RAI 1 Italian television series Linea Blu. Throughout his career, he has continued to work on productions such as Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Predators and British Isles for Natural History Unit of the BBC, the Discovery Channel and National Geographic, as well as numerous educational productions for museums and aquariums. After four years with the Genova Aquarium, Juan went on to start up and manage the National Marine Aquarium, UK, the Dubai Mall Aquarium, UAE, and the Chengdu Ocean Cube, China. In 2017 Juan was asked to manage and rebuild the Seville Aquarium in Spain, celebrating the 500 Year Anniversary of the departure of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan from Seville. He continues to consult for the Seville Aquarium along with the Oceanographico in Valencia.
As a personal adventure, Juan, in the company of his wife and three children, sailed from the US to New Zealand over a three year period on board their catamaran AZUL, arriving to New Zealand in 2008. Since that time New Zealand has been home.
Juan is presently the managing director of Azul Marino Foundation in Valencia Spain (www.azulmarino.org), a young NGO based in the Mediterranean, involved with numerous local and international projects. Juan also serves as a member of the scientific committee of the Oceanografico Foundation and director of the International Underwater Images (FIIS) of Valencia. Over the past three years, when Juan is not in Europe consulting or managing international projects, he is at home in the mountains of Queenstown, New Zealand.