About the Co-defendants

Steve Shallhorn, Chief Executive Officer, Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Steve has worked for Greenpeace since 1987. He has been Chief Executive Officer of Greenpeace Australia Pacific since November 2005, and was Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan for two years previously.  He has also worked for Greenpeace in Washington, London and Toronto, and has taken part in Greenpeace’s trademark peaceful protests all over the world, including the ‘Nuclear free Seas’ campaign, which revealed that the US Navy lost a nuclear weapon from an aircraft carrier near the coast of Okinawa during the Vietnam War, and a successful campaign that stopped the Canadian government using nuclear submarines. In 1990, Steve led a ship expedition to the secret site of a nuclear weapons test by the former Soviet Union which generated world-wide media attention. In 1993, he was involved in several Greenpeace direct actions which led to a significant global treaty banning the dumping of nuclear waste at sea. Steve holds a BA in History and a BA in Economics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is married with two daughters.

Marcelo Furtado Executive Director, Greenpeace Brazil

Marcelo Furtado has been working with Greenpeace for the last 18 years and has been Executive Director of Greenpeace Brazil since July 2008. Marcelo’s background is in chemical engineering; he has worked in the chemical industry as well as worked as a consultant for development projects.  Marcelo has since coordinated Greenpeace international campaigns against the trade of toxic waste as well as projects about industrial pollution. As Campaign Director for Greenpeace Brazil since 2004, Marcelo has coordinated activities on climate and energy, GMOs, and oriented the political work in Brazil. In 2008, he has also helped to launch the Oceans campaign.

Brigitte Behrens, Executive Director, Greenpeace Germany

Brigitte Behrens joined Greenpeace in 1986, and has been Chief Executive Director since 1999, based in Hamburg. Her priorities in working to protect the environment are combating climate change, impeding nuclear energy and genetic engineering in agriculture, and protecting the oceans and ancient forests. She has a background in sociology and medicine, and she has previously worked for several years in the women's movement and in women's projects in Germany. This included participating in setting up the Frauenkneipe in Hamburg in 1976-7, then the first communications centre for women only.

Liesbeth van Tongeren Executive Director, Greenpeace Netherlands

Liesbeth van Tongeren has been the Executive Director of Greenpeace Netherlands since September 2003.  Van Tongeren thinks exploiting and destroying our environment is economically stupid and totally unjust to future generations. “Nature doesn’t just have an economical value. The Australian Aborigines say that the Earth does not belong to them but that they belong to the Earth”. This also matches the core values of Greenpeace. Liesbeth has a Bachelors Degree in Law and Masters Degree in International Law from the University of Amsterdam and has held director positions with several organizations in Australia including welfare organisations for the homeless, refugees, and abused women. In the Netherlands she has worked in both a regional council and the Amsterdam City Council. In her Ambassadorial role for Greenpeace she has convinced the Dutch Prime Minister to change his bulbs to energy saving light bulbs, and has been arrested for campaigning in The Hague.

Frode Pleym,Deputy Executive Director, Greenpeace Nordic 

Frode Pleym joined Greenpeace ten years ago. Before that, he worked at various Norwegian and Swedish environmental organizations. For Greenpeace, Pleym has led a number of ship expeditions against hazardous transport at sea and pirate fishing. He has been based in Japan and Iceland on several occasions, coordinating campaigns against whaling, and for sustainable fisheries. From 2003 to 2006 he was in charge of a ground-breaking Greenpeace campaign with the Icelandic public to stop Icelandic whaling. Since then, the Iceland government has been divided on the issue, whale consumption is close to non-existent and the future of the whaling program is highly uncertain.  

Rose Young, Special Projects Director, Greenpeace USA

Rose Young has been instrumental in shaping and developing the international Greenpeace movement since 1987. In that time, she has served as Crew Manager of the Greenpeace fleet of ships, Project Director for sea-based actions and participant in climate, oceans and nuclear campaigns. She coordinated the 1995 team that occupied the Shell-owned Brent Spar oil platform in the North Sea. This action stands as one of Greenpeace's most significant victories; it prevented Shell from dumping the retired platform into the sea, successfully reversing a long-standing UK/European policy. Rose’s early career was as a children's advocate and she eventually became chair of the Children's Hearing System where she spearheaded the reform of Scotland's juvenile penal model. Rose has eight grandchildren who are spread across the globe.

Markus Allemann, Executive Director, Greenpeace Switzerland

Markus Allemann has worked for Greenpeace Switzerland since 2006, initially as Campaign Director. He then  became Co-Executive Director in 2008. One of the most iconic activities he led was an attention-grabbing photo installation by world-renowned photographer Spencer Tunnick on the Aletsch Glacier which highlighted human frailty in the face of climate change. He has a background in journalism, and a diploma of Executive Master of Science in Communications Management from the University of Lugano. After his studies he first worked as a freelance journalist before joining the Federal Health Office where he became the coordinator of diverse campaigns on health issues. Markus is 45, with three children, who all live in Solothurn, Switzerland.  

Paddy Hart, former whaler, Albany, NSW

Paddy has lived in Albany, Western Australia since 1960, emigrating there from Ireland as a young man. He was employed as a master and gunner with the Cheynes Beach Whaling Station hunting sperm whales for their oil, until it closed in 1978.  Cheynes Beach was the last whaling station in the English speaking world, after it closed Paddy worked at the Albany Woollen Mills as a boiler man until he retired in 2002. Initially, Paddy and his colleagues resented  activists protesting in Albany against whaling activities because they felt their livelihood was threatened.  Paddy said “Back in the day there was a different attitude to whaling.  There was an industry use for sperm whales for things like cosmetics, oil lamps and lubricants.  I also had five young children to support.  Gradually, after the whaling station closed and I got over the initial fear of how I was going to make a living, I reviewed my perspective on whaling from a more objective view.  It dawned on me that it could no longer go on. We shouldn’t be whaling now.”