Leadership

Dr. Mark Erdmann is the Executive Director of ReShark, where he leads a global, multidisciplinary coalition advancing the rewilding of threatened sharks and rays through conservation breeding and translocation. As ReShark's first Executive Director, he brings 35 years of conservation leadership and a track record of uniting governments, scientists, and local communities to safeguard ocean biodiversity.

Mark also serves as Shark Conservation Director at Re:wild, leading global shark and ray initiatives through fundraising, program strategy, and transformative partnerships. A coral reef ecologist with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, he has conducted extensive Indo-Pacific fieldwork, including 23 years based in Indonesia. His conservation work includes two decades with Conservation International, where he led the Bird's Head Seascape program, helping establish a network of 26 Marine Protected Areas covering more than 5.2 million hectares, and helped secure Raja Ampat as Southeast Asia's first shark and ray sanctuary.

A prolific scientist and author, Mark has published more than 260 scientific papers and six books, discovered over 240 new species, and been directly involved in describing 217 of them. He holds research appointments at the California Academy of Sciences, the University of Auckland, and the University of the Sunshine Coast, and has supervised postgraduate research across a range of shark and ray species.

From more than 14,300 dives across all seven continents to the conceptualization and implementation of the StAR Project — the world's first shark rewilding program — Mark's career reflects a lifelong commitment to translating science into conservation impact. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with his wife Arnaz.