Today, the EMB Secretariat welcomes Prof. Sheila Heymans as the new EMB Executive Director. Prof. Heymans previously worked as a Head of Science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) where she focused her research on the social, economic and ecological impacts of fishing in the world’s ocean. She has over 20 years’ experience in scientific research and education, with a focus on utilizing ecosystem modelling approaches to study environmental impacts of fisheries and ecosystem change. Prof. Heymans was already actively involved with EMB over the past months as she co-chairs of the running Working Group on Marine Ecosystem Modelling and attended the workshop on Navigating the Future V and the Autumn Plenary meeting.