--- description: Find out why Rena Lee is one of the 100 most influential people of 2024. title: Rena Lee: The 100 Most Influential People of 2024 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e0719021938fbd5/698a558f929fad6e2ebfc61f/time-100-2024-rena-lee.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 17, 2024 # Rena Lee by Sylvia Earle  Courtesy Imagine navigating negotiations for a legal framework governing human activities over and under about half of the world. That has been the challenge facing Rena Lee, Singapore’s ambassador for [oceans](https://time.com/6341040/ocean-climate-change-cop-28/ "undefined") and law of the sea issues and the president of a U.N. intergovernmental conference on marine biodiversity, during five years of turbulent discussions over efforts to safeguard life in the high seas. With calm dignity, determination, and grace, Lee successfully led deliberations to legally protect biodiversity within the blue heart of the planet, the cornerstone of earth’s life-support system. Thunderous applause and cheers erupted from those attending the historic meeting last spring when, after nearly 40 hours of nonstop wrangling, Lee announced, “The ship has reached the shore.” We all should applaud her heroic moves, breaking decades of deadlock over governance of human actions that impact not just the future of tunas, sharks, squids, and whales, but that of all of life on earth—humans included. _Earle is an oceanographer and the president and chair of Mission Blue_ _Order your copy of the 2024 TIME100 issue_ [_here_](https://magazineshop.us/TIME%5F100 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965230/rena-lee/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965230/rena-lee/"},"headline":"Rena Lee","datePublished":"2024-04-17T11:07:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:29:25.395Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965230/rena-lee/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","2024TIME100","T100Leaders2024"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e0719021938fbd5/698a558f929fad6e2ebfc61f/time-100-2024-rena-lee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6e0719021938fbd5/698a558f929fad6e2ebfc61f/time-100-2024-rena-lee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2024/6965230/rena-lee/","name":"Rena Lee"}}]}] ```