Singaporean Rena Lee has been named in Time Magazine's annual list of the world's most influential people.

Lee, Singapore’s Ambassador for Oceans and Law of the Sea Issues and the president of a United Nations (UN) intergovernmental conference on marine biodiversity, is one of 100 people named by the news magazine in its 2024 edition of the list.

Who is Rena Lee?

Lee presided over negotiations on a UN agreement, the Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) in March 2023.

This concerned the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond waters controlled by countries.

TIME Magazine's bio of Lee said she successfully led the 40-hours of deliberations with "calm dignity, determination, and grace".

It was written by Sylvia Earle, an oceanographer and the president and chairperson of Mission Blue, an initiative concerned with the protection of the oceans.

When Lee announced that "the ship has reached the shore", concluding the "gruelling, round-the-clock talks", Lee put an end to almost 20 years of efforts trying to "safeguard life in the high seas".

"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."

The List

The annual "TIME 100" is a list of "the people who [TIME Mazagine] believe most changed the stories that define the past year".

Put together after months of discussions, the list has become famous and highly anticipated since its first publication in 2004.

The biography of each inclusion is written by an author chosen by the magazine.

Authors this year include U.S. President, Joe Biden; Founder and CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg; NFL champion, Tom Brady; and Coldplay's Chris Martin.

The President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping holds the record for the most inclusions on the list at 13, most recently in 2022. His first mention was in 2009.

Who else made the cut?

The list, made up of people from across the globe, is separated into six categories: Artists, Icons, Titans, Leaders, Innovators, and Pioneers.

Alongside Lee, 12 climate and sustainability leaders are featured, as well as health professionals, musicians, sports stars, and political figures.

The 2024 list includes Palestinian photographer, Motaz Azaiza; Taylor Swift's music producer, Jack Antonoff; Yulia Navalnaya, wife of the deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Nalvany; South African rugby captain, Siya Kolisi; and Artificial Intelligence leader, Yoshua Bengio.

TIME Magazine will host a Summit and Gala later this month for those included on the 2024 list.

Top image via @hdavidcooper/X