Gren was the Chair of the SSC when I joined the IUCN Secretariat in 1985. He was an unforgettable, larger-than-life character and was a major force on the IUCN Council during the 1980s. He was a key champion of plant conservation, and the number of plant Specialist Groups in the SSC grew greatly under his tenure. I was privileged to learn a lot from Gren over the 4 years that we worked together. He will be greatly missed.