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The Ocean Visions Network

Ocean Visions is a nonprofit organization at the center of a robust network of organizations comprised of leading universities and oceanographic institutions, and a diverse set of practitioner partners. Ocean Visions works to engage and focus resources across the Network for concerted action, catalyzing collaboration and co-design, development, testing, and evaluation of potential solutions to address the interlocking ocean-climate crisis.

Network Leadership Team

The Network Leadership Team is an advisory body assembled to activate and mobilize the Ocean Visions Network. The team sets the overall strategic vision for the Network, establishes priorities, reviews progress and products, and facilitates collaboration and communication with external parties.

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Brad Ack

Chief Executive Officer at Ocean Visions

Biography
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Clark Alexander

Director of the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

Biography
Jim Barry

Jim Barry

Senior Scientist and Chair of the Research Division at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI)

Biography
Annalisa Bracco (1)

Annalisa Bracco

Associate Chair for Research and Professor of Oceanography and Climate in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech

Biography
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Nicolas Cassar

Professor of Biogeochemistry at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment

Biography
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Giovanni Coppini

Director of Global Coastal Ocean Division presso CMCC - Centro Euro Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici

Biography
Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly

Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly

Vice President of Global Oceans at Monterey Bay Aquarium1

Biography
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Emanuele Di Lorenzo

Chairman & Co-Founder of Ocean Visions and Professor at Brown University

Biography
Rob Dunbar

Rob Dunbar

Professor at Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

Biography
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Daniela V. Fernandez

Founder and CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance

Biography
Jack Gilbert

Jack Gilbert

Professor and Associate Vice Chancellor for Marine Science at UC San Diego

Biography
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Paul Holthus

Founding President and CEO of the World Ocean Council

Biography
Tod Hynes

Tod Hynes

Sr. Advisor for Climate & Energy, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship & Sr. Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management

Biography
Debora-Iglesias-Rodriguez

Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez

Professor of Biological Oceanography and chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UCSB

Biography
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Kristin Kleisner

Lead Senior Scientist and the Associate Vice President for Oceans Science at EDF

Biography
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Kate Moran

President & CEO, Ocean Networks Canada

Biography
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Rick Murray

Deputy Director and Vice President for Research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Biography
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Tuba Ozkan-Haller

Dean of Oregon State University's College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences & Professor in the Colleges of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Engineering.

Biography
Christopher Pearce

Christopher Pearce

Principal Marine Geoscientist, National Oceanography Centre

Biography
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Millicent Pitts

Chief Executive Officer and Director, The Ocean Exchange

Biography
Patrick Rafter

Patrick Rafter

Assistant Professor of Chemical Oceanography at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science

Biography
Akash Rastogi

Akash Rastogi

Chief Strategist, Ocean Frontier Institute

Biography
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Mark Shimamoto

Director, Global Outreach Programs, American Geophysical Union

Biography
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Rohit Shukla

Founder and CEO, Larta

Biography
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Eric Siegel

Chief Innovation Officer, Ocean Frontier Institute & Executive in Residence, Creative Destruction Lab – Oceans

Biography
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Dawn Wright

Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI)

Biography

Brad Ack

Brad Ack has 35 years of experience working at the intersection of science, policy and environmental innovation, focused on the preservation of nature and a living world.  During his career he has designed and implemented innovative conservation and sustainability initiatives spanning tropical forests and high deserts to estuaries and the global ocean.  Brad has worked for both government and NGOs at senior levels.

Brad serves as Chief Executive Officer for Ocean Visions, an NGO at the center of a collaborative network of research institutions and innovators, investors, and practitioners of ocean regeneration.  Ocean Visions is advancing a new agenda for the ocean, focused on directly addressing the greatest cause of harm – greenhouse gas pollution that is driving existential threats to the ocean.  Ocean Visions works across sectors and disciplines to unlock new intellectual and financial resources to source, develop and scale cutting-edge innovation to regenerate critical components of the ocean-climate system.

Previously Brad served as SVP Oceans at WWF-US; Executive Director of the Puget Sound Recovery Program for the State of Washington; and Regional Director-Americas for the Marine Stewardship Council.  He earlier led conservation programs at Grand Canyon Trust and started his career working on community-based conservation in Latin America.  Brad received his Master’s degree from Georgetown University and Bachelor’s degree at Macalester College. 

Clark Alexander

Dr. Clark Alexander is the Director of the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, a Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences on the UGA-Athens campus, and previous Director of Georgia Southern University’s Applied Coastal Research Laboratory on the Skidaway Institute campus. He joined the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography in 1989 as a Post-doctoral scientist. His general research focus is on understanding sedimentary processes in estuarine, coastal and continental margin environments, using both field-based sedimentological and radiochemical tools and GIS-based techniques. His recent projects have focused on barrier island dynamics, coastal hazards, marsh persistence and benthic habitat distribution in the southeastern US.

Jim Barry

Jim is a Senior Scientist and marine ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. His research centers on the influence of natural and human driven ocean change on the biology and ecology of marine animals, and ranges from intertidal rocky shores to deep-sea seamounts and reefs. He has broad experience and expertise using remotely operated vehicles and advanced subsea technology for deep-sea scientific research.

In addition to his research program, Jim has been involved in national and international studies to assess the global impacts of climate change in ocean ecosystems and related changes in key benefits for society. He serves on scientific technical working groups concerning ocean acidification and hypoxia monitoring for the California Ocean Protection Council and the Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality. Jim has served on panels for the National Academies of Sciences and has helped inform policy-makers on ocean issues by speaking at congressional hearings, briefings, and meetings with congressional members.

Annalisa Bracco

Annalisa Bracco is the Associate Chair for Research and Professor of Oceanography and Climate in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. She co-founded and co-directs the Georgia Tech Graduate Program in Ocean Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on ocean transport and mixing and its impact on biogeochemical tracers and biodiversity, and on climate modes of variability and their representation in climate models.

In 2011 she was awarded the 2011 Nicholas Fofonoff Award for “contributions to understanding mesoscale ocean dynamics, geostrophic turbulence, and tropical dynamics, and their coupling with marine ecosystems”.  Throughout her career she has served in a leadership role for international organizations such as CLIVAR (she was the co-chair of its Scientific Steering Group from 2015 to 2020), US CLIVAR, and PICES.

Nicolas Cassar

Nicolas Cassar is a Professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the Division of Earth and Climate Sciences and as Senior Associate Dean for the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. He received a B.S. from McGill University, a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii, and was a postdoctoral fellow and research scholar at Princeton University. In addition to his primary appointment at Duke University, he has a secondary appointment at l’Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (France). His research is in biogeochemistry with the objective of constraining the mechanisms governing carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen cycling in our global climate.  Dr. Cassar’s work is interdisciplinary, integrating field and satellite observations, laboratory experiments, method development, modeling, and theory.

Giovanni Coppini

Giovanni Coppini is the director of the multidisciplinary research program “Global Coasts as the new frontier” at the CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change.
He worked as a technologist at INGV and then since 2012 at CMCC. At INGV and later at CMCC, he contributed to the European Topic Centre – Inland, Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM) of the European Environment Agency and to the MyOcean project as responsible for liaison with the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Ocean Service (MyOcean) and development of climate and environmental indicators.
He was Project Director of the European MFSTEP project for the consolidation of the Mediterranean Sea observing and forecasting system. He coordinated the Copernicus European Marine Service for Mediterranean Sea Forecasts.
He was responsible for the Emergency Response Office (ERO) in the collaboration agreement between the Mediterranean Oceanography Network for GOOS (MONGOOS) and the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean Sea (REMPEC).
He was a member of the JCOMM Expert Team on Maritime Safety Services (ETMSS), represents CMCC within EuroGOOS (European Global Ocean Observing System), and contributes to the implementation of the CoastPredict Program, which is part of the United Nations Ocean Decade.

 

Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly

Jennifer directs Monterey Bay Aquarium’s activities in support of sustainable fisheries and aquaculture on a global scale, working with a range of stakeholders to drive improvements in environmental performance, social responsibility and management—including the respected Seafood Watch program.

Jennifer also oversees Monterey Bay Aquarium’s commitment to sustainability, with a focus on reducing the institution’s environmental footprint and modeling best practices.

Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in sustainable fisheries and currently serves in a leadership capacity driving greater collaboration among stakeholder groups. As such, she participates in the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions Board, Certification and Ratings Collaboration Steering Committee, Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative Steering Board, Seafood Stewardship Initiative Expert Review Committee, NGO Tuna Forum Steering Committee and is a member of the Environmental Stakeholder Committee of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.

Jennifer previously served as program manager for the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and as a senior conservation associate for New England Aquarium. She has also worked for American Oceans Campaign (Oceana) and Environmental Media Services.

Jennifer earned a Master of Science degree in environmental sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Science in education from Florida State University.

Emanuele Di Lorenzo

Emaunele Di Lorenzo is Professor of Earth, Environmental, & Planetary Sciences at Brown University and Founding Chairman of Ocean Visions. He previously served as Professor and Founding Director of the Program in Ocean Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2003 from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and conducted postdoctoral work at UCLA from 2003-2004. Di Lorenzo is recognized as a world expert in large and regional-scale Pacific Ocean dynamics and climate. Throughout his career he has served in several leadership role for international organizations such as CLIVAR, US CLIVAR, PICES, and ICES, where he led transdisciplinary efforts to understand the impacts of climate on marine and social-ecological systems. More recently in 2019, through a multi-institutional agreement between Georgia Tech, Stanford, MIT, Scripps, WHOI, Smithsonian, MBARI, UGA, Monterey Bay Aquarium and Georgia Aquarium, Di Lorenzo established the Ocean Visions (www.oceanvisions.org) — an effort to transform and accelerate the transfer of science and engineering into solutions for the ocean grand challenges. 

Rob Dunbar

My research and teaching interests include Climate Dynamics, Oceanography, Marine Ecology, and Biogeochemistry. I am interested in environmental policy directed towards problem-solving. My research group studies global environmental change with a focus on air-sea interactions, tropical marine ecosystems, polar climate, and biogeochemistry. In October, 2001, I became the founding director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources (now E-IPER), a position I maintained until 2005. In January, 2003, I was appointed the Victoria P. and Roger W. Sant Director of the Earth Systems Program, the largest undergraduate and co-terminal masters program in the School of Earth Sciences, an appointment that ran through 2012. In January, 2004, I was named the J. Frederick and Elisabeth B. Weintz University Fellow in Undergraduate Education in recognition of teaching and mentoring of Stanford undergraduate students. I was awarded the William M. Keck Professorship in 2008, the same year that I moved from the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences to the newly created Department of Environmental Earth System Science. In 2009, I was elected as a Trustee for the Consortium for Ocean Leadership in Washington D.C. where I am active in promoting the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and the Ocean Observatories Initiative. I am currently serving as the Chairperson of OL’s Board of Trustees. In 2004 I helped start the Palmyra Atoll Research Consortium (PARC) to promote research and conservation of Pacific coral reefs.

Daniela V. Fernandez

At the age of 19, Daniela founded Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) as a college room idea at Georgetown University. Six years later, she has built SOA into a global organization that is cultivating and accelerating innovative solutions to protect and sustain the health of the ocean. With phenomenal speed, SOA has created the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders – by establishing a presence in over 165 countries and has successfully launched the world’s first Ocean Solutions Accelerator to develop technological solutions that can address the greatest threats facing our planet.

Jack Gilbert

Jack Gilbert is a Professor of Microbial Oceanography in the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps Institute of Oceanography and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics in UCSD School of Medicine. Research interests in the Gilbert lab focus on microbial evolution, ecology and biogeography, host-microbe-environment interactions, human and environmental disease ecology, and human immune, nervous system and nutritional health.

Paul Holthus

Paul Holthus founded the World Ocean Council (WOC) – the Global Blue Economy Business and Investment Organization – the international alliance for leadership, collaboration and action on sustainable development, bringing together investment, innovators, and all ocean industry sectors. For example, WOC’s “Ocean Investment Platform” links investors, ocean industries and innovators; the Ocean CO₂ Removal/Blue Carbon/Ocean Restoration Initiative convenes the ocean carbon sequestration business and investment community. The annual Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS) is, since 2010, the original and pre-eminent, high-level global “Corporate Ocean Responsibility” business event since 2010. Paul has held senior positions with UN and other international organizations and worked in 30+ countries. He is a regular speaker at international business and investment events and the only global ocean industry organization representative invited to address the UN General Assembly.

Tod Hynes


Thomas (Tod) Hynes is a Senior Lecturer in the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. He teaches Energy Ventures, a graduate-level course that guides teams of business, engineering, science, and policy students through the process of creating new energy ventures. 

Hynes is also the founder and president of XL Hybrids, a company which addresses one of the largest and most immediate challenges in energy – rapidly reducing dependence on petroleum for transportation.  XL Hybrids has developed a proprietary hybrid electric powertrain which is cost effective for commercial fleets and can be installed in both new and existing vehicles in four hours.  This hybrid powertrain is rapidly getting adopted by Fortune 500 companies and uses components from leading suppliers like Johnson Controls.  XL Hybrids has also developed an advanced telematics platform which wirelessly collects vehicle operational data to optimize the performance of hybrid technology in real world applications.  Hynes raised over $50 million to launch this venture, and assembled and manages a cross-disciplinary team.  

Hynes is the cofounder of the MIT Clean Energy Prize and is on the Advisory Board.  He also works with and advises startups and established companies active in energy.  Hynes was the director of alternative energy for Citizens Energy for five years and launched the company’s wind development business.  He successfully developed and sold over 230 MW of wind projects, and expanded the company’s wind business to include a project pipeline of over 2,000 MW. In addition to directing project acquisition, development, management activities, and operations, he assessed and developed new alternative energy business opportunities in energy efficiency, waste to renewable fuel, GHG offset projects, low head hydro, energy storage, and other sectors of the energy space.

Prior to joining Citizens Energy, Hynes was the principal director and cofounder of Strategic Energy Systems, a consulting and engineering services firm focused on distributed power generation and wind power. He also was the cochair of the Energy Committee for CERC, the organization that “greened” the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions,.  He has served on the steering committee of the Boston Climate Action Network since 2003.  Hynes holds a BS in management science from MIT. 

Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez

Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez is a professor of Biological Oceanography and chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara. She obtained her PhD in carbon physiology at the University of Wales Swansea in 1996 after which she was awarded a Natural Environment Research Council Fellowship to conduct research at the University of Bristol (U.K.). In 2000, a NASA Fellowship funded her work at Rutgers University to explore mechanisms governing global biological diversity and function in marine phytoplankton. During her time in the U.K., she advised the British Government on climate change impacts on marine systems through her expertise in ocean acidification. She was recently a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Committee that produced a report in 2021 addressing scientific and technical elements of ocean carbon dioxide removal and sequestration. After more than two decades studying how climate change affects marine life, her research has shifted to exploring approaches to enhance carbon dioxide removal on planetary scales.

Kristin Kleisner


Kristin Kleisner, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist and the Associate Vice President for Oceans Science at EDF. Her work is focused on understanding the multiple benefits generated by fisheries systems, including food, climate and biodiversity outcomes. Specifically, she is leading research to investigate the impacts of climate change on the distribution and productivity of fish stocks and understand the implications of these changes for fisheries management systems around the world. Kristin has also worked extensively to elevate the role of aquatic foods in the global food policy dialogue and to help value aquatic foods for their nutritional content. Currently she is leading a team of scientists investigating the potential of blue carbon and technical marine carbon dioxide approaches to deliver a suite of benefits to people and nature while minimizing adverse outcomes and risks. Kristin worked previously as a joint research scientist for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole and The Nature Conservancy on the development of ecosystem-based models to explore the effect of climate change on fish stock distributions in New England. She also led research on the development of fisheries, food security, and ecosystem status indicators with IndiSeas (www.indiseas.org), FAO, UNESCO, and the Sea Around Us project. She was a co-PI on the Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) Working Group on Climate Resilient Fisheries and is a co-lead on the UN Ocean Decade FishSCORE 2030 programme. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed studies in the fisheries and oceanographic literature and holds a PhD in Marine Biology and Fisheries from the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.

Kate Moran

Prof. Kate Moran is the President & CEO, Ocean Networks Canada. Her previous appointment was Professor and Associate Dean at the University of Rhode Island. From 2009 to 2011, Moran was seconded to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where she served as an Assistant Director and focused on Arctic, polar, ocean, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and climate policy issues. Professor Moran is active in public outreach on topics related to the Arctic, ocean observing, and climate change. Kate Moran TEDx Talk.

Dr. Richard W. (Rick) Murray

Dr. Rick Murray is the Deputy Director and Vice President for Science & Engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was a Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University (BU) from 1992 – 2019 and served as Director, Division of Ocean Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 2015-2018. In addition to his NSF duties, he served as a Co-chair for the Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology, as part of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, during both the Obama and Trump administrations. He received his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College (1985), his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1991), and was a post-doctoral scholar at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island (1991-1992).

A seagoing oceanographer, Murray’s research interests are in marine geochemistry, with an emphasis on climate change, volcanism, and tropical oceanographic processes, and in the chemistry of the subseafloor biosphere. 

Tuba Ozkan-Haller

Dr. Tuba Özkan-Haller is the Dean of Oregon State University ‘s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Professor in the Colleges of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Engineering.  

Özkan-Haller previously served as Associate Vice President for Research Administration and Development in Oregon State University’s Research Office. She previously also served as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Advancement in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

As a faculty member, she focuses on the use of numerical, field, laboratory, and analytical approaches to arrive at a predictive understanding of waves, circulation, and beach change in the nearshore ocean, including the continental shelf, the surf zone, inlets, and estuaries. The results of this work are being applied to navigational planning, for the development and design of wave energy conversion devices, and for forecasting of beach-goer hazards.

She has also extensively engaged in work to increase diversity and inclusivity in academia and was a co-Principal Investigator for OSU’s ADVANCE grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at increasing the participation of women and other underrepresented groups within faculty in STEM disciplines. She has given various invited talks on this subject, including a plenary talk at the 2018 Goldschmidt Conference of the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry.

Nationally, Özkan-Haller is currently serving as a member on two Federal Advisory Committees: the Hydrographic Survey Review Panel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Board on Coastal Engineering Research of the Army Corps of Engineers. She has previously served for two terms as a member of the Ocean Studies Board of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and has participated in various NASEM studies, including as the chair of a consensus study on the future of the U.S. Gulf Coast. She is currently co-chairing a NASEM committee working on a Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences for the National Science Foundation.

Özkan-Haller is passionate about communicating science to the public and has appeared in numerous documentaries produced by the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and Oregon Public Broadcasting, and was quoted in various news segments and newspaper articles, most recently about sneaker wave fatalities along the Pacific Northwest Coastline of the US. She has also authored various opinion pieces.

Özkan-Haller is the recipient of the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the Outstanding Faculty Member Award at the University of Michigan as well as the Pattullo Award for Excellence in Teaching Award and Woman of Excellence Award at OSU. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, and a M.C.E. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware.

Christopher Pearce


Chris’ research focusses on better understand the processes that cause, and can help mitigate, global climate change. Through the development and application of innovative chemical and isotopic techniques he reconstructs how global systems and processes were affected by environmental perturbations and how long the planet took to recover from past climatic events. He also uses that knowledge to investigate potential mechanisms for combatting modern climate change by enhancing the rate of CO2 removal from the atmosphere. Chris is the associate subgroup lead for Marine Biogeochemistry at the National Oceanography Centre and is the scientific and technical lead of the Strategies for the Evaluation and Assessment Of Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (SEAO2-CDR) Horizon Europe funded project that aims to deliver the insights, tools and guidelines required for the safe and effective implementation of appropriate ocean-based CDR approaches. He also a partner in the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation and UK Enhanced Rock Weathering Greenhouse Gas Removal Demonstrator project and previously led the NOC’s contributions to the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) Programme.

Millicent Wallace Pitts

Millicent Pitts is the CEO/Executive Director of OceanExchange.org, a non-profit in its tenth year with the sole mission to help the advancement of innovative solutions that support healthy and sustainable oceans and coastal systems.
Millicent was an operating executive for thirty years in the chemical/materials industry with Atlantic Richfield, Rohm & Haas, Engelhard/BASF and with a university-based start-up. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Ocean Exchange she has helped grow a start-up ecosystem with roles as innovation judge at Penn Innovation Day, as a mentor at Cleantech Open Northeast, as a member of the NOAA sub-committee on the Blue Economy, as a steering committee member of OceanVisions.org, and as a judge at the DOE/NREL Marine Energy Collegiate Competition. 

Patrick Rafter

 

Patrick Rafter is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Oceanography at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science. He received his PhD in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his BS in environmental science and marine environmental studies from the Florida Institute of Technology. He previously served as a scientist and scholar at UC Irvine and Princeton University. Rafter’s research strategy uses whatever tools are needed to improve our understanding of carbon cycling and climate from the past, present, and future. For example, his work provides insight to greenhouse gas influence on the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO); controls on the modern biological carbon pump; the strengths and weaknesses of reconstructing ocean carbon with radiocarbon; observational and model-based methods for quantifying the additionality of atmospheric CO2 alongside marine Carbon Dioxide Removal; and more.

Akash Rastogi


Akash is a seasoned business strategist with extensive experience driving complex transformational initiatives – both at industry level and for leading North American financial institutions. Despite being raised in the land-locked city of New Delhi, India, Akash dreamt of the high seas since childhood. After spending the last 20 years in the Financial Services industry – in senior roles that included Partner & Canadian Head of Financial Services Advisory practice at a Fortune 200 consulting firm and institutional derivatives trading – Akash finally pivoted to the Ocean industry. He is currently a Lead Strategist at Canada’s Ocean Frontier Institute focused on advancing its Innovation and Commercialization mandate, is a co-founder of the Reykjavik Protocol, member of Canadian national carbon management coalition, a mentor to numerous ocean-based CDR startups and a Board member of Humber Bay Sailing Centre. Akash is passionate about ocean-based CDR and is leveraging his in-depth strategy consulting and capital markets experience to help propel it. Akash is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Richard Ivey School of Business at University of Western Ontario and Stanford Graduate School of Business.  Akash is a drummer and an ardent sailor preparing for his maiden ocean passage. He lives with his family in Toronto, Canada.

Mark Shimamoto

Mark Shimamoto is the Director of Global Outreach Programs at the American Geophysical Union. In this capacity, Mark oversees the strategic growth and coordination of programs, partnerships, and initiatives to serve AGU’s global community of 130,000 earth and space scientists. Mark also developed AGU’s GeoHealth Program and oversees its integration across the organization to build stronger bridges between the Earth and space sciences and public health.

Previously, Mark was the Health Program Lead at the U.S. Global Change Research Program where he coordinated the Federal Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health to address key gaps in understanding how global change affects human health. Mark also supported the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in delivering the health initiatives of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, which included his role in coordinating and authoring the 2016 Federal report “The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment.”

Mark earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Environmental Health Science and Policy from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University and a B.A. in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine.

Rohit Shukla

Rohit Shukla founded Larta Institute in 1993 – Larta is now an internationally recognized accelerator whose mission is to foster science and technology innovation for a sustainable planet.

 

Mr. Shukla previously served nearly six years as Director of High Technology Business at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. He was Executive Director of the Presidents’ Roundtable, a California-based network of chief executives from Fortune 500 U.S. aerospace and defense electronics companies. In 2008, he was appointed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to advise and lead a multi-country study of IP policies and practices and IP as it affects the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. He also has established regional commercialization initiatives and provided technology commercialization policy advice to the governments of Australia, Israel, Malaysia and New Zealand, among others. In 2014, he was appointed to a 2-year term to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship which advises the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce on issues related to accelerating innovation, expanding entrepreneurship, and developing a globally competitive workforce.

Eric Siegel

Eric has worked at the intersection of ocean science, innovation, and international business for more than twenty years. He has held director and founder positions in global ocean technology companies leading teams in product development, business development, sales, marketing, and advanced manufacturing. He has extensive experience living and working in North America, Europe, the UK, and Asia.

Eric serves on the UN Ocean Decade Technology & Innovation Informal Working Group, sits on the Board of Directors at Sustainable Oceans Applied Research and Sail Nova Scotia, and supports the Creative Destruction Lab Oceans stream as the Executive in Residence. Eric is trained in physical oceanography, naval architecture, and marine engineering, and earned an MBA with a focus on leadership, innovation, and global business. When not helping ocean scientists and companies, Eric is an active sailor, having crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on his small boats, and is now racing Bluenose Class Sloops with his family in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Dawn Wright

Dr. Dawn Wright is Chief Scientist of the Environmental Systems Research Institute (aka Esri), a world-leading geographic information system (GIS) software and data science company. Core to Esri’s mission is to inspire and enable people to positively impact their future by connecting them with the geoanalytic knowledge needed to make the critical decisions shaping the planet. Hence, Esri believes that geography is at the heart of a more resilient and sustainable future.

As Chief Scientist, Dawn is responsible for strengthening the scientific foundation for Esri software and services, while representing Esri to the international scientific community. As such, she has served on many advisory boards including the NOAA and EPA Science Advisory Boards, the National Academy of Sciences Ocean Studies Board, and the Science Advisory Boards of Conservation International, COMPASS Science Communication, and the Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. Dawn is also Professor of Geography and Oceanography at Oregon State University.  In April 2021 she was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She enjoys road cycling, 18th-century pirates, her dog Riley, and SpongeBob Squarepants. Follow her on Twitter @deepseadawn.