BLUE Excelerator’s Second Cohort of Climate Startups BX2 welcomed by US Representative Bill Keating

Alexander Smolenski is a partner at Sunstein LLP focusing his practice primarily in patent prosecution matters for diverse industries including semiconductor devices, analog and digital circuit design, digital signal processing, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), medical implants, information systems, data storage devices, computer graphic systems, and telecommunications. 

He counsels clients in developing a comprehensive IP strategy including identification and protection of intellectual property, efficiently prosecuting patents to issuance. Alex develops intellectual property portfolios in both the United States and abroad.   Prior to his career as an attorney, Alex worked in the defense industry as electronics engineer and environmental liaison.   

  Alexander holds a B.S. in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.

Andrew Nicholl is a global technology business executive with over 30 years of experience in a number of technology-related sectors worldwide, having fulfilled leadership roles in many functional areas from design and development engineering, sales and marketing, systems engineering, product management and marketing, customer and business operations, compliance, risk management, information security and privacy, and general management for worldwide product and service portfolios. 

Andrew has lived and worked in Europe, the Americas and Asia/Australia and has worked with clients and partners globally in a variety of business sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare, energy and ecommerce.  

Andrew has a Bachelors in Applied Physics, a Masters in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer, and holds various credentials and certificates from (ISC)2, IAPP, PMI, CSA, MIT Sloan and extensive corporate business training and development.   

Throughout his career, Andrew has contributed extensively in a number of extracurricular activities, including board memberships, STEM program sponsorships, start-up company collaboration, coaching and participation, and guest lectureships.  

  Bob is the co-founder of TestB4Design, home of the Northeast Savvy Consortium where engineers meet to share experiences in product development and learn the principles of Lean or Knowledge Based engineering. He has a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and hold multiple patents in the areas of signal processing and oceanography.

 Bob is the the Vice President of Engineering at Teledyne Marine - Vehicles where his focus is on autonomous underwater vehicles including gliders and AUVs.

Bob considers himself a practical engineer and always willing to share and learn. 

"My current focus is on identifying disruptive innovation opportunities and evaluating them with a business model analysis. I then like to apply lean engineering principles to help improve success early in the life of a startup."

Dan Petcovic joined as CalWave’s COO in early 2018 to support CalWave’s evolution toward commercialization and has played a leading role in the successful deployment of CalWave’s first open ocean pilot in San Diego in 2021. With over twenty years of experience in product development, Dan was the Program Manager for a successful 1:2 scale WEC in water deployment in Scotland, making him familiar with the unique challenges in offshore wave energy demonstration deployments. Prior, Dan worked primarily in the defense industry, including with Lockheed Martin in positions largely related to field testing and customer acceptance of advanced prototype technologies, and the US Navy Nuclear Power Prog

Additionally, Dan has held roles in environmental remediation consulting and as a helicopter mechanic/crew chief with the US Army National Guard.   Dan holds a Master’s in Renewable Energy from Loughborough University, England, a Graduate Certificate in Marine Hydrokinetics from Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Portugal, a Master’s in Information Technology from Florida Institute of  Technology, and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.), Journeyman Electrician, and holds certifications in Construction Management and Lean Six Sigma.

Garrett D. Douglas, Principal Douglas Communications, Inc, has extensive experience in sales and business development.  In his current role he works with select companies to bolster their network, IT security posture and technology goals by introducing strategic engagements with established channel partners.  In past roles he has developed internal sales processes, procedures, and managed training of sales team members.  In his multiple leadership roles, he has identified and acquired enterprise customers as well as been responsible for creating new revenue streams from an existing customer base, to include double company revenues from $9M to $18M in a span of 4 years.  Garrett holds an A.B. in Government with concentration in Economics from Dartmouth College, NH and was President of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity. He has held multiple board positions to include Board Chairman Emeritus for Champ Homes and Co-Chair of OUMC Finance Committee.  In his off-time Garrett can be found spending time with his family, fishing, golfing, sailing and traveling.

Katherine E. Putnam is an angel investor, Managing Director at Golden Seeds Boston, mentor at MIT Venture Mentoring Service, advisor and board member for various organizations including startups. Formerly she was President of Package Machinery Company Inc. a manufacturer of flexible packaging machinery for consumer products manufacturers. She has been a member of the Investment Committee at the MassMutual Catalyst Fund and the Springfield Venture Fund, both seed capital impact funds. 

Kate has a background in corporate banking in New York, corporate treasury for a Fortune 500 company and consulting to small businesses. She led the investor group that purchased Package in 1996 and arranged the sale in 2015. She has served as a board member of Baystate Health for 11 years and its affiliates until 2019, where she chaired the Quality Committee for 8 years. Prior experience also includes the board of the Food Bank of Western MA for over 10 years. She also served on the board of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) and the Hampden County Regional Employment Board. She was a trustee and member of the Coordinating Council of the Pioneer Valley Plan for Progress. Her prior board service includes both non-profit and public companies as well as start ups and an industry association. She served as a judge for the Valley Venture Mentors Accelerator 2015-19 and as EIR in 2019. She has judged startups in MA and CT for CT Innovation, Lever, Babson and others. She served on the board of the Connecticut River Conservancy and as its treasurer. She has taught for I-Corps at MIT and for Interise. 

Her 2021 project was designing and structuring a program, recruiting and qualifying founders for a grant funded project for high growth startups in western MA. 

She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (BA History) and New York University’s Stern School of Business (MBA Finance). She is certified as a CEO peer forum facilitator. 

Kathryn Hautanen has an extensive science and engineering background combined with deep experience in innovation. With degrees in Physics, Materials Science, Nuclear Engineering, and an MBA in Design Strategy, Hautanen is a systems thinker who is not only focuses on the technical issues of new products, but also ensures that both stakeholders and the end users are involved during the product development journey.  Hautanen is currently the Innovation Manager at Waters Corporation, where she leads bringing the end user voice into new product development to ensure that products meet the customer’s unmet needs. Prior to Waters, Hautanen was the Director of Mad*Pow's Center for Health Experience Design where she launched an organization focused on tackling large healthcare challenges. She also led innovation as a senior manager at the Deloitte Greenhouse Innovation Lab, and at Kaiser Permanente, she was an innovation consultant in the Innovation & Advanced Technology group in at the company's Garfield Health Care Innovation Center.    Hautanen is a member of the Town of Barnstable Infrastructure and Energy Committee which is focused on climate change and resilience. In addition, Hautanen has been volunteering for the past 10 years at multiple non-profits focused on marine mammal and wildlife rescue such as the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, the Oakland Zoo, and the Cape Wildlife Center. She is committed to ensuring that the local fauna is considered as a key stakeholder in any BlueTech innovation.  

Keeney is a software engineer, oceanographer, farmer, sailor, roboticist, policy analyst, activist, artist, and safety professional from Maine. Work he contributed to has been featured in PCMag, Sustainability, and Eater—as well as being sent to space and the bottom of the Ocean. Currently he develops software to help federal civil agencies run smoothly and builds open-source ocean simulation tools for his own company. He is particularly excited about the people, business models, and technologies helping island coastal communities achieve economic and sustainability goals. 

 Luke St. Germaine is an experienced sales professional in business banking, new business development, and relationship management. He has spent the last fifteen years in the banking world, working with companies in a variety of industries, from fishing captains to enterprise software., helping them identify problem areas and finding solutions. He graduated Boston University in 2000 and has been awarded numerous accolades, including “merchant partner of the year” from Bank of America.  Luke’s Blue Economy mentorship is focused in three areas:  Business Banking (such as how to make sure you have the right bank partner and right products in place);   Sales (how to prospect for new business, how to build and manage a sales team, how to converse with potential clients most effectively); Overall Business review looking for ways to decrease costs and increase revenue.   Luke is passionate about the ocean and helping the Blue Economy in particular. Luke’s dream is to make a thriller movie involving ocean  

Matt Cadwallader started his professional life in his native Australia as a wildlife filmmaker, traveling around the world for the likes of the Discovery Channel, the BBC, and National Geographic. Matt transitioned from film to digital cartography after moving to the US in the early 2000s and started his second career as an Analyst with Horizon Marine. Using his GIS skills to analyze remotely-sensed and in-situ data and his storytelling skills to communicate his interpretation of the data, Matt became a trusted partner on many offshore drilling and construction projects to ensure operations were conducted within safe thresholds. As the business grew, Matt's roles evolved and included Operations Manager, Business Development Manager, and finally Executive Vice President with the aim to lead the business on behalf of new French ownership. Managing Horizon Marine's response in support of BP and NOAA during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 remains a highlight of his career with Horizon Marine. The subsequent acquisition and merge with fellow US-based Woods Hole Group saw Matt take on the role of Business Development Manager for a much larger team with expertise in data analytics, deepwater moorings, and NOAA installations. Matt also acted as a mentor to Sales Managers in other business units and managed client outreach (marketing/conference/trade shows) activities for the Energy & Mining Business Unit in the US. In early 2021, Matt joined Geo-IIoT Specialist 40Geo as their Business Development Manager to grow the company's metocean solutions. 40Geo utilizes custom applications developed with off the shelf software to manage, display, and report sensor data in online dashboards with mapping interfaces to help clients improve operational performance and create the intelligence required to make better business decisions. Matt was recently brought aboard TerraSond to open up a base of operations in New Bedford, MA to support the growing offshore wind industry in North America. TerraSond, is part of Acteon’s Geo-Services Division and has a long history of supporting NOAA and the Army Core of Engineers with bathymetric surveys. Over the past 5-years have performed many of the site assessment geophysical and UXO surveys for Offshore Wind Developers on the US East coast.  

Matt Scheuer believes in leveraging innovative ideas in engineering, business, and policy to restore and protect marine ecosystems. Matt is an experienced startup founder, prototyping engineer, team leader, photographer, and technical diver. His aim is to develop and support novel solutions for big environmental problems. Matt  grew up fishing and sailing on Long Island Sound in New York. He fell in love with the ocean early on and witnessed first-hand the destruction that humans inflict on it. He decided early on to devote his life to ocean environmental issues. After a semester with Sea Education Association, Matt studied at  University of New England in Biddeford, Maine for a degree in Marine Affairs and Oceanography. While at UNE Matt helped launch a campus makerspace, founded, and ran the sailing team, crewed on a research vessel, and began building remote-operated underwater vehicles (ROVs). Matt's business plan for Electrona Robotics, a low-cost ROV development company, won 1st place in competition.   After graduating he moved to Somerville, MA where he has run  Electrona Robotics out of Greentown Labs, a startup incubator for environmental technology companies. With his Team Electrona Robotics built several generations of affordable, work tough ROV systems designed to empower ocean exploration, education, and research. Matt brings a wealth of entrepreneurial experience to mentoring as he has  managed all facets of a blue tech startup company including engineering, fundraising, hiring, and marketing.  During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic Matt worked with a team at Somerville’s makerspace Artisans Asylum to rapidly manufacture face shields for local medical clinics. Matt is currently a project engineer for  ocean systems and  subsea vehicles at Triton Systems, Inc.

Michael Muller has 25 years of experience developing products and technology. He started his career in “heavy rotating equipment”, developing large gas and air compressors for general industry as well as the oil and gas markets. This provided him with a lot of knowledge in developing large capital projects. In the past five years, Michael has transitioned to advanced technology, including sensors design for flow and gas measurement, energy efficient HVAC, wave energy, and systems design (integrated mechanical / electrical / firmware) products. Michael is currently at Triton Systems, a small business, working on advanced technology development via the SBIR/STTR program.

Michael has an MBA from Indiana University and a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. Michael has been a people leader since 2005. Reporting to CEO/president level, he has been directly involved with developing corporate strategy and HR programs at Gardner Denver, FS-Elliott, and Baker Hughes.

Michael Muller enjoys new technology, is passionate about water and the ocean and being part of new ideas to help our planet.

Captain Michael Plumley is an active duty United States Coast Guard officer, and currently serving as a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. He recently served as Chair of the Mechanical Engineering department from 2016-2020, overseeing the program’s largest enrollment, a successful ABET re-accreditation visit, and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has over ten years of collegiate teaching experience, including several upper level courses related to Thermodynamics, Controls, and Design. He is named on 3 patents, and has mentored research projects on respirator design, water desalination, engine efficiency, autonomous vehicles, and biomedical systems. Captain Plumley earned a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also completed dual masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. He has over 7 years of service in the Coast Guard fleet, including shipboard assignments as Damage Control Assistant aboard the Coast Guard Cutter (CGC) ALERT, and as chief engineer of the Coast Guard's first National Security Cutter, CGC BERTHOLF. His tour of duty aboard BERTHOLF included the cutter’s first three operational patrols and first drydock. He also served as Port Engineer at the Coast Guard Naval Engineering Support Unit in Boston, Massachusetts, where he oversaw maintenance and repair of the Coast Guard’s Northeastern United States Search and Rescue fleet.   Captain Plumley was a visiting faculty member at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he conducted homeland security threat assessments, and a CMC Scholar at Sandia National Laboratory, where he investigated LNG carrier fire protection. He is Director of the Coast Guard Academy's National Lab Internship program, a member of the Maritime Risk Symposium planning committee, and part of the Coast Guard Academy’s Resilience-At-Sea research program. He recently served on technical committees of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) and regularly conducts scholarly reviews. He remains a qualified sailing safety instructor and officer in charge for the Coast Guard’s Coastal Sail Training Program and holds a 100-ton Coast Guard Master’s license. CAPT Plumley is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Connecticut. 

Nick Haring MS, ENV SP is a marine ecologist with a strategic mindset and a natural curiosity about others and our world.  He believes the optimal time for climate action was long ago, and we have a lot of ground to cover to realize meaningful sustainability targets, and we need solutions now that scale to the size of the problems we are facing.   Nick has worked to understand and solve complex problems throughout his career. In his current position, he has played a foundational role in developing from scratch a standardized management system for one of the largest municipal environmental laboratories on the west coast. To succeed at his  job, he needed to be a technical expert across multiple subjects. A lot of what Nick does is to manage change and help others adopt new and better ways to accomplish our mission.   Nick earned a BS in Biology and a Master’s degree in Marine Biology both with a strong emphasis on ecology. Ecology shares similarities with economics, the “eco,” in economics and ecology comes from the same Greek root, oikos. Both study systems and address issues like resource availability, constraints, supply and demand, and productivity.   When Nick is not working, he enjoys being outdoors, he loves the ocean and spending time with his family and friends.    

Dr. Parthiba Karthikeyan Obulisamy is a Research Scientist and Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.  He has conducted research in mercury removal, algai biorefinery and CO2 sequestration, bioreactor landfill operations, food waste, recycling, and the circular economy.  He received a Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, from the Centre for Environmental Sciences, Anna University, Chennai, TN, India (2004-2009). An M.Sc., in Environmental Sciences, from the Center for Environmental Studies, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India (2000-2002), and his B.Sc., Microbiology, from Vysya College of Arts and Science (affiliated to Madras University), Salem, TN, India (1997-2000).   

Dr. Parthiba Karthikeyan Obulisamy has provided critical contributions to the scientific community with 68 peer reviewed publications, 4 books edited, and 10 book chapters written.  His works have helped to further the dialogue on key environmental issues as his publications have been cited over 2000 times. He has also contributed to conferences through publications and speaking engagements to include keynote speaker at the 6th International Conference on Engineering for Waste and Biomass Valorization and 7th International Conference on Energy and Environment Research. 

Patrick Curran has over 14 years of experience in leading diverse field work, including biological, sediment, and water quality sampling efforts nearshore and open ocean. He is skilled in overseeing laboratory analysis, producing data deliverables to the client, and maintaining open communication among all stakeholders. 

Patrick has been Chief Scientist for multiple environmental monitoring and analysis plans both locally, and in remote areas of the globe. He is also a 100 Ton USCG licensed Captain and AAUS Scientific Diver, making him a dynamic asset on many projects.    

Patrick holds a B.S. in Marine Science from Southampton college, Long Island University NY and a Master's in Marine Science from Stony Brook University.   

Sophia Kambanis is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Innovation Network, a non-profit organization supporting early-stage (post-incubation) start-ups in their commercialization journey. Every year she works with over 50 start-ups (US and International), offering individualized Mentorship and guidance towards their next strategic move.   Sophia has 30+ years of experience in profit and non-profit organization management, local and international market operations, multi-country management team building, and company culture crisis management during merger and acquisitions. Her career with the design and implementation of marketing research plans and strategic marketing guidance for multinational organizations like Unilever’s Food Division, PepsiCo, KraftHeinz, CITIgroup, GlaxoSmithKline and PernodRicard. She moved on to leading the Marketing Division of a group of 5 merged companies that were operating in 5 different countries: Ukraine, Romania, Bulgar, Moldova and Greece.   One of her most challenging yet rewarding experience was to develop a common group culture working with diverse nationalities, languages, work ethics and business practices. Sophia’s experience includes extensive development of communication plans, brand awareness generation, and effective story telling techniques for charitable organizations, chambers of commerce and business associations.   Sophia serves as a Judge for MIT Enterprise Forum Greece and as a Mentor for Blue Institute Labs.  

Tuni Schartner, Principal and Founder of Tuni Schartner Consulting LLC, is known throughout Rhode Island as the State’s “Economic Gardener.”  She leverages her vast entrepreneurial experience to help businesses thrive, to help the Rhode Island economy grow and to always focus on the greater good.  Passionate about small business she has started several successful ventures and uses her strengths, talents, and gifts to help other entrepreneurs grow their project, business or organization.  She specializes in growth strategy with proficiencies in community building, branding, digital marketing, PR, and SEO, as well as program and event planning/development/management. I provide a wide range of consulting services that include coaching and training, fractional leadership, strategic growth planning, SEO/search optimization, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing,  Tuni’s entrepreneurial journey includes co-founder of The Hive RI, Southern RI's first coworking space, co-founder of community based economic development initiative at the Mill at Lafayette, inaugural Director of Innovate Newport, Executive Director of District Hall/Venture Cafe Providence, as well as founding mentor of VMS of RI (now RI Hub's Venture Mentoring Service).  Tuni proudly serves on Congressman Langevin's Strengthening RI Advisory Committee and sits on the Board of Tech Collective, as well as volunteers as a mentor, coach and judge for many educational institutions including The MET School's E-Center, URI, Salve Regina University and more.   Tuni studied English and Psychology at the University of Rhode Island and continue her education in business, innovation, digital marketing, SEO, social psychology, leadership, and management best practices, planning and economics. She is the recipient of RI Small Business Journal's 2016 Entrepreneurial Women to Watch 'Community Champion' Award, Providence Business News Women in Business Awards Honoree 2018, and 2020 Rhode Island Inno Blazer Winner, Nonprofit category.  

Judith Underwood a social entrepreneur, environmentalist, and an educator who is dedicated to supporting sustainable practices for equitable and accessible economic development. Judith serves on the Board of Directors of the Blue Institute which she founded in 2016 through the Massachusetts Southcoast EforAll.org program.  She is the CEO of Blue Institute Labs; a public benefit corporation spun out of the Blue Institute in 2017 through the CleanTech Open specifically to create a waterfront open-innovation (collaborative) center to support later stage blue economy entrepreneurs. The Blue Innovation Center will be the first waterfront open access BlueTech / ClimateTech hub on the US eastern seaboard bringing together entrepreneurs - in situ on land, air, and sea - with academia, students, industry, NGOs, and agencies of government. It is the home of the BLUE Incubator. Both the BLUE Institute and the BLUE Institute Labs are mission driven to support clean water, climate resiliency, and healthy & secure oceans. Judith has 15+ years of scientific development, and technology transfer work at research and educational institutions including MIT, the United Nations, and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy.  She was the first woman in Massachusetts to start a solar company and second in the US. That challenging and invigorating experience remains a strong influence on her drive to support women and other under representative communities in BlueTech & ClimateTech entrepreneurship. Judith has taught at all levels and to all ages and was a long-time board member of the Pleasant Bay Community Boating playing a key role in that organization's success in establishing a permanent waterfront campus. Judith has a master’s in politics from New York University, a bachelor’s in international relations from the University of Massachusetts Boston and has additional environmental graduate studies from Antioch University New England. Judith is from Cape Cod where she is raising her two children, their dog Boston, and serves her community as a Trustee on the Affordable Housing Trust and as a Water & Wastewater Commissioner overseeing the award-winning Harwich Water Department.

T-Shirts & Swag Coming Soon!

BX2 is an abbreviation for the Second ClimateTech Cohort of the BLUE Excelerator.  This program not only assists in the design, development and deployment of the startups' pilots and prototypes, but it brings together disparate climate solutions driven entrepreneurs forming long-term professional and personal bonds to ensure ongoing collaborative climate innovation. 

We will soon have a page up on Cohort BX1 too! 

Thank you to all the Mentors for your generous support of time, passion, and expertise!  

#togetherwearestronger