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Caroline Arzoo is a passionate advocate of innovation, supporting early-stage founders through her community-building work at OmniSync Inc and as a mentor for Founder Institute. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara’s Technology Management program, Caroline has supported hundreds of early-stage startups in accessing non-dilutive capital from the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.  

In addition to her work supporting founders, Caroline also works to empower and build innovation ecosystems, partnering with universities, small business development centers, accelerators, and more to support their entrepreneurial initiatives. 

Joseph Cabral is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship at Louisiana State University. As a native New Englander, he has a strong interest in the potential of the Blue Economy and leveraging the region’s strengths to create a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is particularly interested in the ways existing companies can serve as important collaborators for early Blue Economy-based startups. He does not have extensive industry knowledge in any specific domain. Rather, as an academic he has strengths in helping entrepreneurs refine their value propositions, enhance their business models and improving their ability to “message” to their stakeholders. He has served as a mentor and pitch coach for numerous startups from accelerator programs including offshore moorings for wind turbines, fisheries monitoring, and expanding seafood access and consumption. 

Matt Cadwallader started his professional life in 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 by combining his GIS and 

storytelling skills he was able to communicate his interpretation of ocean data to help clients ensure offshore operations were conducted within safe thresholds. After 15 years of delivering ocean current forecasts to oil and gas clients, Matt joined geophysical survey specialist, TerraSond in early 2022 and is now supporting the development of offshore wind on the east coast from a new base of operations in New Bedford. 

Patrick Curran has over 15 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, quality 

control, 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. 

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.    

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 currently leads the Ocean & Climate Innovation Accelerator (OCIA) which was launched by Analog Devices in partnership with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. OCIA is focused on developing and accelerating new ocean-based climate change solutions. 

Hautanen previously was the Innovation Manager at Waters Corporation’s Immerse Innovation Center, where she led 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 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. 

 Richard E. Hyman is an executive with broad domestic U.S. and international business experience in the telecommunications, technology, and biotechnology industries. He has held leadership positions in major corporations, early-stage businesses, and start-ups. His expertise includes sales, marketing, corporate development, and private equity. Today he does advisory and board work and teaches and mentors Fairfield University students and others about the environment and entrepreneurship. He guests lectures at schools and speaks publicly on a 

variety of topics including climate change, eco stewardship, endangered species and his adventures as a diver and crew member aboard the famous explorer Captain Jacques Cousteau’s ship Calypso https://www.richardehyman.com/. 

In recent years he founded www.futurefrogmen.org and its Blue Earth podcast https://anchor.fm/blueearth, a nonprofit that fosters future leaders to protect the ocean. In 2022 he merged the entity into www.savethesound.org and turned over operational responsibility. 

Sophia Kambanis is the Founder & Executive Director of the Massachusetts Innovation Network. Sophia is a seasoned C-suite professional with over 30 years of experience in profit and non-profit organization management, local and international market operations, multi-cultural team building, and crisis management during mergers and acquisitions. With an MBA in Statistics and Market Research, Sophia has designed market studies and implemented strategies for large multinational corporations (Unilever, CITIGroup, KraftHeinz, PepsiCo). Moving on to the client side, she has hired, 

empowered, and led a group of professionals to form the Marketing Division of a group of 5 independent and culturally diverse companies (in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Ukraine) that went through multiple M&As to create the largest glass manufacturing Group in Eastern Europe (Yioula Glassworks).  

For the past 6 years Sophia has been working closely with (Seed to Scale) start-up founders (both in the U.S. and internationally), to fuel their commercialization journey. Her focus is on successful business models, go-to-market strategies, market segment prioritization and investor pitches. Sophia serves as a Mentor for Blue Institute Labs; a Judge for MIT Enterprise Forum Greece; and a Judge for the SBIR START Program, MassVentures. 

 Neeraj Kestikar is a motivated and skilled professional with a passion for business analytics and finance. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Business Analytics with a focus on finance analytics at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, with an expected graduation date of May 2024. Neeraj has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Production Engineering from Kolhapur Institute of 

Technology’s College of Engineering, where he ranked fifth in order of merit of Shivaji 

University. Neeraj has a variety of relevant skills in software, including basic proficiency in 

Python, R, Tableau, Power BI, MySQL, and MS Office. He has also completed courses in 

Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting, Performance Management, Cost Management, Corporate 

Finance, Financial Statement Analysis, Decision Analysis, Risk Management, and Investment Decisions. Additionally, Neeraj has experience working on projects related to design and fabrication, as well as the manufacturing of prototypes. 

Neeraj has worked as a Junior Cost Analyst at Shri Datta Founders and Engineers Pvt. Ltd in India, where he played a key role in developing a venting system for casting to reduce the rejection rate by 4% and increase annual revenue by 25 lakh rupees. He also analyzed material price variance and labor rate variance, collaborated with other departments to take corrective actions, and identified strategies to minimize inventory carrying costs. Neeraj was also a member of the Budget Committee and was responsible for developing the annual production budget, as well as forecasting monthly production. 

Neeraj has also worked as an Apprentice at Bosch Ltd in India, where he conducted initial and bulk trials of bore grinding wheel and improved the efficiency of ball side grinding machine by reducing cycle time. 

He also coordinated a Kaizen management campaign and implemented 125 Kaizens on the shop floor and collected and analyzed parameter test results of chromium nitrate coated valve piece. Neeraj is currently working as a Procurement Operations Intern at the University of Massachusetts President’s office. 

In addition to his professional experience, Neeraj has demonstrated leadership through his involvement in various organizations. He served as Secretary of the Production Engineering Students Association, where he planned and organized a competition during a national level event held at KITCOEK. He also mentored two school students during the state level competition held at Nehru science center, Mumbai, India, and managed the backstage operations section during the annual cultural festival held at KITCOEK as a member of the Student Council. Neeraj is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and has won several awards and achievements, including the Economic Times Campus Stars program in 2019 and second prize in the Anveshana 2019 project competition held at Nehru Science Center, Mumbai. Neeraj won third prize in the industrial problem solver event held as a part of Jidnyasa 2018, a national level competition held at TKIET Warnanagar. 

Dr. Steffen Knodt is the Head of the Center for Sustainable Ocean Business at Fraunhofer. Steffen Knodt holds a PhD in engineering from RWTH Aachen and worked over his career for large corporates and startups. Within his recent positions Steffen Knodt focused his activities on corporate venture and impact entrepreneurship, what lead to 

his own consultancy deepblue.earth. He is on the advisory board of the Oceanovation Festival and a mentor for startups in various accelerator programs.  

Steffen Knodt serves a member of the board in the German Association for Marine Technology GMT and in the board of the German Committee for the UN Ocean Decade of Science for Sustainable Development. 

 Jeff Kraatz is a Technology & Blue Economy Entrepreneur. Jeff is an experienced global sales leader, entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, investor, Go To Market strategist, and best practices execution expert for private, and public technology and blue economy companies. Jeff is a customer centric team player with a “roll up your sleeves” approach to top line sales, and bottom-line profitability with a proven record of driving significant revenue growth results. Has founded numerous companies, been an 

effective single contributor through C level executive, is highly successful at fundraising, recruiting and building initial teams (or rebuilding teams), which has led to achieving successful company equity outcomes. 

Deep experience in SaaS sales and operations; enterprise software sales and services; mobility solutions; telecom carrier hardware, software, and networks; systems integration, B2G, security solutions; data networking; performance management and cloud monitoring; customer experience professional services; retail operations, recruiting & fulfillment solutions; climate tech & blue economy solutions; and cloud digital migration & managed services. 

Jeff is currently advising, and mentoring for selective startup companies, accelerators and the Blue Economy ecosystem Lived in Hong Kong for 5 years (customers and teams in China and throughout North Asia), excels at initial Go To Market business development, building and managing distributed global sales and support organizations, and channel partnerships (deep experience in US, APAC, EMEA, and India). Currently lives in Hawaii - but operates globally. 

Bob Melvin is the Chief Engineer at Teledyne Marine – Vehicles, where he focuses on autonomous underwater vehicles including gliders and AUVs. Bob is the co-founder of TestB4Design, sharing lean engineering principles and exploring innovative opportunities in the blue economy. Bob has a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and hold multiple patents in the areas of signal processing and oceanography. Bob considers himself a practical engineer always willing to share and learn. 

Bob enjoys identifying disruptive innovation opportunities and evaluating them with a business model analysis. As a mentor Bob likes to apply lean engineering principles to help improve success early in the life of a startup. 

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 Bachelor’s in applied physics, a Master’s 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. 

 Dr. Obulisamy Parthiba Karthikeyan (OPK) is an advisor and Chief (microbiology) at Austin Elements inc., Houston, Texas, USA. He has over 13 years of international research experience in the field of environmental microbiology and biotechnology. He also achieved few meritorious awards such as Association of Environmental 

Engineers and Sciences Profession (AEESP), USA, Australia-Thailand 

Early Career Research Exchange Award-2014, Sêr Cymru National Research Network for Low Carbon Energy and Environment Writing Fellowship and Award- 2018 (UK), and Ramalingaswamy Re-Entry Fellowship-2018 (India). Dr. 

OPK serve as a peer review member assessor for the United States Department of Agriculture 

(USDA)-USA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada, Horizon H2020-Marie SklodowskaCurie Individual Fellowships-Europe, Australian Research Council-Australia, and the Research 

Foundation – Flanders (FWO)- Belgium. He is associated editor for the Frontiers of 

Microbiotechnology and guest edited few special issues for few publishers such as Elsevier, Springer and MDPI. He has published more than 65 research/review articles in Scopus indexed journals, 2 books, 10 chapters and 2 editorials. His research interests and knowledge spans on various research topics including solid waste landfilling, Composting, Microbial engineering, Greenhouse gas fermentation into value products, waste biorefinery, Bioreactor engineering and Bioleaching of metals.

Omer Poroy serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Robotic Systems, Inc. He brings over 25 years of ocean technology experience to the group, spanning the Oceanographic, Offshore Energy and Naval Defense industries with extensive background in 

maritime autonomy, subsea robotics, integrated ocean sensors, naval systems engineering and manufactured products.  

Prior to joining SRS, Omer led enterprise-level strategy and business development initiatives through various campaigns encompassing Undersea Warfare, Maritime Autonomy and 

Distributed Maritime Operations at General Dynamics Mission Systems. Prior to General 

Dynamics, Omer held various leadership positions at Bluefin Robotics and Teledyne Technologies. 

Omer received his MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of 

Management, and holds Ocean Engineering degrees from Florida Institute of Technology. 

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 on the boards of a number of non-profits in the human services ecosystem and is now serving as a Commissioner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. 

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 and an instructor for I-Corps, core competencies include Customer Discovery. 

Dr. Antares Ramos-Álvarez is a geographer and marine environmental conservation strategist with over 20 years of experience in the environmental conservation field. A Puerto Rico (PR) native, she has worked with NGOs as well as local and federal governments in Mexico, 

Hawaii, and the Caribbean. Antares has a BA in Psychology from Yale University, an MSc in Geography focused on biodiversity, conservation and management of natural resources, and a DPhil in Zoology where she carried out an interdisciplinary study that culminated in policy recommendations, both from the University of Oxford. She has presented in local and international science and management forums on interdisciplinary approaches to marine and coastal resource conservation and management. Her work has focused on coastal zone management, marine protected areas, social sciences, marine resources assessment, interagency and multi-sector collaboration, coastal community resilience, ocean co-use, disaster recovery and climate change issues. She has led multi-sectoral teams on land, watershed and coral reef management and conservation efforts, from both federal and nonprofit roles. 

In 2019, Dr. Ramos-Álvarez founded her consultancy, focusing on developing innovative climate adaptation strategies for Caribbean islands as well as serving as a bridge between the scientific community and decision makers, including the public. In 2021, she co-founded Sail for Reefs, Inc., a nonprofit that aims to provide a bridge between water-based sports and the conservation of marine resources, mainly coral reefs, through education, interaction with the ocean (to help lose island-wide fear towards it) and habitat restoration work. Later in 2021, Dr. Ramos-Álvarez was appointed by the Vatican as a member of Pope Francis’s Laudato Sì Action Platform Economy Working Group. Since 2022 Antares has been pivoting to the renewable energy ecosystem. In February 2023 she became a member of the Department of Energy’s 

Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transitions to 100% Renewable Energy (PR100) Advisory Group. 

Dave Rossberg is an experienced leader and mentor with a background in business, engineering, operations, training, program, and project management, and scaling early-stage startups. He has owned and operated his own construction project management firm for the past three years, where he became very familiar with Government procurement. He is a 

former top-tier management consultant, having advised clients on commercial strategy, M&A strategy, and private equity transaction support / due diligence. 

Prior to entering the corporate world, Dave served 7 years in the US Navy as a Submarine Warfare Officer, deploying to both the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea and obtaining his certification as a Naval Nuclear Engineer in the process. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School with a focus on operations, strategy, and management and a BS in materials science and engineering from Penn State University with a minor in entrepreneurship. Dave loves talking about the ocean, blue-tech, climate-tech, energy (especially nuclear), advanced materials (especially sustainable building materials), and complex problems like carbon capture / sequestration. 

Matt Scheuer believes in leveraging innovative ideas in engineering, business, and policy to restore and protect marine ecosystems. Matt is an experienced startup founder, mechanical/ocean engineer, team leader, photographer, and technical diver. He aims 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. Matt decided to devote his life to ocean environmental issues. After a semester with Sea Education 

Association, he studied at University of New England in Biddeford, Maine for a degree in Marine Affairs and Oceanography. While at UNE I 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 Matt moved to Somerville, MA where he ran Electrona Robotics out of Greentown Labs, a startup incubator for environmental technology companies. The Team built several generations of affordable, work-tough ROV systems designed to empower ocean exploration, education, and research. Matt managed all facets of a blue tech startup company including engineering, fundraising, hiring, and marketing. 

Matt now works at Triton Systems where he develops prototypes and manages projects on their ocean systems and subsea vehicles team. 

Alexander Smolenski is a partner at Sunstein LLP focusing my 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. Alex counsel 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 an electronics engineer and environmental liaison. Alex received his JD from Roger Williams University School of Law, and  M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Rhode Island, and his B.S. in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Leslie Wickes is a marine scientist turned SaaS data intelligence product consultant who has served as a bridge between technical experts and decision makers across a broad range of subject matters and sectors. She began her career in deep-sea marine science, leading National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) efforts in carbonate chemistry 

monitoring of cold-water benthic habitats. In partnership with European universities, her work identified the biogeochemical mechanism by which we expect loss of cold-water reef habitats to decline at ecosystem scales. While at NOAA, she also spearheaded the development of automated software systems for ecological resource damage detection, working closely with NOAA leadership and the Department of Justice throughout the Deepwater Horizon National Resource Damage Assessment. 

Prior to her current role, she consulted with NOAA in several capacities, including the development of a framework for NOAA’s largest data archive to assess the economic value of open data hosted by Amazon Web Services and Google. She served as a regional engagement manager for NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program, synthesizing and translating scientific data to empower businesses and local and state governments to mitigate and adapt to coastal acidification. She also consulted for coastal counties in South Carolina, developing reuse strategies for flood-prone properties acquired through FEMA and CDBG-DR funding. In 2019, Leslie transitioned to Blackbaud, the largest cloud software company for social good organizations. As a senior strategic consultant, she has consulted with over 250 organizations, from local nonprofits to large public universities, to optimize their development operations, software systems, and growth strategies.