Solutions Review Team

Members of the Solutions Review team for the Neptune, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Orcelle®, and Ocean Exchange Transportation and Logistics Hubs Innovation Award are highly respected leaders in business, academia, engineering, and the not-for-profit community. Working on a pro bono basis, they are integral to the rigorous process that culminates in the presentation of these prestigious awards each year. Ocean Exchange estimates that this year, the value of their time spent in the selection and mentoring processes exceeded $150,000 USD.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Orcelle® Award
and Transportation Hub Award

Marc S. Adler

President, Marc Adler, LLC

Marc S. Adler is the President of a private intellectual property strategy consulting practice (Marc Adler LLC).

Adil Ashiq

Supply Chain & Logistics Innovation

Adil Ashiq is a noteworthy leader in the maritime industry.

Ann Carpenter

CEO, Co-founder of Braid Theory

Ann Lee Carpenter brings more than 30 years of experience in strategic planning, marketing, business development, and community outreach in private industry, nonprofit organizations, and as an entrepreneur.

Rick Claar

Partner, The Martec Group, Inc.

Richard E. Claar is a Partner of The Martec Group, Inc., a global technical marketing research consulting firm.

Nico De Golia

Sr Manager of Cloud Logistics Sustainability, Microsoft

Nico works with the transport and logistics industry to advance more sustainable, climate-resilient, and inclusive operations through collaborative initiatives and research.

Dawn Haynes

CEO at StarterStudio

Dawn Haynes is more than the CEO of StarterStudio. She is a mentor, a leader, a fount of knowledge and insight, and a visionary who is committed both to helping individual entrepreneurs realize their dreams and goals, and helping Orlando become a hub for successful start-ups and leading tech companies.

John Hogan

Director of Digital Platforms at Veolia

He is currently the Director of Digital Platforms at Veolia, where he specializes in developing solutions aimed at enhancing the efficiency of water purification and wastewater processing.

Kartik Hosanagar

Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Kartik Hosanagar is an entrepreneur and the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ted Janulis

Founder and Principal at Investable Oceans

Ted has served in various executive positions, including CEO, at financial institutions involved in Capital Markets, Banking and Asset Management over a 30+ year business career.

Eleanor Kirtley

Senior Program Manager, Green Marine

Dr. Eleanor Kirtley is the Senior Program Manager for Green Marine, North America’s leading environmental certification for the maritime industry.

Vesa Koivumaa

Sr. Area Sales Manager for Voyage Services division of Wärtsilä

Vesa Koivumaa is Sr. Area Sales Manager for Voyage Services division of Wärtsilä, a global leader in smart technologies and complete lifecycle solutions for the marine and energy markets.

Jeff Kraatz

Global Sales Leader & Entrepreneur

Experienced global sales leader, entrepreneur, mentor, advisor, investor, Go To Market strategist, applying best practices execution for private, public, and nonprofit technology companies.

Rachel Krasna

Environmental Policy Specialist | Federal Market Specialist at ECOncrete

Rachel Krasna is ECOncrete’s Environmental Policy Specialist | Federal Market Specialist. In her current role, she leads the company’s federal market priorities related to coastal, port and waterfront applications, as well as offshore wind.

Nickelle Presley

Advisor for climate and ocean tech startups

Nickelle is passionate about ocean health, planetary restoration, and mitigating the effects of climate change.

Scott Rohrbach

Scott is an experimental physicist by training, with technical expertise in the fields of nuclear physics, power generation systems, and optics.

David Samad

Senior manager, Maersk

David is currently a senior manager at Maersk, the world’s largest shipping and integrated transport company.

Eric Siegel

Executive in Residence, Ocean Startup Project, CDL Oceans, OFI OGEN

Eric has broad experience in many aspects of oceanographic and subsea technology, measurements, and science.

Mark Stevens

Principal Program Manager of Advanced Autonomy and Applied Robotics

Mark Stevens is a Principal Program Manager as part of the Advanced Autonomy and Applied Robotics team supporting commercial and government customers.

Jennifer Stokke Nyfennegger

Principal Technologist & Associate Vice President, Carollo Engineers, Inc.

Dr. Jennifer Nyfennegger is a Principal Technologist and Associate Vice President at Carollo Engineers, Inc. in Sarasota, Florida.

Roger Strevens

VP, Global Sustainability, Wallenius Wilhelmsen

As VP, Global Sustainability for Wallenius Wilhelmsen, Roger’s activities range from pushing for progressive, but pragmatic outcomes in environmental regulatory affairs to working with innovators and like-minded industry partners on the sustainability challenges of the logistics industry.

Jason Thompson

Chief Technology Officer, Oceankind

Jason Thompson is the Chief Technology Officer for Oceankind.  Prior to joining Oceankind Jason was on Verily’s founding team, Alphabet’s life sciences subsidiary spun out of Google X.

Anshul Tuteja

Associate Vice President with Royal Caribbean Group

Anshul is the Associate Vice President with Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE:RCL), one of the leading cruise companies in the world with a global fleet of 64 ships traveling to approximately 1,000 destinations around the world.

Raman Venkatesh

Chief Operating Officer of SAE International (SAEI)

Raman Venkatesh is a strategic advisor to various organizations and VC/PE funds, and to CEOs and boards of directors.

Poul Woodall

Poul Woodall has more than 45 years’ experience in the maritime world with a passion for climate and environmental issues.

Neptune Award

Marc S. Adler

President, Marc Adler, LLC

Marc S. Adler is the President of a private intellectual property strategy consulting practice (Marc Adler LLC).

Michele Arquette-Palermo

Water Policy Manager

Michele is the Water Policy Manager at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Ed Bailey

Director Program and Portfolio Development

Ed Bailey is the director of Program and Portfolio Development at Northwestern Michigan College.

Alison Barlow

Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Innovation District

Alison manages the District’s portfolio of collaborative projects including the Maritime and Defense Technology Hub

Aaron Berger

Research Scientist

Aaron Berger is a research scientist specializing in pattern recognition, domestic and foreign current events, and technology trends under the lens of existential risk.

Ann Carpenter

CEO, Co-founder of Braid Theory

Ann Lee Carpenter brings more than 30 years of experience in strategic planning, marketing, business development, and community outreach in private industry, nonprofit organizations, and as an entrepreneur.

David Chen

Senior Manager on Murata Electronics Americas Corporate Venturing Team

David’s responsibilities include reviewing promising new scientific research areas, understanding market dynamics, regulatory frameworks, investment trends.

Sarah Deslauriers

Vice President, Carollo Engineers

Sarah is a Vice President for Carollo Engineers and serves as their National Climate Change and Resilience Lead and Chief Technologist in Sustainability.

Dick Dodge

Dean Emeritus & Professor Emeritus, Nova Southeastern University Halmos College of Arts and Sciences & the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center

Dr. Richard E. Dodge is Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus at the Nova Southeastern University Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center.

Karen Frost

Program Manager

Karen is responsible for global economic development activities and innovation programs for The Water Council.

Laëtitia Gombaud-Saintonge

Investment Associate, SWEN Blue Ocean

Laëtitia is an Investment Associate at SWEN Blue Ocean, an impact VC fund investing in innovations that promote ocean health, focusing on solutions to overfishing, pollution and climate change.

Tim Grant

Founder and former CTO of Blue Triangle

Tim Grant, MBA, is a dynamic technology executive boasting over 25 years in the enterprise software industry, including 11 years at the C-suite level.

Rick Harris

Chief Scientist OTECH

Dr. Harrishas worked for 38 ears on the analysis, design, and testing of marine vehicles.

Mairead Helmes

Senior Consultant, Amane Advisors

Mairead is a Senior Consultant with Amane Advisors, a global management consultancy and advisory firm focused on the water industry.

John Hogan

Director of Digital Platforms at Veolia

He is currently the Director of Digital Platforms at Veolia, where he specializes in developing solutions aimed at enhancing the efficiency of water purification and wastewater processing.

Kartik Hosanagar

Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Kartik Hosanagar is an entrepreneur and the John C. Hower Professor of Technology and Digital Business and a Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Robert Hueter

Chief Scientist at OCEARCH

Dr. Robert (Bob) Hueter is a professional marine scientist with more than four decades of experience specializing in the biology, fisheries, and conservation of sharks.

Stephanie Ingle

Market Stretegist at FUGRO

Stephanie Ingle, PhD has over 25 years of experience in earth and ocean scientific exploration and sustained ocean observation

Vittorio Lacagnina

Partner in Institutional Client and Product Solutions at Apollo

Vittorio, a Partner in Institutional Client and Product Solutions at Apollo, began his career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs

Christopher Mackin

Partner, Wealth AdvisorPartner, Wealth Advisor Bleakley Financial Group

Christopher Mackin is a 3x recognized Forbes Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisor, explorer, philanthropist and connector.

Justin Manley

Virtual CxO – Technologist, Executive, Advisor in Oceantech and Robotics

Justin Manley is an innovative technologist and executive with experience in startup, public corporation, academic, and public sectors.

Stephanie Miele

Owner and Chief Operating Officer at International Training

Stephanie’s journey began at the University of Rhode Island, where she earned a degree inmarine and maritime affairs.

Deb Mosca

Chief Life Science Officer, XCMR Inc.

Deborah A. Mosca, Ph.D., Chief Life Science Officer, XCMR Inc., has more than 40 years of experience as a proven leader of multi-disciplinary, interinstitutional project teams in various organizations.

Ken Nagengast

Independent Consultant, Coherentel Consulting

Ken Nagengast is an independent consultant and experienced technology Leader with a demonstrated history of working in Marine, Telecommunication & Defense industries.

Stephan O’Brien

Senior Research Associate, University of South Florida

Hydrographic Scientist with experience in multibeam mapping, multibeam backscatter, and investigating sediment and particulate matter transport pathways.

Katherine O’Fallon

Executive director of the Marine Research Hub

Katherine O’Fallon is the executive director of the Marine Research Hub since October of 2022.

Gabriella Richardson

Lawyer and Director of Sponsorship for Young Professionals in Yachting UK.

Gabbi was one of the first employees at Seed Legals – a high growth tech startup in London backed by Index Ventures.

Cathy Sakas

Co-Founder, Ocean Exchange

From her earliest memories Cathy’s unwavering passion has been Ocean.

Gary Michael Wieboldt

System Engineer for the Intelligence Community

Mr. Wieboldt has over 40 years of experience in complex systems development encompassing the complete life cycle.

Lucas Wissmann

Impact Entrepreneur

Lucas Wissmann is an impact entrepreneur who has a knack for commercialization and leading teams to successful outcomes.

Contact Us

Ocean Exchange invites you to learn more about Awards Program, our ecosystem and success of our award winners and participants. Together, we can chart a powerful course to help ensure the future of our oceans and the Blue Economy.

“Ocean Exchange has a platform to enable people with information that they need to know about the ocean and then to showcase new technologies that are on the forefront of really helping the ocean and the planet.”

“The quality of the content and the people who are involved with Ocean Exchange is all high end.”

“Besides funding, Ocean Exchange provides access to a wide area network of incredibly talented people in organizations that really do just want to help people.”

“Ocean Exchange is really about helping the little guys grow and in so doing, helping the big guys be better ocean citizens.”

“Ocean Exchange seems to be much more focused on bringing to light under-capitalized, wonderful new technology ideas. And it’s all about two-way access to this new technology and to the people who can help with the experience to grow that technology.”

“Ocean Exchange is a force multiplier to enable sustainable innovation.”

“Ocean Exchange is a global, novel innovation forum that has a greater ability to attract a broader range of impactful stakeholders than any other event that’s out there.”

“Unquestionably, one of Ocean Exchange’s primary strengths is how it brings together people from different paths. That makes its event a delegator experience as well as experience for an innovator or awards nominee.”

“Ocean Exchange is entirely different from any of the other organizations that I’m involved in. It is about sustainable innovation. I think it’s also very different in the extremely broad range of stakeholders that it involves.”

“There’s nothing better than going to an event or engaging with people so you walk away and say, ‘Wow!’”