Our Team

Ocean Exchange Team

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.

As the CEO, Dawn is focused on growing the impact of StarterStudio and using this organization as a catalyst for building the tech sector throughout the region.

As a leader and mentor, Dawn draws on her deep and diverse background, including more than 35years of international leadership experience, having spearheaded strategic planning, innovation, business development, asset growth, operations, customer experience, and more for a range of companies of varying sizes and stages of growth.

Beyond her vast experience and leadership prowess, what Dawn brings to StarterStudio is a commitment to helping entrepreneurs turn their ideas into feasible, sustainable businesses. Her background enables her to help them identify the gaps between where they are and where they want to be, and to pinpoint what they need and need to do to bridge that gap.

Dawn earned an MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College. In addition to her experience in the private sector, having served in leadership positions with such global organizations as British Airways, Weight Watchers and the Walt Disney Company, she has also served in executive roles for several regional nonprofits and also as an adjunct professor teaching Strategic Management at the University of Central Florida-College of Business Administration.

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!’”