Ingredient Companies | |
AgriProtein, John Diener, Executive Director: In 2017, John joined AgriProtein, a global leader in insect protein and oils with a current production capacity of 2,000 tons. Prior to joining AgriProtein he was the CEO of leading Asian aquaculture nutrition and genetics company Gold Coin/SyAqua. Over the last decade John developed a passion for AgTech and sustainable food production and actively invests in and promotes the development of the AgTech sector in Asia where he has lived for the last 25 years. He holds an AB in Economics from the University of Chicago and an M.Sc. in Sustainable Aquaculture from the University of St. Andrews. | |
Algae4ALL, Amha Belay, Ph.D., CEO: Dr. Belay is currently the CEO of Algae4All, LLC, a consulting company focused on algae biomass production, quality assurance, product development, regulatory guidance, management, project evaluation and education. Up to recently, Dr. Belay was Sr. Vice President and CTO of Earthrise Nutritionals, a company that has been engaged in outdoor Spirulina biomass production for food, feed and nutraceuticals for about 40 years. He oversaw all scientific, technical and regulatory aspects of Spirulina production. Dr. Belay has extensive experience in microalgae biomass production, algal product development, quality assurance and health and other applications of algae in general and Spirulina in particular. He is actively engaged in research on algae production for food, feed, fuel and biochemicals. | |
Alltech/Coppens, Alex Tsappis, U.S. Aquaculture Business Manager: Alex Tsappis is an experienced Animal Nutritionist with a specialization in dairy and pet food formulation and sales. He has a bachelor’s degree in animal nutrition from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Business Administration from the Cyprus International Institute of Management. Alltech/Coppens is actively replacing fish oil with algae-derived DHA in aquaculture feeds producing over 20,000 tons/year. | |
Aquaculture Innovation, Sunil Kadri, Ph.D., CEO: Sunil has spent over 30 years working in global aquaculture, including farming, developing country projects and research, as well as R&D, commercialisation and sales of disruptive technologies. After completing his Ph.D., he joined a startup commercializing a fish feeding technology, which led to his becoming a founding shareholder of the AKVA Group. He later commercialized a biotech for salmon which was licensed to Europharma where he still holds a Board position. He was also Head of Sales and Business Development at Ridley, where he developed an interest in alternative feed ingredients. Sunil continues to work with startups and investors targeting aquaculture. | |
Blue Evolution, Beau Perry, Founder and CEO: Beau is the Founder and CEO of Blue Evolution. A mariculturist and entrepreneur, Beau manages Blue Evolution's strategy and direction. Beau received a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University and a Master’s in Sustainable Business from Presidio Graduate School. | |
Abizer Khairullah, COO: Abizer brings front end technology vision into commercial product outcomes. With his 30 plus years of working experience in the food and beverage industry, he is in charge of bringing to fruition Blue Evolution’s vision of supplying sustainable seaweed products to food, feed, nutraceutical and alternative products markets. Abizer has deep experience in processing fruits, vegetables and fresh produce. Prior to joining Blue Evolution, Abizer ran a business providing product development and commercialization services to the food and beverage industry. He has led Functional areas of Science and Technology, Operations, Quality Assurance and Food safety and Technical Sales for large scale ingredient manufacturing operations. | |
Calysta, Allan LeBlanc, Vice President and FeedKind® Product Manager: Mr. LeBlanc served as Senior Director and FeedKind Product Manager from 2017-2019, and as Product Manager, FeedKind® from 2015 to 2017. He joined Calysta in 2013 as Director of Corporate Development. He is responsible for global market and sales strategy for Calysta aquaculture nutritional products. He also provides market intelligence guiding future product development. Mr. LeBlanc holds an MBA from the University of California-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida. | |
Cellana, Martin Sabarsky, CEO: Martin has served as CEO of Cellana since April 2011. Prior to joining the Company, from 2000 to 2007, he led the corporate development function at Diversa Corporation. Martin has an A.B. in Biology and Political Science from Brown University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. Cellana produces omega-3 rich microalgae for several markets. | |
Corbion, Jill Kauffman Johnson, Head of Global Market Development, Algae Ingredients: Jill leads Marketing, Sustainability and External Affairs efforts for Corbion’s Algae Ingredients business. Corbion produces AlgaPrime™ DHA, a sustainably produced algae-based marine omega-3, which is incorporated into feeds for numerous aquatic species today. Prior to joining Corbion, Jill was a Principal and Managing Director of California Environmental Associates (CEA). She was also the founding Director of the Pacific Coast Regional Office of the Ocean Conservancy. Jill holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University. | |
Chris Haacke, Global Aquaculture Lead: Chris Haacke is an international marketing, sales, and business management professional focused on global development of sustainable aquaculture. He is currently focused on bringing AlgaPrime™ DHA, a new traceable, sustainable, high-quality source of marine omega-3, to the global aquaculture industry. He has extensive experience within the aquaculture, animal health, and seafood sectors, all operating within an international business environment. | |
Evolutionary Mfg., Tyler Forvé, Founder: Collaborator, chef, writer, strategist, and advocate for all stages of the food production economy. Focused on the big picture. | |
Global Algae Innovations, Dave Hazlebeck, CEO: Dr. Hazlebeck has over 32 years experience in chemical and biological research and development from laboratory-scale through piloting and commercial implementation. For the past ten years, he has directed research and development on large-scale, innovative photosynthetic algae cultivation, harvesting and processing technologies. Dr. Hazlebeck is the inventor or co-inventor on 20 patents and 19 pending patent applications. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. | |
Green Plains Technologies, Glen Courtright, President and Founder: Glen Courtright has 30 years of combined experience as a successful entrepreneur in growing technology companies and as an executive in the biotech and telecommunications industries. As Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EnviroFlight, he led the company through successful technology development, industrial start up, product development and commercialization, as well as the sale of the company to Intrexon and the subsequent establishment of a Joint Venture with Darling Ingredients. Before founding EnviroFlight, he served in leadership positions at SAIC (Science Applications International Corporation). He is a veteran of the US Navy and US Air Force. | |
Green Stream Farms, Tom Richard, CEO (also representing Qualitas Health) | |
Heliae, Eneko Ganuza, Ph.D., Principal Investigator: Eneko is a lead scientist and a key innovator in the area of mixotrophy, one of the primary technology differentiators at Heliae. With nearly 10 years’ experience in the algae production industry, Eneko is now leading Heliae’s efforts to use the full potential of the metabolic versatility that is distinctive to microalgae. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Hull (UK) and University of Las Palmas (Spain), Eneko’s work on the synthesis of omega-3 fatty acid by heterotrophic microalgae was received with honors by a Nobel-Laureate led panel acting on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. | |
InnovaFeed, Maye Walraven, Head of Business Development: InnovaFeed is the largest insect biotech company in Europe that produces protein and oils from insects (Hermetia illucens) for animal feed. Maye Walraven is committed to improving the sustainability of food systems by working hand in hand with feed formulators, fish farmers, distributors, the public sector and NGOs to develop an alternative source of insect-based protein for animal feed. | |
KnipBio, Larry Feinberg, CEO: Larry Feinberg, Ph.D., is an entrepreneurial industrial biotechnologist and the CEO and co-founder of KnipBio. Larry completed his doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts where he focused on biogeochemistry, physiology and genetics of hyperthermophilic microbes. He has deep expertise in early-stage technology ventures and bio-product discovery. KnipBio produces sustainable protein sourced from microbes. | |
Menon Renewable Products, Suresh Menon, Ph.D. Founder and President: Dr. Menon is the chief architect in developing the novel MrFeed® functional ingredients for animal feeds. These ingredients help animals overcome anti-nutritional and disease factors, and support their health. Under his leadership, the company is in an advanced phase of commercial-scale deployment of products in over ten countries. Dr. Menon completed his Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM) at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, with specialization in life sciences and materials science, and associated work in robotics and automation for manufacturing. | |
National Renderers Association, Peng Li Ph.D., Regional Director: Dr. Li is an expert in aquaculture nutrition, especially in the area of protein, amino acid nutrition, and aquafeed additive research, and has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers on the subjects. Dr. Li earned a Ph.D. in nutrition from Texas A&M University where he was a recipient of the Distinguished Doctoral Research Award. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked for various research centers in China and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Aquaculture from the College of Fisheries Science, Ocean University of China. He began his employment with National Renderers Association in 2009. | |
NovoNutrients, David Tze, CEO: In 2017, David joined NovoNutrients, the “food from CO2” company, as investor and CEO. For a dozen years before that, he had been the manager and co-founder of Aquacopia Ventures, for which he held board or lead investor roles in five aquaculture companies, including one that built a mass production plant for microbial protein for aquafeed. The Aquacopia portfolio companies, along with the companies David founded, have raised over $250m. His early-career experience was internet-focused in strategy, general management, and entrepreneurship. He holds an economics AB from Princeton. | |
Novus International, Luis Azevedo, Executive Director of Business Development: Luis Azevedo is serving as Executive Director, Business Development accountable for mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances with Novus International, Inc. Luis held several sales, tech services, product, category and general management roles in his 25-year career with the company. Prior to his current role, Luis managed Novus nutrition & health through nutrition business in Latin America & Africa, two exciting frontiers in food production. A veterinarian from the Universidade Federal do Parana in Brasil, he has an MBA from the prestigious Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis. Luis lives with his family under the spectacular sky of Campinas in Brasil. | |
Nuseed, Malcolm Devine, Ph.D., R&D Lead, Omega 3 Program: Dr. Devine is a plant scientist with extensive experience in agricultural biotechnology in the public (academia and government research) and private sectors (both multi-nationals and startups). Since 2011 he has led Nuseed’s program to develop an alternative, land-based source of LC-PUFAs. In collaboration with CSIRO and GRDC in Australia, Nuseed has developed canola lines expressing DHA and EPA in the seed oil. This plant-based solution - Aquaterra™ - will help address the growing global demand for omega-3 oils and relieve pressure on wild fish stocks. | |
Benita Boettner, Global Lead, Commercial Strategy: At Nuseed, we are growing our business on a foundation of deep industry understanding, strong research capabilities, and excellence in market development to deliver value “Beyond Yield” in the agrifood sector. Benita is leading market development of an innovative plant-based omega-3 for aquaculture (Aquaterra™) and Human Nutrition (Nutriterra™). | |
Reed Mariculture, Tim Reed, Founder and CEO: Tim is the founder of Reed Mariculture – a company dedicated to providing superior solutions for aquarists and breeders in commercial hatcheries, research labs, public aquariums and homes. Tim is the originator of ideas and foundational research for the core competencies of Reed Mariculture Inc. (RMI) - microalgae, rotifers, copepods, zooplankton, artemia and larviculture. As CEO, he sets the direction for the company, so that it continues to stretch the boundaries of what before seemed impossible in marine aquaculture and related industries. | |
Reliance Industries, Uma Shankar Sagaram, Ph.D., Project Lead, Bioproducts Development: Uma Shankar Sagaram is a lead scientist at Reliance R&D Centre located in Mumbai, India. He has been with Reliance group for 6 years and his research areas involve strategic strain selection and technology improvement for productivity enhancement in open-ponds and photobioreactors. He currently leads R&D efforts aiming to test technical and economic feasibility of microalgae use in food feed and other high-value applications. Before joining Reliance, Uma worked on plant defensins of agricultural importance, at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, USA. He received his doctorate from Texas A&M University in Plant Microbiology. | |
San Francisco Bay Brand, Andreas Schmidt, President & Owner: San Francisco Bay Brand, Inc. is owned and operated by the Schmidt family, headed by Andreas who is a second-generation owner with more than 20 years experience in the aquarium fish food and aquaculture business. The primary products are brine shrimp eggs, brine shrimp, grasshoppers and mealworms that are supplied to zoos, hatcheries, aquariums and aquaculture industries. He was the president of The World Wide Pet Supply Association and president of the Pet Care Trust Association from 1999 to 2003. | |
Scoular, John A. Messerich, Sr. Vice President/Division GM: Mr. John Messerich serves as a Senior Vice President of The Scoular Company and has been its Division General Manager since April 6, 2017 and served as its Vice President of Operations. Mr. Messerich began his Scoular career in 1998 as a Senior Manager after Scoular acquired International Proteins Corporation (IPC) where he served as a Partner. | |
U.S. Soybean Export Council, Lukas Manomaitis, Aquaculture Program Technical Consultant/Southeast Asian Technical Director: Lukas has worked for over 20 years internationally in the seafood and aquaculture industries. Lukas is well-known in the aquaculture field, particularly in Southeast Asia (SEA), where he also served as President of the World Aquaculture Society Asian Pacific Chapter from 2011-2013. He has managed regional aquaculture programs in India and is currently overseeing the USSEC aquaculture program in SEA where he oversees a team of eight consultants and works actively in six SEA nations. As of 2016 his work for USSEC has expanded to a global level but still works with the USSEC Director of Aquaculture on technical issues. | |
Veramaris, Steven Severino, Director of New Business Development: Steven is US retail and consumer insights expert with a 20+ year track record of commercial success. Steven is excited to bring the algal EPA DHA Veramaris solution to market to create strategic partnerships for growth across the value chain. Before joining Veramaris last year, he gained experience in business development and sales at DSM, Seventh Generation, ProPhase Labs, Johnson & Johnson and IRI. He has an MBA from Seton Hall University. | |
Christian Martin, Global Business Development Director: Christian has nearly 15 years of experience in marketing biosciences. He has been with DSM for over 7 years and is the Marketing Workstream Lead for Veramaris, DSM’s joint venture with Evonik to create omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA from natural marine algae, since 2015. He has a B.S. in Neurobiology and Physiology from the University of Maryland and a M.S. in Biotechnology from The Johns Hopkins University. | |
Feed Companies | |
Aller Aqua (Qingdao), Anders Bylling, CEO and Managing Director: Anders received his M.Sc. in Advanced Economics and Finance from Aarhus University in Denmark in 2010 and began his management career at the Telenor Group, eventually becoming the company’s Head of Device & Supply Chain Management. In 2016, Anders started as the Managing Director with Aller Aqua, after serving on the company board for three years. Aller Aqua has factories in Denmark, Poland, Germany, Egypt, China and Zambia, and exports their feed products to more than 60 countries worldwide. | |
BioMar, Vidar Gundersen, Global Sustainability Director: Vidar’s career in the aquaculture arena began in the mid-90s when he worked part-time as a fish farmer while attending high school. After obtaining a master’s degree in marine biotechnology he entered the fish feed manufacturing business; Gundersen has since specialized in sustainability in the aquaculture industry playing a leadership role in online and traditional marketing, business development, and new product launches. BioMar is one of the leading suppliers of high performance fish feed to the aquaculture industry worldwide. | |
Cargill Aqua Nutrition, Dave Robb, Ph.D., Sustainability Manager: Dave’s 25-year career in aquaculture has seen him move from a researcher on salmon to a senior management position in a feed company in Vietnam, through the Middle East, to Sustainability Manager for Cargill Aquaculture Nutrition. His work has included: company management, business development, feed research and development, and industry training, but now focuses on sustainability issues across Cargill’s feed business. This brings exciting opportunities to work at scale on sustainable feed and farming topics with a broad range of stakeholders. | |
Guangdong Evergreen Feed Industry, Yongjie Jiang, Deputy Director of Freshwater Fish Feed Research Center: Dr. Jiang joined Evergreen in 2006 and is currently responsible for the research and development and formulation of freshwater fish feed. He has led or participated in 18 scientific research projects, including 3 national projects, 5 provincial projects, and 11 municipal-level science and technology projects. His projects have received a number of prestigious awards from the State Oceanic Administration and the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Chinese Federation of Industry and Commerce. He has published extensively and obtained more than 10 patents granted by the state, and 5 of them have won municipal-level patent bonus awards and excellent awards. | |
Serena Wu: Assistant, International Exchange Department, Evergreen Company | |
HAID Group, Kai Li, Senior Aquafeed Nutritionist, Manager: Joining Haid in 2007, Mr. Li has rich experience in aquaculture nutrition research and feed formulation for aquatic animals. He holds an advanced degree in aquaculture nutrition from Shanghai Ocean University. | |
Japfa Group, Ardi Budiono, Vice President - Head of Feed & Support: Domiciled in Indonesia. He graduated from Business International Trade of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), University of Melbourne. He joined the company in 1993. Currently he serves as Vice President in charge of aquafeed, shrimp hatchery, fish hatchery and shrimp ponds operations of PT Suri Tani Pemuka (Japfa aquaculture division). Previously, he served as the Vice President, Head of Feed Japfa India (2007 – 2016). Matthew Fang Ping Lim, Business Development & Strategy: Matthew is a member of the Strategic Business Development Division of the Japfa Group. He previously held a Corporate Finance role being part of various corporate actions including KKR investment in the Company. He attended the University of Southern California graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Minor in Business Administration. Erwin Suwendi, Head of Nutrition and Feed Technology: Erwin graduated with a B.Sc. in Aquaculture from Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia. He completed his M.Sc. in Nutritional Biochemistry from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2011 where his work primarily focused on the impact of food components on gastrointestinal health. He further advanced to satisfactorily complete “The Advanced Aquaculture Nutrition Training Program” with the UG/OMNR FNRL, University of Guelph, Canada in 2012. He currently leads nutrition and formulation of species-specific, quality control and feed technology in feedmill, applied innovative nutritional research with emphasis on reinventing cost-effective nutrient balanced diet as well as minimizing waste output. | |
New Hope Liuhe, Xizhang Gu, Ph.D., Technical Manager and Senior Aquatic Nutritionist, Product Management Team Leader: New Hope Liuhe Co., Ltd. was founded in 1998 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on March 11, 1998. The company is based on the agriculture and animal husbandry industry and focuses on steady development. The business involves feed, breeding, meat products and financial investment, commerce and trade. The company has operations in more than 20 countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Egypt and the United States. In each country, there are more than 500 branches and subsidiaries, and 61,000 employees. The annual output of feed is nearly 20 million tons. | |
Nutreco, Jose Villalon, Corporate Sustainability Director: Jose received his M.S. at the University of Washington. He spent 27 years as a shrimp farmer in Latin America before joining the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 to lead its aquaculture program, which created environmental/social standards for 12 species of commodity products including salmon and shrimp. With WWF and partners, he founded the independent Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). For the last decade he has been an outspoken ambassador for producing more with less by farming protein responsibly. Progressive research by Nutreco has lowered the inclusion rate of fishmeal over the years, without having a negative impact on growth, health or fish quality. | |
Prairie AquaTech, Steven R. Craig, Ph.D., Co-Director of Product and Feed Development: Dr. Craig received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M in 1994. After seven years as an Associate Professor of Aquaculture Nutrition at Virginia Tech, he left to join Low Salinity Inc/Virginia Cobia Farms as a Senior Research Scientist 2008-2014. His research program has focused upon nutritional requirements for emerging aquaculture species, authoring over 45 papers in the scientific literature with over 28 years’ experience with warm water marine fish and shrimp. In his position at LSI, Dr. Craig was responsible for the development and implementation of the first commercial fish meal-free aquafeed designed for marine carnivorous fish. He co-founded Aquaculture Associates, LLC, which Prairie AquaTech, a feed ingredient manufacturer, acquired in December of 2016. Dr. Craig currently serves as Co-Director of Product and Feed Development of Prairie AquaTech. | |
Tongwei, Kai Peng, Ph.D., Senior Technical Expert: Dr. Kai Peng serves as Tongwei’s senior technical expert and research scientist at the Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science. His research addresses a broad range of topics relating to development of novel feed additives and alternative protein ingredients (e.g., insect protein and plant protein), nutrient requirement and applied basic research on antioxidant and immunity of aquatic animals. | |
Wild Earth, Ron Shigeta, Ph.D., Chief Science Officer: Ron did his academic training at Princeton, Stanford and Harvard Medical School, and is a 15 year veteran of biotech in the Bay Area, working at Affymetrix and as a serial biotech startup entrepreneur. Ron is a veteran of the biotechnology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area and has built several startups during his industry career as employee, consultant and principal. Ron was a scientist for Affymetrix, a bioinformatician, biohacker (at BioCurious) and co-founder of Berkeley BioLabs. | |
Yuehai Feed Group, Xuezhi Zhu, Ph.D., Deputy CTO: Dr. Zhu is currently the Deputy Director of Technology of Yuehai Company. She is mainly responsible for the optimization of feed formulation and research on fish immunity, physiology and nutrition. | |
Xuekun Ma, Ph.D., Technical Director: Dr. Xuekun Ma is the vice technical manager of Yuehai Feed Company. He is in charge of Yuehai's research and development of feed for high-value fish species. | |
Zeigler Brothers, Craig Browdy, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development: Dr. Browdy has over 30 years experience in aquaculture, managing commercial, academic, and government research programs focusing basic and applied science for innovative technology development. He is a past president and fellow of the World Aquaculture Society. His contributions include: development of commercial products, advancement of production systems, improvement of fish and shrimp health and nutrition, and enhancement of seafood quality. Dr. Browdy has edited three books and has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. Currently, he is the director of research and development for Zeigler Brothers Inc., an innovative global specialty feed company. | |
ZHD (CP China), Jinzhu Zhao, Ph.D., Technical Manager and Principal Scientist: Dr. Jinzhu Zhao is the technical manager and principal fish nutrition scientist of CP Group China (ZHD). He is in charge of ZHD's North, East, and Central China markets. | |
Aquafarms | |
Dainichi Corporation, Makoto Tamaru, President: Established in 1982, Dainichi Corp specializes in the manufacture, import, and sales of aquaculture feeds, medicants, equipment, and marine products. Dainichi employees and stakeholders pride themselves on being industry leaders and work to create healthy, delicious, nutritious and traceable seafood. Dainichi believes a multidirectional approach that encompasses an unwavering improvement in feed and farming technology is needed with a global field of vision. Makoto Tamaru joined the Dainichi Corporation in 1995. He was promoted to the General Sales Manager overseeing formula feed and fresh seafood sales in 2005. In 2007, he became the Chief Executive Officer of the Dainichi Corporation. | |
Boyd Way, Foreign Trade Manager: Boyd joined the Dainichi Corporation in 1992 and became the Foreign Trade Manager in 2001, where he is responsible for the import of formula feed, raw materials from South and Central America, and aquaculture equipment from Australia. In 2007, Boyd became a member of Dainichi’s board of directors. | |
Kampachi Farms, Neil Anthony Sims, Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer: Neil is co-Founder/CSO of Kampachi Worldwide, in Kona, Hawaii. Kampachi Worldwide produces King Kampachi™ from an offshore farm in the Sea of Cortez; and is pioneering offshore aquaculture in Gulf of Mexico; and developing culture systems for herbivorous marine fish and macroalgae. Neil has led pioneering teams in offshore farming, pearl oyster culture and marine fish hatchery technology, including the Velella project: untethered, offshore ‘drifter pens’; and “over-the-horizon aquaculture”™ - an unmanned net-pen operation in 6,000 ft of water, 6 nm offshore. Neil is founding President of the Ocean Stewards Institute – the open ocean aquaculture trade association. | |
Lisa Vollbrecht, Research Manager: Lisa coordinates Kampachi’s research efforts, manages the team, and works closely with public and private partners. Her upbringing in the farmlands of Southern Ontario, Canada instilled a great respect for food producers. Paired with a deep-rooted connection to, and passion for, the conservation of our wild places and communal resources, she easily gravitated into open ocean aquaculture. She earned her B.Sc. in marine and freshwater biology from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. | |
Minh Phu AquaMekong, Loc Tran, Ph.D., Chairman, Senior Advisor: Dr. Loc Tran is Chairman and Senior Advisor for Minh Phu AquaMekong. Dr. Tran is also the founder and director of ShrimpVet Laboratory in Vietnam where he leads a team of more than 70 researchers. Dr. Loc Tran received his Ph.D. in aquaculture Pathology from the University of Arizona, where he studied under Dr. Donald Lightner, renowned aquaculture pathologist. While working as a research assistant at the University of Arizona, Dr. Loc Tran was instrumental in the identification EMS and development of diagnostic tools used for on farm management. He is Assistant Professor, Department of Aquaculture Pathology, at the College of Fisheries, Nong Lam University at HCMC, Vietnam and continues to collaborate with the University of Arizona in several research and extension projects. | |
Ngan Nguyen, Laboratory Manager: | |
Mowi, Laura Martinez-Rubio, Ph.D., Research, Development and Technical Manager for Feed: Dr. Laura Martinez-Rubio has been with Mowi’s Feed Division since 2014. She started out as a formulator and after delivering exceptional results under pressure, she was promoted to research and development manager. She is determined to improve fish nutrition and create more sustainable fish feeds that lead to better performance and robustness of farmed fish. Mowi is the largest company in farmed salmon and trout, representing 25-30% of the entire market. | |
Pacific Aquafarms, Paul Engh, Project Lead of Sustainability/ Organics: Paul is a real estate developer, energy storage pioneer (Mobile Solar), and aquafeed developer (Imperial Aquafeed, Yellowfin Tuna Study Group). Pacific Aquafarms (PA) is a world leader in aquafeed innovation, high rate water systems and geothermal aquaculture. PA has successfully grown multiple saltwater and freshwater fish, shrimp and macroalgae products. The farm’s current focus is on catfish, tilapia and shrimp. | |
Spring Salmon, Jesse Trushenski, Ph.D., Director of Science: As Director of Science for Spring Salmon and its companies, Evaqua Farms and Riverence, Dr. Trushenski leads fish health management for both companies, provides recommendations for improved operations, and ensures regulatory compliance. She provides science leadership and research management support for the company’s various aquaculture endeavors. Whether it’s fish nutrition, physiology, or health, Jesse has always been driven by the practical applications of science, going from data to information and information to action. | |
Tsar Nicoulai Caviar, Otto Szilagyi, Vice President: Otto is a partner and manager in Tsar Nicoulai Caviar, a 46-acre fish farm, production and processing facility, and closed-loop model of sustainable caviar production. | |
TwoXSea, FISH Restaurant, Bill Foss, Co-Founder: Bill Foss is a successful Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Netscape Communications and Global Crossing and ended up as a North Bay restaurateur (FISH restaurant, Kenwood, Foss Vineyard) and fish farmer in order to develop sustainable, vegetarian feed for rainbow trout at McFarland Springs Farm. In 2009, Bill and Kenny Belov founded TwoXSea, a sustainable seafood purveyor in San Francisco. Since then, the pair have become some of the planet’s most strident advocates for sustainable seafood. | |
Synbio Companies | |
Hexagon Bio, Maureen Hillenmeyer, Ph.D., Founder and CEO: Maureen co-founded Hexagon in 2017. Previously, she was director of the Genomes to Natural Products program and group leader at the Stanford Technology Genome Center. She has a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from Stanford University and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame. | |
Intrexon, Todd Bixby, Director of Technology and Innovation: Todd Bixby is a life sciences, biotechnology and public health professional with over 20 years experience focused on biomedical research, development of advanced technologies, clinical diagnostics and global public health programs. He has experience functioning in technology analysis, basic and applied research, R&D, project management, marketing, business development and strategic planning roles. He is currently industrializing synthetic biology and biological engineering for applications spanning human therapeutics, environmental interventions, and sustainable agricultural, food, energy and consumer products. | |
Nefertiti Biotech, Susan Daudelin, Founder: Susan is an expert in the biotechnology innovation ecosystem. Her expertise and experience are in intellectual property, technology transfer and business development, as well as in how industry, academia and government all work together to create biotechnology solutions to pressing problems. She has worked with both scientists and business people in moving products from concept through development to the marketplace. She led the effort at a large public research institution to educate the community on the process of innovating, advancing product development, working with industry, and technology transfer. Nefertiti Biotech helps biotechnology startups navigate the biotechnology innovation ecosystem. | |
Pacific Biosciences, Emily Hatas, Senior Director of Business Development: Emily is a market and business development professional in genomics & life science currently leading market development strategy for the agriculture & industrial vertical at PacBio, the world leader in long-read DNA sequencing technology. She works with R&D, commercial staff and external partners to design and deliver cutting-edge genomics applications, enabling the development of sustainable crop, livestock, food and industrial products. She has worked 8+ years on the intersection of genomics and agriculture, with progressing roles in biological research, technology licensing, strategic marketing and business development. | |
Pivot Bio, Keira Haven, Industry and Regulatory Affairs Manager: Ms. Havens received her B.S. in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics from the Illinois Institute of Technology and later accepted a commission in the United States Air Force. She left active duty to pursue a Master’s degree in computational biology at CSU. She recently formed Revolution Bioengineering with colleague Nikolai Braun, specializing in creative synthetic biology solutions for industry and academia. | |
TeselaGen Biotechnology, Mike Fero, Ph.D., CEO: Mike is a California scientist and entrepreneur, best known for his elementary particle work at CERN and SLAC, human genome microarrays at Stanford, and synthetic biology at TeselaGen. Prior to founding TeselaGen, Dr. Fero was an NIH Quantitative Research Career Fellow and principal investigator at Stanford, studying the role of protein localization and the essential genomic elements needed for bacterial life. With Pat Brown and David Botstein, Michael directed the development of the first full-genome human DNA microarrays. Before joining Stanford, he was VP of Software Engineering at Neomorphic, a computational genomics company, and a consulting scientist at Hyperparallel, a data mining company acquired by Yahoo!. | |
Tierra Biosciences, Louis Metzger, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer: Dr. Metzger was a former principal scientist in the Infectious Diseases division of Novartis AG, then as a mentor at IndieBio before working up to become the Chief Scientific Officer at Tierra Biosciences. Dr. Metzger is a protein biochemist, enzymologist, and lipid biochemist. He is fascinated by the processes of membrane biogenesis and homeostasis and believes that the precise manipulation of biological processes will be the defining technological driver of human economic activity in the coming decades. | |
Investors | |
AiiM Partners, Shally Shanker, Founder & Managing Partner: AiiM Partners Fund invests in companies building technologies that solve complex social and environmental issues, with a focus on oceans and how they affect and are affected by land/agriculture and air/energy. Prior to launching AiiM this year, Shally Shanker, CFA, was the Director of Mission Investing at the Schmidt Family Foundation and seven years prior to that, she was the Investment Officer at The Schmidt Family Foundation and Vice President of Investments at Hillspire, LLC. In addition to her investment experience, she also worked at the Stanford Solutions Science Lab at the Stanford School of Medicine building a community-based intervention program for childhood obesity prevention among low income, at-risk communities. She was recently invited to join the Queen's Commonwealth Trust Advisory Board. | |
Aqua-Spark, Mike Velings, Co-Founder and Managing Partner: A lifelong entrepreneur, Mike has spent decades jumpstarting a range of successful businesses. Among other ventures, he co-founded Connexie, which has helped catalyze a professional employment industry across the Netherlands. Mike naturally combines his business background with environmental and social engagement to create durable solutions to complex world problems, including founding Aqua-Spark Good Ventures to assist startups for positive world-change around the globe from organic food to transportation in India, that are good for the planet, the population, and future generations. | |
Excelsior Impact Fund, Tony Stayner, Managing Director: After a successful career in Silicon Valley managing and advising in high growth situations, Tony is now focused more on maximizing the impact of his investing and non-profit work. Tony is a member of TONIIC’s 100% Impact Portfolio, the managing director of the Excelsior Impact Fund, and a partner and board member of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund. Tony is a venture partner at Draper Richards Kaplan and on the board of trustees of the Pacific Institute, a water sustainability think tank, and of Water.org, who is using microfinance to catalyze system change in the clean water and sanitation sector. Tony’s MBA is from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and JD is from the University of California at Berkeley’s School of Law. | |
Fish 2.0, Monica Jain, Founder and Executive Director: Monica has 20 years of work experience in the private sector, philanthropy, innovative financing strategies, and structures for impact investors, foundations, and private sector–non-profit partnerships. Her background is in marine biology, fisheries and social change. She started and grew the Avina Foundation from 1993-2000. In finance, she has worked with private banks and venture capital firms in both the U.S. and Europe. She has also been a strategic consultant to several private foundations and multinational corporations. During the course of her career, Monica has worked side by side with over 200 organizations and individual change leaders globally in the creation of their visions and ventures. | |
Genoa Ventures, Jonathan Burbaum, Venture Partner: Since 2018, Jonathan has been a Venture Partner with Genoa Ventures. Genoa Ventures invests in visionary startups to develop innovative life science technologies that don't fit neatly into most VC’s patterns and boxes. These technologies reflect an appetite for technology-driven opportunities where life science intersects with other disciplines, such that we invest in opportunities outside of pure healthcare, ranging from research tools to biodefense applications. We take the time to understand the science, the technology, the applications and the markets, to help our portfolio companies achieve their full potential. | |
Hatch, Carsten Krome, Ph.D., CEO: Carsten worked as a technical analyst for an aquaculture investment fund before launching Alimentos Ventures. He oversaw equity investments in various aquaculture feed, health, IT and production startups. Carsten holds a Ph.D. in aquaculture nutrition from the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling. | |
Hemisphere Ventures, Lisa Rich, Founder and Managing Director: Lisa Rich is a lifelong entrepreneur and strategist who runs Hemisphere Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm focused on synthetic biology, robotics, drones and space. Hemisphere has invested in +200 companies, including Finless Foods, Miraculex, LunaPBC, Orphidia and Axiom Space. In 2000, Lisa and her husband Jeff Rich created BrainyQuote, the world's largest quotation resource. Lisa created the first websites and digital strategies for major brands and companies at the birth of the Internet. She holds a B.S. in English from Loyola University Chicago and M.S. in MarCom/E-commerce from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. | |
Mitsui & Co., Amane Kimura, Director of the Nutri-Science Department: Amane Kimura started as a sales associate at Mitsui after graduating from Hitotsubashi University in 2006. For the past 14 years, he has worked his way all the way to Director of the Nutri-Science Department where he is the business development and investment director of animal and human nutrition. His mission is to build a better food value chain and ecosystem to feed the world. He is dedicated to creating sustainable products while maintaining and improving nutrition, taste, and experience for consumers at an affordable price. | |
Montcalm Capital, David Cooper, Managing Partner: David Cooper has 20 years of experience directing the acquisition, financing, ownership, and disposition of early-stage companies. David brings a deep knowledge of equity transactions including due diligence, structuring, closing, and operational management. He has a track record of profitable impact investing, strategic advising, and has long-standing relationships with key industry participants in multi-cycle finance, growth, and disposition. David leads business development, alternative asset finance, and impact due diligence. He and the Montcalm team create offerings that match risk with returns and reconnect investors with the performance of the companies they invest in. David selects companies in need of growth financing that make a positive impact in the world – without sacrificing returns. | |
Oakrock HL AS, Petter Kleppan: Petter Kleppan is Executive Chairman of the The Avalanche Company, a social impact company dedicated for social causes or enterprises that is driving a healthy sustainable strategy. At The Avalanche Company he architected campaigns for increased protein supply, energy advancement and youth civic leadership. Petter was an investor with Oakrock Haksen Lindestuen AS who has ownership interests in other investment companies, Bivrost Capital, T-lab Capital. Petter has co-founded companies in the fields of aerospace (Kistler Aerospace Corporation that won a $207M contract in 2006), software and semantic and contextual data analytics (Fast Search and Transfer) and most recently founded Grupo Senseta with data analytics and drone mission operations across three continents. He serves on boards and advisory boards: Senseta, Lithium Werks (co-owner), Bivrost Capital AS, T-lab Capital AS, CageEye AS, The Avalanche Company, Northern Mill (Executive Chairman). Petter is an alum of Cornell University where he participated in a Silicon Valley Course program, and holds degrees and academic credits from the Norwegian School of Management (BI) and the Handelshochschule Leipzig (HHL) in Germany. | |
Temasek, Ryan Rakestraw, Associate Director: At Temasek, Ryan oversees early stage venture capital investments across the food and agriculture value chain. Given the importance of agricultural and food-related innovation needed to feed a growing global population, to support better nutrition, and to increase the sustainability of global agricultural production - Temasek is seeking to back promising entrepreneurs and teams that can profitably address these needs with new technologies and business models. Before joining Temasek, he was a Venture Principal with Monsanto Growth Ventures and with Cultivation Capital. He founded the Yield Lab, a business accelerator focused on agriculture. Ryan started his career as an electrical engineer with Northrop Grumman. | |
Wei Xu, Associate Director: Wei Xu is Associate Director at Temasek based in New York. He focuses on evaluating and managing Temasek’s food and agriculture investments in North America. Temasek has invested over $7b across the global food and agriculture value chain and has a portfolio of 30+ companies, ranging from early-stage ventures to well established industry leaders. Before moving to New York in 2016, he spent 4 years in Temasek’s Singapore office. | |
Raphaël Boulanger, Associate: Raphaël Boulanger is an Associate at Temasek in direct investments. Prior to Temasek, Raphaël was a Visiting Associate at The Boston Consulting Group, and a Private Equity Summer Analyst at CPP Investment Board. He earned an M.Sc. in Engineering, Fundamental Physics, and Applied Mathematics from the Ecole Centrale de Paris in 2017, as well as a Master’s in Management, Strategy, Economics, and Finance from ESCP Europe. | |
Ultra Capital, Aaron Ratner, Managing Director: Aaron has over 20 years of international investment, advisory and development experience focusing on technology, energy, waste and agriculture. He has been with Ultra Capital for almost three years. He has a MsM from Stanford University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. | |
NGOs, Trade Associations, Governments, Academics, Other Experts | |
CSIRO, Artur Nishioka Rombenso, Ph.D., Research Scientist: Dr. Rombenso has a Bachelor's in Oceanography and Master's in Aquaculture from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, as well as a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where he worked in finfish nutrition. Currently, he is a research scientist with the Aquaculture Nutrition team at CSIRO. He has broad experience in the aquaculture field, focusing on the following topics: fish nutrition, mariculture, marine fish culture, cage culture and commercial species. He is the co-editor of Aquaculture Brasil magazine and co-founder of IPEMA, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. | |
Dartmouth College, Pallab Sarker, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor: Dr. Sarker’s research interests involve shifting aquaculture to sustainability by redesigning the composition of aqua-feeds because they drive life-cycle environmental effects of aquaculture, both inputs and emissions. He is also interested in developing ecological aquaculture principles and practices. The focus of his current research is to develop a fish-free and crop-free aquaculture diet by combining different species of micro- and macro-algae and developing targeted biochemical manipulations to maximize the diet’s nutrient quality, economic viability, and benefits for environmental conservation. Dr. Sarker earned his Ph.D. in 2007 from the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Ehime University, Japan (aquaculture: fish nutrition). | |
GoalBlue, May Mei, Founder and Executive Director: May Mei has 13 years experience in international business development and consulting with a strong international relationship background. She is also an award-winning producer with 10 years of experience in film and TV production and marketing. Before starting GoalBlue, she was with WildAid for 15 years as the Special Advisor to the President and the Chief Representative of China. May has an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. | |
Kindai University, Amal Biswas, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Aquaculture Research Institute: Dr. Biswas received M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Japan. He was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Center of Excellence at Kindai University. He has recently received the Japanese Award of Young Scientist and has published more than 150 papers in journals, books, conferences, and international journals, as well as several book chapters. His research activities cover diverse fields including fish nutrition and aquaculture, fish physiology and reproductive biology. | |
Monterey Bay Aquarium, Tyler Isaac, Senior Aquaculture Scientist, Seafood Watch: Tyler Isaac has extensive experience and expertise in aquaculture production, natural resource management, and cost-benefit analysis. He is passionate about developing a sustainable and equitable food economy, specifically through marine and freshwater aquaculture and aquaponics, as well as entomophagy. Before becoming an aquaculture scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, he founded Slightly Nutty, which worked to improve the sustainability of insect farming by developing insect feedstocks using scalable organic waste streams. Tyler has a B.S. from Boston University and a Master of Environmental Science and Management (MESM) from the University of California, Santa Barbara. | |
NCEAS/CART, Halley Froehlich, Ph.D., incoming Asst. Professor: Dr. Halley Froehlich is finishing her four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) to start her recently accepted position as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a professor and co-founder of the Conservation Aquaculture Research Team (CART) initiative, she will continue to expand her research studying impacts and interactions of global aquaculture, fisheries, and climate change. Halley received her Ph.D. from the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington and B.Sc. in Animal Biology from the University of California, Davis. | |
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Margareth Øverland, Ph.D., Center Director for Foods of Norway: Dr. Øverland has a Ph.D. in Monogastric nutrition from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Her research focus is to develop high-quality novel feed ingredients based on renewable natural resources such as tree biomass, marine macroalgae, and animal and fish co-products by using advanced biotechnology. She has a special interest in developing and documenting microbial ingredients as a protein source in diets for farmed salmonids and monogastric animals. The research also aims to improve feed efficiency by innovative feed-processing technology and by use of advanced genomic analysis to support genetic adaptation of fish and other farm animals to the novel feed ingredients. | |
NuSea Lab, Deakin University, David Francis, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer: Dr. David Francis has a B.Sc. in Fisheries Management and Aquaculture and a Ph.D. in Aquaculture Nutrition. He has held various research and teaching positions and joined the School of Life and Environmental Sciences in 2015 as a Senior Lecturer in Aquaculture Nutrition. David's research interests span protein, lipid and carbohydrate nutrition, placing a particular focus on sustainable aquafeed development, nutritional biomarkers of organism health, and the establishment of new aquaculture species. David's contributions to aquaculture have been recognised by way of international awards and fellowships, where his work has ultimately assisted in the sustainable expansion of aquaculture towards the production of fish and seafood for a growing global population. | |
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Greg Mitchell, Ph.D., Research Biologist - Senior Lecturer: Greg’s research focuses on ocean photosynthesis, modeling microalgae growth and primary production from lab to global scale, and remote sensing. Applications research on algae for commercial scale up to produce food, fuel, and to mitigate waste CO2 and nutrients. Greg is also the founder of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology, a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Algae Biomass Organization and a member of the Future of Algae for Feed and Food. | |
Sea Grant, Luke Gardner, Ph.D., Aquaculture Extension Specialist: Luke Gardner is a Sea Grant Extension Specialist and research faculty member based out of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) located in Monterey Bay. Dr. Gardner focuses his efforts on leading and supporting research, extension activities and education in the field of aquaculture and how it intersects with coastal California’s environment, economy and citizens. Dr. Gardner’s research interests broadly involve the development of sustainable aquaculture. Dr. Gardner’s current research interests include using high-throughput sequencing and bio-informatics to develop biomarkers for valuable traits in cultured aquatic organisms. Dr. Gardner is also involved in researching alternative fish-free feeds for the aquaculture sector. | |
Shanghai Jiao Tong University/Stanford University, Ling Cao, Ph.D., Professor: Growing up on a family fish farm in China, Dr. Cao has dedicated herself to enhancing the sustainability and resilience of fisheries and aquaculture to ensure food security while protecting the oceans. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and worked at Stanford University. For over 15 years, she has established long-term professional relationships with the leading aquaculture and aqua-feed companies, seafood processors, seafood trading companies, governmental agencies of fisheries, and non-governmental conservation groups around the world. | |
Siya Qiu, Research Assistant: Siya Qiu is a research assistant at the Institute of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She double majored in Marine Science and Applied Mathematics, and has two years data analysis experience at seafood certification and pharmaceutical fields. Her research directions include fishery sustainability, ecosystem restoration, and environmental management. | |
The Nature Conservancy, Robert Jones, Global Aquaculture Lead: Robert Jones is TNC’s Global Aquaculture Strategy Lead and part of the Global Oceans team. He is leading TNC's new commitment to aquaculture and seeks to demonstrate that aquaculture can play a significant role in future marine conservation objectives. Prior to joining TNC in early 2016, Robert was at NOAA and the U.S. Department of State focusing on aquaculture and fisheries issues, most recently as the Program Coordinator at the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture. He holds an M.S. in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science where he focused on developing sustainable offshore finfish aquaculture. | |
The Nature Conservancy, Mike Sweeney, California Executive Director and Managing Director of Global Fisheries: Mike Sweeney is Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy in California and Managing Director of Global Fisheries. He joined The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter in 1998, was named Executive Director of the California Chapter in 2007, and added the role of Managing Director of Global Fisheries in 2016. Prior to joining TNC, he was Special Assistant to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during the first Clinton Administration. He has previously served on the Advisory Council for the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center and for three terms as Program Committee Chair on the board of Island Conservation. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Harvard College. | |
University of Stirling, Douglas Tocher Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Nutrition: Professor Douglas R. Tocher has a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He worked for 16 years for the UK Natural Environment Research Council at the Institute of Marine Biochemistry and the University of Stirling. His main research interests during this period were fish lipid and fatty acid metabolism including embryonic and early larval development, and cell culture studies on metabolism, fatty acid synthesis and neural development. Professor Tocher has co-authored over 300 scientific publications. He is a member of the European Federation of Lipids, American Oil Chemists Society and the European Aquaculture Society, and is on the editorial boards of the journals Aquaculture and Fish Physiology and Biochemistry. | |
World Resource Institute, Manaswita Konar, Lead Ocean Economist, Sustainable Ocean Initiative: Mansi is a highly experienced policy strategist and economist. She has led on a diverse range of political projects for the UK government over 11 years with a specific focus on marine conservation, labor, and trade regulations. She’s currently working on a project with the F3 Judges and the Anthropocene Institute on estimating the economic, social and environmental value of forage fish. | |
Zhejiang University, Yan Wang, Ph.D., Professor of Fish Nutrition: Dr. Wang is a professor from the Department of Marine Sciences, Ocean College, Zhejiang University. Since 2000, his research has been focused on replacement of dietary fishmeal for carnivorous fish species with economic terrestrial protein ingredients, including poultry byproduct meal, meat and bone meal, feather meal, soybean meal and cottonseed meal. | |
Seafood Buyers | |
Red Lobster, Joe Zhou, Sr. Director - Supply Chain - Protein Procurement: Before joining Red Lobster in 2014, Joe worked at Darden Restaurants as the Senior Director of purchasing from 1993-2014. Joe has a MBA in Business Procurement from Webster University, and a BA in English, Cross-culture Communications from Beijing Foreign Studies University. | |
Santa Monica Seafood, Logan Kock, Chief Sustainability Officer: Logan has been the Chief Sustainability Officer at Santa Monica Seafood since December 2009 after serving as Director of Purchasing. He oversees the company's Responsible Sourcing Development Program, a vendor-supported program which targets: educating and moving the company, its vendors and customers towards offering more or fully sustainable species; increasing community awareness on the issues of environmental responsibility, and being an agent of change to facilitate better practices at fisheries with which the company does business. He is a former government fishery biologist and has developed a reputation as one of the most respected and trusted experts on responsible sourcing and food safety in the seafood industry. | |
Others | |
Berkley/Pure Fishing, John Prochnow, Sr. Director of R&D and Global Product Development: John earned a Chemistry degree from the University of Nebraska. Currently holds the position of Sr. Director of R&D and Global Product Development with 32 years of experience. Holder of multiple patents for fish Attractants and Palatants and the chemical delivery systems for such. John is an Instrumental part of the team that develops Berkley Power Bait® and Gulp!®. Previous experience includes the formulation of personal health care products. He is an avid angler and named to Outdoor Life Top 25 most influential in Hunting and Fishing in December/January 2008 issue of Outdoor Life Magazine. | |
Bosar, Jingde Du, Ph.D., President: With an advanced degree in animal nutrition, Dr. Du has worked in the animal feed and husbandry industry for over 30 years. For more than a decade, he has led his company’s R&D team to focus on developing and promoting technological innovation and application for feed enzymes such as feed lipase, high temperature protease, and probiotics. Those products have helped improve the feed utilization rate of animals and accelerate the development of the industry. | |
Tengfei Huang, Technical Director: Mr. Huang graduated from Sun Yat-sen University with a master's degree in bioengineering. He has worked in the feed industry for more than 5 years focusing on special aquatic feed formulations and quality control. He joined Bosar in 2013 and is currently focused on the application of high temperature proteases to extruded feeds. | |
El Camino Legal, Robert R. Pierce, Jr., Partner: Robert Pierce provides legal services to privately-held and publicly-traded companies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Most of his clients rely on him for transactional and operational support. For example, licensing and distribution matters, strategic alliances, and commercial disputes. He works closely with both entrepreneurs and in-house legal teams who rely on his expertise. Robert has a B.A. from UCLA and obtained a J.D. from Stanford Law School. | |
Kepley BioSystems, Anthony Dellinger, Ph.D., President: Dr. Dellinger’s expertise includes attractant molecules and chemistry. He holds a B.Sc. in Forensic Molecular Biology (chemistry minor), a Ph.D. in Nanoscience, and has authored more than 30 publications. Dellinger was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year at his alma mater. He serves as an Adjunct Professor and a grant reviewer for the NSF and NOAA. His team developed the first fully synthetic bait for the fishing industry. He has presented as a crustacean expert at the International BioMarine Conference and Hello Tomorrow Global Summit. Recently, he was a selected finalist in the seafood and aquaculture industry centered Fish 2.0 Competition. | |
Ocean Executive, Mike Budreski, CEO and Founder: Mike hails from Nova Scotia and has a background in the fishing industry. Mike moved to New York City and now works in the stock market, dealing with energy stocks. During the course of his work, he realized the advantages and efficiency of the technology of the trading platform. He saw that numerous other industries utilized similar trading platforms. With his background in fishing, he started to consider how that industry could benefit from a trading platform too. With his entrepreneurial spirit, Mike forged ahead to create an electronic trading platform to centralize the seafood marketplace, to bring e-commerce to an old-fashioned industry. | |
OpenROV, David Lang, Co-Founder: David Lang is an entrepreneur, writer, and National Geographic Fellow. In 2012 he co-founded OpenROV and created a low-cost robot to explore an underwater cave. Since then, OpenROV has become one of the largest underwater drone manufacturers, raising over $900,000 on Kickstarter. David and his team also created OpenExplorer as a digital field journal to empower and connect citizen scientists and explorers. Lang is the author of the book Zero to Maker. | |
X, the moonshot factory, Neil Davé, Project Lead: Neil began his career at Alphabet in 2010 as legal counsel where he focused on Google’s international expansion and product launches. He then joined the hardware team to lead strategy and operations for global product launches of Google’s consumer hardware devices. Driven by the challenges that come from building, developing and leading futuristic projects, Neil joined X, (formerly google [x]) where he now leads a confidential early stage moonshot. | |
Special Guests | |
Changing Tastes, Arlin Wasserman, Founder and Partner: Arlin has helped identify and catalyze some of the most significant shifts in the way business and consumers think about food: he worked with General Mills to develop one of the first sustainability management programs in the food industry; he developed an industry-wide initiative to link organic farming and public health for the Organic Trade Association; and as Vice President of Sustainability at Sodexo, he developed the first sustainability strategy for the then world’s largest foodservice company that combined both environmental and nutrition priorities. He has helped create common standards for sustainable seafood among leading restaurant and foodservice companies. | |
Geoffrey Moore Consulting, Geoffrey Moore: Geoffrey Moore wrote THE textbook on strategy for startups on how to scale, and propel their products mainstream, Crossing the Chasm, that is used at most business schools around the world. His new book, Zoning to Win, advises CEOs and managers at large companies on how they can organize and allocate resources to remain innovative. His clients include CEOs of major companies, top consultancies such as McKinsey, and world leaders. His full bio is here. | |
Siri/Apple, Tom Gruber, Co-Founder and CTO: Tom Gruber is a researcher, designer, and entrepreneur, with a focus on technology to augment human intelligence. He was cofounder, CTO and VP Design for Siri, which created the first intelligent assistant for everyone. Siri was started in 2008, launched in early 2010, and soon after became part of Apple. Siri is now intrinsic to the Apple ecosystem, available on every new iPhone, iPad, Watch, Apple TV, and Mac. Siri is used around the world over 2 billion times a week. Tom was the former head of the Advanced Development Group at Apple until 2018 to bring AI to the UI for current and future products. | |
Press | |
Aquafeed.com, Suzi Dominy, Founding Editor and Publisher: Suzi Dominy has more than 30 years experience in publishing and is the owner of Aquafeed.com, the leading information provider for the professional aquafeed sector worldwide since 1998. Aquafeed.com is the original online resource for the sector, with its website, newsletter and magazine, and specialized publications for the hatchery feed sector - all available without charge, in support of the industry. The company holds international technical feed conferences in Asia, Europe, Central America and USA, and has an aquafeed technical consulting division. | |
Fish First, Dan Luo, Editor and Senior Media Expert: Ms. Dan Luo has been focusing on aquaculture nutrition and aquafeed development for more than 10 years. She organized many famous aquafeed related events such as electing the ten founders of China's aquatic nutrition and feed, and the top ten aquafeed enterprises with the greatest growth potential in China. | |
Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), James Wright, Editorial Manager: With a mix of professional journalism and sales-and-marketing experience in the seafood industry, James brings an educated and practical perspective to writing – straight news coverage, in-depth feature stories and timely commentaries. Particular areas of interest include sustainability, aquaculture and other pre-competitive initiatives that push the industry forward. He has presented and moderated panel discussions at several industry-leading events. His seafood feature articles have appeared on Gofish.com, in SeaFood Business magazine, on SeafoodSource.com and now on the Global Aquaculture Advocate. | |
IntraFish, John Fiorillo, Executive Editor: John Fiorillo has been writing about the seafood industry for more than 25 years. John oversees the operation of IntraFish media websites and printed publications. He is a graduate of the University of South Florida. | |
Undercurrent News, Jason Smith, Reporter: Jason has been a journalist for ten years writing about business and government at newspapers in Mexico, California, and the British Virgin Islands prior to joining Undercurrent News in 2015. He frequently writes about civil and criminal matters, regulatory issues, M&A, finance and markets. | |
F3 Team | |
Chair of the F3 Challenge and F3 Judge, Kevin Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., Professor and Director of International Programs at The University of Arizona: Fitzsimmons has devoted the last 40 years to improving the sustainability of aquaculture in Arizona, across the U.S. and globally in over 80 countries. This work has included polyculture systems, integrated farming systems irrigating field crops and hydroponics and alternative protein sources to make diets more sustainable. Fitzsimmons served as the President of the U.S. and World Aquaculture Societies and was the second Chairman of the global charity, Aquaculture Without Frontiers. He received a Fulbright Fellowship in 2004 to teach and conduct research in Thailand and will be starting a second Fulbright Fellowship this fall to work in Myanmar, where he is finishing a 3-year USAID project supporting aquaculture. | |
F3 Judge, Michael Tlusty, Ph.D., Associate Professor Sustainability and Food Solutions at the University of Massachusetts Boston: Michael links science, technology, and innovation to help transform the world's aquatic food systems and to educate the next generation leaders necessary to develop integrative solutions to create enough food for our burgeoning population. His approach is to find solutions to create more food, waste less of it and to help the entire value chain do a better job creating the food we already produce. In his spare time, he uses the lessons learned in studying seafood value chains to create solutions to stop the trade of illegal wildlife products. | |
F3 Judge, Christopher Oakes, Vice President, NovoNutrients: Chris is focused today on how to leverage synthetic biology for solutions to some of the ocean’s greatest challenges. He served as the COO of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance and the Ocean Solutions Accelerator Program, and is a proud alumnus of SynBioBeta and Liquid Robotics, where he served as General Manager and Business Development Manager. He is excited to be a part of the movement to inspire new frameworks of thinking and menus to co-create a better future for sustainable aquaculture. | |
F3 Chief Scientific Officer, Rick Barrows, Ph.D., Principal Aquatic Feed Technologies: Rick retired as a Fish Nutritionist from USDA/Agricultural Research Service in 2016. Now he is a Principal in Aquatic Feed Technologies, LLC which helps companies develop new feed ingredients and feed formulations. He has authored or co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed papers on fish nutrition and is a well known speaker in national and international venues. Rick has conducted nutrition research, and developed larval, grower and brood feeds for a variety of freshwater and marine species for 34 years. His primary research focus is the interaction of feed processing technology and formulation/nutritional value and is actively involved in development and evaluation of alternate ingredient sources. | |
F3 Team, Public Relations and Media Head, Annie Reisewitz: Annie has over 17 years of experience in environmental communications and marketing. At Strategic Ocean Solutions she leads the development of comprehensive environmental marketing strategies and public relations campaigns for clients in the non-profit, government and private sectors. Annie specializes in media relations, science writing and brand development. Her clients are frequently called upon as experts for marine science and conservation news. | |
F3 Team Member, Steven Cunningham: Steven is a recent graduate from Moss Landing Marine Labs where his research focused on biophysical interactions within kelp forest ecosystems. He has a background in commercial seaweed cultivation as well as computer science and marine technologies. As an F3 team member, Steve researches fish-free-feed studies and has created an open source algae nutrient database. | |
F3 Team Member, Alex Driedger: Alex is a geographer at the Anthropocene Institute, with a background in geomatics and M.Sc. in Environmental Science. At the Institute, he coordinates various efforts for the F3 Team, including the F3 Challenges. He also supports the GIS and data management for the ProtectedSeas MPA mapping effort and helps with graphic design and web development. | |
F3 Team Member, Laurel Lam: Laurel graduated from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories with her M.Sc. in marine science and fisheries research. She spent the majority of her master’s career on fishing boats conducting fishery dependent and independent surveys along the US West Coast. She recently joined the F3 team and helps coordinate F3 Research projects that are focused on developing experimental aquaculture trials using fish free feed on commercially important finfish around the world. | |
F3 Team Member, Barbara Page, Ph.D., Anthropocene Institute: Barbara assists with organization, outreach and administration of the F3 Prize. At Anthropocene Institute, she also facilitates grant programs and other projects in cloud-based software development for radar tracks and mapping. Formerly, she was a founder of OpenWebU, and a Director at Oracle in Public Sector Applications. She holds an AB from the University of Chicago in Public Policy and a Ph.D. in Education at Stanford University. | |
F3 Team Member, Jennifer Sletten: Jennifer is an environmental lawyer and the Anthropocene Institute’s Staff Attorney for Oceans as well as the Outreach Coordinator for the Institute's ProtectedSeas branch. Her responsibilities include fisheries and ocean law research for the ProtectedSeas MPA map and outreach to global organizations and agencies to promote awareness about ProtectedSeas’ projects. She is also a member of the F3 team and helps out with various aspects of the F3 effort. Jennifer received her Juris Doctor and a Master of Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School. | |
F3 Team Member, Brendan Tougher: Brendan manages the Marine Monitor (M2) project for the Anthropocene Institute’s ProtectedSeas branch and assists the F3 team with research analysis and event logistics. Brendan holds a Master’s of Science in Environmental Management and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. | |
F3 Team, Virgil Zetterlind: Virgil manages the ProtectedSeas team, and oversees software development for the Anthropocene Institute. He is a designer and manager of the new AFIRE software project. | |
Claire Colegrove: Claire is an environmental attorney with the ProtectedSeas team. She primarily works on fisheries and ocean law research for the ProtectedSeas MPA map. Claire previously worked in marine conservation and wildlife protection for Defenders of Wildlife. She received B.A. in Environmental Studies from Hamilton College and a J.D. from the William S. Richardson School of Law. | |
