The last week of March, our CEO, Dr. Alexandra Leeper, was invited to Duke Oceans Week, an annual event to bring experts, entrepreneurs, students, and community members together to explore ocean sustainability and innovation. This year’s theme was “Advancing Ocean Conservation, Climate Action, and Sustainable Blue Economies.”
The week was filled with events around the ocean, its sustainability, and innovation, with events such as a documentary, expo, and panel discussions. Alexandra was invited to participate in the latter: the Blue Economy Summit, which opened with John Bohorquez, Ph.D., followed by Kristin Rechberger, CEO of Dynamic Planet, and then two panel discussions. The goal of the summit was to “explore how can we move from marine science discovery to scalable solutions with enterprises that protect and restore ocean ecosystems?”, using the experience of entrepreneurs and experts. The event goes From Science to Startup for a Sustainable and Equitable Ocean.
Alexandra participated in the second panel “From Innovation to Impact,” alongside Suzanne Johnson, Charlotte Hudson, and Laura Deaton, and hosted by Xiao Recio-Blanco. She shared her experience at Iceland Ocean Cluster with the 100% Fish program and the current work on the 100% Playbook, our new project to help communities around the world reach full utilization of seafood side streams.
The event ended with a Q&A discussion and a Seaside chat organized by Stewart Sarkozy-Banoczy, CEO of World Ocean Council & Co-Founder of Okhtapus, and Dan Vermeer, Ph.D, Executive Director, Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment and Associate Professor of the Practice, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
We are always happy to see and learn from the experiences of others, as well as meeting the next generation of experts, such as Louisa Louchheim, our future intern.
