Eric Berkenpas is the co-founder of Second Star Robotics where he develops innovative products to meet the needs of clients in academia and industry. An engineer first and foremost, Eric has developed a novel high-reliability real-time operating system for low-power microcontrollers, created control systems for deep diving underwater robotics, and discovered new methods for surveying archaeological sites with radar. His current work focuses on developing novel autonomous sensor platforms for terrestrial and marine applications to help clients survey and monitor Earth’s natural resources. Formerly, Eric was the Senior Director of the Exploration Technology Lab at the National Geographic Society where he developed technology programs in both terrestrial and marine conservation, established critical partnerships with technology companies, and provided National Geographic grantees, and collaborating researchers, with novel technology solutions for use in the field.

Minna Epps is the Director of IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme where she oversees the operations and development of the programme by seeking new strategic partnerships. She is very engaged in the Global Ocean Agenda participating in various management groups, boards and high level networks. Minna has over 20 years of experience in international environmental work primarily in the marine field; with everything from field work in Madagascar to policy work in Geneva. She brings her experience from the Marine Stewardship Council, European Commission, UNEP, WTO, and conservation NGOs, as well as Minna is a marine biologist with studies from Imperial College, Rhode Island School of Oceanography and UC Berkely. She is also a trained communication professional with vast experience in strategic communication and running campaigns.

Sergio Estella is Chief Designer Officer and founded Vizzuality with the goal of making beautiful data design a true driver of change and impact on the environment, biodiversity, hence in people’s lives and balancing equality. His focused creative direction combined with a deep understanding of how humans communicate have made Vizzuality one of the most respected data visualization firms. Using his research into data visualization, science, technology, information design and interface design, he sets the visual and interaction direction as well as user experience for Vizzuality’s products. He combined Interior Design studies with a Fine Arts degree at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and a Masters in Information Society at Universidad Oberta de Catalunya, made a great mix to understand users' needs and design interfaces and visualise data that matters. His most recent work has been the production of beautiful visualizations, intuitive user experiences and help people to understand the massive amount of information flowing everywhere.

Dr. Asha de Vos is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator and pioneer of long-term blue whale research within the Northern Indian Ocean. She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Oceans Institute of the University of Western Australia. She has degrees from the University of St. Andrews, University of Oxford and the University of Western Australia but escaped academia to establish her own Sri Lankan grown non-profit, Oceanswell - Sri Lanka’s first marine conservation research and education organization. Her work has been showcased internationally by the BBC, the New York Times, TED and National Geographic to name a few. Amongst her many accolades Asha was listed on the BBC 100 Women 2018 list of most inspiring and influential women from around the world and named Lanka Monthly Digest’s Sri Lankan of the Year also in 2018. Photo credit: Spencer Lowell, WIRED UK

Dr. Deidre Gibson is the Chair of the Department of Marine and Environmental Science at Hampton University. She is a broadly trained biological oceanographer with research interests centered on the trophic ecology, reproductive biology, and population dynamics of zooplankton, but more specifically, gelatinous zooplankton, and currently oyster restoration. While at Hampton University, she has served as PI on several NSF and NOAA grants that continue to train the next generation of African American marine scientists, including the DREAMS and Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) programs. Dr. Gibson was named to serve on the Board of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), the first black scientist to ever serve on the board of this prestigious organization. She earned her B.S. in Oceanography from the University of Washington, Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Georgia/Skidaway Institute of Oceanography.

Brett Jenks has championed behavior change in conservation for more than 20 years. As President and CEO, he leads Rare’s global mission to empower and inspire people to adopt sustainable behaviors and practices, and protect vital natural resources.

Jenks’ professional career began in journalism and then film production before turning to eco-tourism and eventually conservation. During his tenure at Rare, Jenks has created large-scale, global partnerships with foundations, NGOs and governments to tackle environmental challenges like overfishing, unsustainable land use practices and climate change with a people-centered approach rooted in behavioral science.

Jenks is a Catto Fellow, Braddock Scholar and McNulty Prize laureate with the Aspen Institute, a member of the Closed Loop Fund’s investment committee, a trustee to the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Trust, and a recipient of the Rose-Walters Prize for Global Environmental Activism.

Marcia Marsh was the Chief Operating Officer for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US). As COO she oversaw the execution of WWF’s strategy and operating systems and led government affairs and policy, private sector engagement, development and marketing and communications efforts. Building on her prior consulting career, Marcia served as one of WWF global network’s lead change managers, helping to align people, processes and technology with an ambitious strategy to bring conservation to scale. With a personal passion for community service, she helped to launch and drive the CARE/WWF Alliance, an innovative partnership that is creating new models of addressing poverty alleviation, food security and conservation in one holistic approach. In her prior life, she was a Price Waterhouse partner, practice leader for integrated solutions and international consulting at Watson Wyatt and the vice president for government transformation for the Partnership for Public Service. She currently serves on the Board of Directors at Conservation X Labs.

Ted Schmitt is Principal Program Officer for Conservation Initiatives at Vulcan and Product Manager for Skylight. Ted has spent over 10 years leading an effort to bring fit-for-purpose technology solutions to a range of terrestrial and marine conservation issues. He has worked extensively in Africa with field organizations applying technology to securing and managing protected areas. Prior to joining Vulcan, Ted was a Senior Program Officer for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the United States National Academies of Science. He served as Business Development Director at several technology start-ups in Germany, Sweden, and the United States, leading the application of technology for impact on a range of issues. He started his career as a software engineer for IBM, earning patents and several technical achievement awards. Ted holds a Master of Arts in International Science and Technology Policy from George Washington University, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and a Bachelor of Arts in German from Purdue University.

Daniel Situnayake is a technical leader in the field of embedded machine learning, also known as TinyML. He authored the field’s leading textbook, is a guest lecturer on Harvard’s TinyML course, and sits on the organizing committee of an international network of nearly 4000 embedded machine learning engineers. He currently heads TinyML R&D at Edge Impulse, the leading startup in the embedded machine learning space.

Daniel previously led developer outreach for edge machine learning technologies at Google. He has served as founder and CEO of Tiny Farms Inc., an alternative protein company using AI to optimize animal agriculture, and lectured in Automatic Identification and Data Capture at Birmingham City University.