Prior Ocean Innovation Conferences
, Author and Executive Advisor at The Karen Toffler Charitable Trust (2025)
Deborah Westphal’s career spans more than 30 years, government agencies and Fortune 100 companies, and virtually every continent. A passionate humanist and life-long learner, she has dedicated her work to guiding our era’s top minds and leaders to see and pursue the future with a sense of realistic caution and optimism. In 1999, Alvin Toffler tapped her as one of the founding members of his eponymous consulting firm. Since that time, she has led leaders across the globe to challenge biases, ignite ideas, and build connections to build resilience for a secure and sound future.
, World Surfing Champion, Keynote Speaker, and Author of the CODE Method (2025)
Shaun Tomson is a world champion surfer, best-selling author, and leadership expert with over 20 years of keynote speaking experience.
He developed the Code Method, a transformative framework that empowers individuals and teams to build resilience, foster engagement, and lead with purpose. Shaun has inspired organizations like Google, Disney, and General Motors through his authentic storytelling and actionable strategies.
As an entrepreneur, he founded two global brands and authored three best-selling books, including The Code: The Power of "I Will." Shaun holds a Master of Science in Leadership and is dedicated to helping others achieve meaningful growth and lasting success.
Mark Huang (2024)
Mark Huang is a co-founder of SeaAhead, an early mover innovation platform focused on ocean sustainability, led the effort to stand up General Electric's cleantech corporate venture efforts and was a founding partner of Novus Energy Partners, a 2008 vintage US-European cleantech VC fund. Mark has also worked in shipbuilding as a naval architect and he is currently an advisor to Fathom Science, a recent NC State meteorology and oceanography (metocean) digital twin spin-out. In the public service sector, Mark served a term as the Economic Development Director for Providence, RI. Here, he deployed an urban food strategy and introduced the concept of a bluetech economic cluster for the Ocean State. Mark also served for 13 years as an officer in the US Army Reserves and was mobilized in 2003 to Baghdad where he focused on nation-building. He is a US director of Alfanar, the only venture philanthropy non-profit focused on the Arab world, and Tern, a Taiwan-based urban mobility company. Mark is also on the Board of Visitors for UNC's Institute of the Environment in Chapel Hill, NC.
Mark holds an MBA and Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University and a BS in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering from Webb Institute.
Susan Casey, author of "The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean" (2024)
, author of New York Times bestseller’s Voices in the Ocean, The Wave, and The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks and is the former editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine. She is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist whose work has been featured in the Best American Science and Nature Writing, Best American Sports Writing, and Best American Magazine Writing anthologies; and has appeared in Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, and Outside.
Rear Admiral Laura M. Dickey (2023)
What is the future of ocean innovation? Where are we now, and what do we need to do from here? Rear Admiral Laura M. Dickey, Deputy for Materiel Readiness at the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, a native of Wilmington, provided key insights about the U.S. Coast Guard’s current activities and how plans could impact coastal North Carolina.
Reporting to the Deputy Commandant for Mission Support, RADM Dickey provides oversight and guidance for program management of Coast Guard engineering, logistics, acquisitions, contracting, and command, control, communications, and information technology. The Mission Support enterprise is responsible for staffing, training, equipping, and sustaining the Coast Guard to ensure force readiness and delivery of operational outcomes. Her responsibilities include the execution of a $2.5 billion annual budget, leading over 10,000 personnel and oversight of 25 acquisition initiatives representing a $42 billion life cycle investment portfolio.
Jake Kheel, author of "Waking the Sleeping Giant" (2023)
What is the Dominican Coral Innovation Hub and what is the role of the private sector in marine conservation? Keynote is a sustainability innovator, thought-leader, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. For fifteen years he has confronted social and environmental challenges in the tourism industry as Vice President of Grupo Puntacana Foundation in the Dominican Republic. His vast experience working with companies to drive sustainability shown in his 2021 book “Waking the Sleeping Giant: Unlocking the Hidden Power of Business to Save Our Planet”.
Wallace J. Nichols, author of "Blue Mind" (2023)
has been called a water warrior, one who commits to helping others access their “blue mind state.” His visionary ideas related to ocean and aquatic ecosystems, migratory species, marine protected areas, fisheries management and plastic pollution inspire others to find a deeper connection with nature and embrace inventive approaches to issues ranging from protection of ocean life to global water supply to the mental health benefits of a life spent on or near the water.
Formerly a senior scientist at Ocean Conservancy, J holds a M.E.M. degree in Natural Resource Economics and Policy from Duke University and a Ph.D. degree in Wildlife Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona. He received a Bradley Fellowship to study the impacts of sea level rise at Duke University Marine Lab, a Marshall Fellowship to study at the University of Arizona, and a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico marine station in Mazatlán. In 2011 he was inducted as a Fellow National member of the Explorers Club. In 2014 he received the University of Arizona's Global Achievement Award.
J has authored more than 200 publications, lectured in more than 30 countries and nearly all 50 states, and appeared in hundreds of media outlets including NPR, BBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Time, Newsweek, GQ, Outside Magazine, USA Today, Elle, Vogue, Fast Company, Surfer magazine, Scientific American, and New Scientist. His book "" quickly became a national bestseller. It has been translated into numerous languages, most recently Mandarin.
Among the things J teaches us, is that everything is fluid. What he gets jazzed about the most is helping to change the conversation about, well, you name it: business, community organizing, education, health care, neuro conservation, oceans, technology, water, well-being, and more.