Business Coaches
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Ingrid Maurstad
Ingrid is Commercial Manager in Katapult Ocean and is passionate about ocean impact startups. Before she joined Katpult she worked in Ferd, investing in, and supporting social entrepreneurs. She has also extensive experience from financing and leading social inclusion projects in The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF). Ingrid believes that companies with a positive impact on the world are the future, and that financially sustainable startups can scale great solutions for a thriving ocean.
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Pedro Cerdeira
Business Plug
Pedro is a mentor, advisor and business angel passionate about the startup ecosystem, bridging the gap between investors and startups and helping companies to scale and develop their business internationally. He has mora than 25 years of experience in the Enterprise IT market, held several senior international business development, sales management and alliances and channel management positions in Oracle, Brocade, EMC2, Compaq/HP, Alcatel and Accenture. He holds a MSc in Computer Engineering, and 2 post-grads, Advanced Management Program for Executives, and Advanced
Program in Entrepreneurship & Innovation Management.
Ana Pinela
Ana Pinela works at Beta-i Collaborative Innovation as a Senior Innovation Consultant and Project Leader, where she is currently responsible for coordinating and managing the Atlantic Smart Port Blue Acceleration Network (AspBAN), a project co-funded by the European Union’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). Ana has a Master and a PhD in Marine Sciences and Conservation of Biodiversity and over 15 years of experience working as a Researcher, Consultant and Project manager in international projects. Since 2018, after attending the Blue Growth Summer School of the University of Ghent, she has been focused and dedicated to coordinating and managing projects in the area of the Blue Economy.
Jim Cooper
Jim Cooper has over 20 years of experience from start ups, market research, market intelligence and competitive analysis experience. Jim is co-founder and CTO for Braid Theory, an early stage start up advisory and consulting group in California, US with extensive traction in BlueTech.
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Ron
Tardiff
Sustainable Ocean Alliance
Ron currently Leads the UpLink Ocean impact pillar of Friends of Ocean Action at the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Prior to this, he worked for nearly two years with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance to build the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders. While engaging and empowering ocean youth from many angles, at the start of the pandemic Ron built the Ocean Solutions Microgrant Program, the first program in the world to provide small grants to youth-led ocean projects on a global scale. The program, now in its second year, has funded nearly 200 projects in more than 50 countries. Ron has conducted research, developed strategy, managed projects, and supported outreach for 11 organizations on issues ranging from fisheries governance to marine education. Ron is a marine ecologist by training with degrees in Marine Sciences, Maritime Studies, Aquaculture, Environment & Society, and is finishing up a Master of Advanced Studies in Sustainable Blue Growth. He has studied all things ocean at 8 universities and research institutions around the world and has lived, worked or studied in 10 countries. Ron is a scientist and policy wonk at heart driven to improve ocean governance and innovation, increase equitable access to marine resources and services, and to conserve and restore ocean biodiversity.
César Couto Ferreira
Fábrica do Futuro
César is a Viacom and Vice Media Alumni and Co-Founder of Fábrica do Futuro in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This innovation hub mixes culture, arts and technology and has been granted a merit award from the city of Porto Alegre for its work with Innovation and Technology Development of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. César also Co-Founded ONG Instituto Fábrica focused on mental health and education. He is an Advisory Board Member of Enrich in Brazil and Co-Founder of TippingUP media activism organisation focused on SDGs2030. Mentor and advisor of several startups and scale-ups globally. César is a passionate scuba diver who embraces the ocean below the surface.
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Tomé
Canas
BGI
Tomé is passionate about innovation and development of new ideas, with more than 12 years of experience in innovation areas in large companies. He is currently the Head of Open Innovation at Building Global Innovators (BGI), a Portuguese accelerator. With his experience of innovation ecosystems and great enthusiasm to work and motivate multidisciplinary teams, Tomé brings together several critical skills to realize innovative projects that create value.
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Gonçalo
Faria
Beta-i
Gonçalo is a Senior Account Manager at Beta-i, responsible for the mobility, tourism and blue economy sectors. He currently leads the Bluetech Accelerator program to boost innovation in the blue economy with a focus on ports and logistics. Gonçalo has more than 6 years of experience in international project management with expertise in strategy, management consulting and innovation projects, in countries such as Portugal, South Africa and Angola, and in several sectors as telco, retail, public administration and energy. He holds a degree in Economics and an international MBA
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Benjamin
Lesage
Sustainable Ocean Alliance
Ben is passionate about the ocean and is an expert in technology and innovation. He has been an active startups’ mentor at SOA since 2018. Prior to joining SOA full-time, Ben worked for the innovation studio of BNP Paribas in San Francisco. In this tenure, he would provide advisory services to the Bank and large European corporations on their open innovation and startup engagement strategies. Ben enjoys spending his free time sailing and surfing.