Gallaudet

The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret) is the CEO of Ocean STL Consulting and host of The American Blue Economy Podcast. He serves on several boards, is a fellow at The Explorer’s Club, and is a strategic advisor for a few dozen startups, research institutions, and nonprofits in the ocean, weather, climate, and space sectors. Gallaudet is a former acting Undersecretary and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, acting and Deputy Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Oceanographer of the Navy. He has a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, and master and doctoral degrees from Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Hardy

Kevin Hardy is President of Global Ocean Design, creating components and subsystems for unmanned vehicles, following a career at Scripps Institution of Oceanography/UCSD. He holds important patents in the field of ocean landers. He is on the academic advisory board of Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía at the Universidad de Concepción, Chile. Hardy received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Shanghai Ocean University in 2018. He proposed making thick wall glass spheres to Nautilus Marine Service/Vitrovex (Germany) that opened the hadal depths to routine exploration. Hardy was the Lander Team Leader for James Cameron’s DEEPSEA CHALLENGE Expedition. He writes for the Journal of Diving History and the Marine Technology Reporter.

Mellor

As Head of Technical Partnerships, Tom leads the UKHO’s collaboration with technical partners including Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to enable the development of e-navigation products and S-100 solutions for Electronic Chart and Information Display Systems (ECDIS). Tom works at the forefront of the latest “next generation” navigation technologies to support the implementation of new standards that can help improve safety, efficiency and optimization.

Possidente

As part of Nokia’s Optical Product Marketing team, Luca works with advanced optical products and cutting-edge technologies designed for the AI & cloud service providers and telecom operators. He brings experience spanning equipment manufacturers and operators across product and commercial roles. Throughout his career, he has specialized in advanced optical technologies, including subsea systems, coherent subsystems, optical transceivers, and satellite & free space optics communication. Luca is a frequent panelist and contributor to industry discussions and has authored numerous technical papers and articles.

Strachan

David R. Strachan is a defense analyst and founder of Strikepod Systems, a research and strategic advisory focusing on autonomous undersea systems.