Chairs and key note speakers

Dr. Antonio Vasilijević (M) is a research project manager at the Applied Underwater Robotics Laboratory (AURLab), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where he is responsible for the full lifecycle of research projects, from securing funds, implementation, delivering research results, and reporting.

Previously, Antonio acted as a Senior and Leading Researcher at the Laboratory of Underwater Systems and Technologies at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where he was a project manager or key researcher in several marine robotics projects, mainly funded by European FP7 and Horizon programs. Before returning to academia in 2009, he worked in various engineering and senior positions in the maritime industry.

He is an author and co-author of more than 50 papers published in journals and at conference proceedings. His research interests cover a broad area of marine robotics and marine technology in general and their applications.

 

Tina Silovic has recently joined Mercator Ocean International (MOi) where one of her main duties is to increase user uptake of Copernicus Marine Data.  

Tina has more than 10 years of experience in ocean observation gathered through different research and R&D activities mainly around (in situ) monitoring of phytoplankton communities and their spatio-temporal dynamics in relation to environmental conditions.  

Dr. Antonella Calvia-Goetz works as Lead Economic Advisor focusing on funding Space and Ocean Technologies and Services in the Digital Infrastructure Division of the Projects Directorate of the European Investment Bank (EIB). She has extensive knowledge in funding innovation eco-systems, having supported major RDI projects of public and private entities in many European countries. Prior to this, she acted as advisor of a member of the EIB Management Board and the EIF Board.

She started her career as applied economist at American Express Europe in London. She also served as a non-executive independent director of a leading private company in Benelux. She is a member of a set of European Corporate Governance initiatives to support the evolving European technology eco-system.

Dr. Calvia-Goetz holds a Doctorate in Economics from Oxford University (UK) and a Master degree in Business Studies and Economics from the University of Venice (Italy). She also earned a Certificate in Strategy and Innovation from the Sloan School of Management of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

Zoi Konstantinou is a Marine Scientist MSc-PhD, with expertise in Integrated Coastal and Marine Management. Before joining the European Commission she worked in marine research, in science-policy interface and science communication and in higher education.

As an EC Policy Officer, she is involved in issues related to marine observations and data, the European Marine Observation and Data network and the development of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean.

Renata is a Senior Manager at PwC Luxembourg with over ten years of experience in strategic advisory services focusing on market and business growth.

She leads the investor's relationship to the largest EU-funded accelerator in the Blue Economy; this initiative already invested 75M EUR through a blended finance mechanism backed by the European Maritime Fishery Funds and is now deploying 500M EUR via Invest EU, both managed by the EIF. 

Miguel joined the European Investment Fund in 2014 where he had different responsibilities in development of new partnerships with Member States and National Promotional Institutions (NPIs). 

In 2017, Miguel became responsible for the Portugal Venture Capital Initiative (PVCi), the first fund-of-funds managed by EIF in his country. Since 2018, Miguel led the negotiations of three new venture capital and private equity partnerships with the Portuguese Government and Banco Português de Fomento (BPF). Portugal Tech, Portugal Growth and Portugal Blue represent together EUR 250m and have so far supported almost 80 Portuguese start-ups and SMEs. 

With the launch of Portugal Blue, Miguel built relevant thematic experience in blue economy and climate investments. Currently, he is focused on the development of the Green Investment Platform, an equity fund-of-funds focused on climate action and environmental sustainability in collaboration with a large number of European NPIs. 

Miguel graduated in Economics from University of Coimbra (UC) and obtained a Masters’ Degree in Economics at Nova School of Business and Economics (Nova SBE). 

He attended the Executive Program on Private Equity and Venture Capital at Harvard Business School (HBS) and a Public Policy Analysis Programme at London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). 

In 2013, Miguel became the youngest elected member of Coimbra City Council, where he served for a period of 4 years. 

Ingrid Maurstad is the Impact Director at Katapult Ocean, a Norwegian VC investing in and accelerating startups with a positive impact on the ocean. She has previously worked in Ferd, investing in Social Entrepreneurs, and has also extensive experience from The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) managing social impact projects.

Ingrid holds an M.Sc. in Strategy and Management from NHH – The Norwegian School of Economics and has studied Entrepreneurship at Wits Business School in South Africa.

Ingrid is passionate about finding great investment opportunities in startups with better solutions and a positive impact on the ocean, connecting them to the industry and other investors, and helping startups measure and manage their impact.

Katapult Ocean is based in Oslo, Norway, and has since 2019 made 52 investments into Ocean impact startups at the seed stage. Through a 3-month accelerator program, the Katapult-team works closely with the startups and gets to know them startups well through the work on Impact measurement and management, investor readiness, and growth.

Katapult Ocean is also doing follow-on investments through The Deep Blue fund, where they invest in the best-performing of portfolio companies. 

Georg Baunach is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Hatch Blue, a specialized aquaculture and alternative seafood firm. Hatch’s team of 25 spans across four main business units: Venture Capital investments, consulting services, startup programs and the operation of The Fish Site news platform. Hatch has his offices in Norway, the US, Ireland and Singapore and made 40 investments globally.

Georg is a molecular biotechnologist with a background in synthetic biology and holds a Masters in Management from London Business School.

 

Tomas Frafjord's career began in the offshore survey/subsea business in 1998. It started in Stolt Comex Seaways, which later became Stolt Offshore, Acergy, and eventually merged with Subsea 7.

In 2013 he began in Shell as a Senior Project Surveyor / PM and was then the single point of contact for all offshore activity in A/S Norske Shell. At the start of August 2021, he started in XOCEAN as a Norway country manager responsible for building the business on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Kyrre Tjøm is a serial entrepreneur, the CSO and the founder of iDROP a/s (2016).

Previous employment with Schlumberger, ABB Offshore Systems, and Equinor (Ext), and former chairman of the Norwegian Society of Underwater Technology.

B.Eng.(Hons) in Mechanical Engineering and an Executive MBA, with extensive experience in technology management and multidisciplinary offshore projects, incl. remotely operated intervention, underwater acoustics and autonomous systems.

 

Trygve Olav Fossum (b. 1988) is the CEO and founder of Skarv Technologies. 

Before Skarv, he spent three years working in Equinor ASA, followed by a Ph.D. at the Applied Underwater Robotics Laboratory (AURLab) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Trygve holds an MSc in Marine Cybernetics and Ph.D. in Marine Robotics from NTNU. His field of expertise is underwater autonomy, spatial statistics, computer vision, and machine learning.See information on Skarv Technologies. 

Claudio Latorre 15 years M&A experience mainly in the Telco & Technology industry, with senior leadership roles in corporate (Ericsson), consulting (EY), Venture Capital (Enea Tech) and several startup/scaleups, Italy and international. Angel Investor since 2015. Claudio is currently serving as CFO of Wsense.

Dr. Mario Spadina obtained a doctorate degree in statistical thermodynamics of rare earth elements recycling, in 2019 at the Institute for Separation Chemistry at French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, University of Montpellier. In 2020 he founded startup SeaCras which specializes in monitoring the state of sea by satellite imagery.

He holds the record of 13+ published scientific papers in the areas of physics, chemistry and applied mathematics. After completing post-doctoral positions at Ruder Boskovic Institute in Croatia, and University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, Mario moved to private sector where he is fully dedicated to the position of CEO of SeaCras Ltd.

He has over won over 10 prizes, 6 grants in different areas of research, technology, and business development, and was invited as guest speaker and lecturer over 30 times. Mario was named as Emerging Leaders under 40 years by European Forum Alpbach in 2022. 

Josip Rukavina is a civil engineer and the CEO of Vectrino, a company dedicated to exploring and understanding man-made underwater structures. With a passion for innovation and engineering, Rukavina founded Vectrino after completing his studies in civil engineering at the University of Rijeka and gaining a decade of experience in the GIS department.

Underwater engineering presents unique challenges, including limited visibility and accessibility, making it difficult to gather accurate data on the condition and performance of underwater structures. To overcome this challenge, Rukavina and his team at Vectrino have developed a cutting-edge system to collect high-quality data about underwater structures. Their tool comprises two cameras that capture images and video footage of the ocean floor and surrounding environment. The data collected is then processed using advanced computer vision algorithms to extract valuable insights about underwater structures and the environment.

 

Trond Larsen works as Senior Technical Sales Engineer at Blueye Robotics, where he is responsible for demonstration and testing of their underwater drones/ROVs for users all around the world. When difficult tasks require a seasoned Blueye operator, he also performs underwater contract inspection & recovery operations.

Trond has a Master of Science in Fishery Science from the University of Tromsø and has wide technical and practical experience from the arctic and maritime environments within R&D, fisheries, and Aquaculture, among others. While he has been behind the scenes in several high-profile projects over the last few years, his most public appearance was as the drone pilot behind the first publicly available pictures and video of the Nord Stream pipeline after the sabotage in September 2022.

Ingrid Maurstad is the Impact Director at Katapult Ocean, a Norwegian VC investing in and accelerating startups with a positive impact on the ocean. She has previously worked in Ferd, investing in Social Entrepreneurs, and has also extensive experience from The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) managing social impact projects.

Ingrid holds an M.Sc. in Strategy and Management from NHH – The Norwegian School of Economics and has studied Entrepreneurship at Wits Business School in South Africa.

Ingrid is passionate about finding great investment opportunities in startups with better solutions and a positive impact on the ocean, connecting them to the industry and other investors, and helping startups measure and manage their impact.

Katapult Ocean is based in Oslo, Norway, and has since 2019 made 52 investments into Ocean impact startups at the seed stage. Through a 3-month accelerator program, the Katapult-team works closely with the startups and gets to know them startups well through the work on Impact measurement and management, investor readiness, and growth.

Katapult Ocean is also doing follow-on investments through The Deep Blue fund, where they invest in the best-performing of portfolio companies. 

Arne Rinnan has an MSc in Physics from the Technical University of Norway in 1986.

He has a background in product innovation and has had a different position in the Kongsberg Group since 2000. He currently holds a position as EVP of Strategy and Technology at Kongsberg Discovery.

Zoi Konstantinou is a Marine Scientist MSc-PhD, with expertise in Integrated Coastal and Marine Management. Before joining the European Commission she worked in marine research, in science-policy interface and science communication and in higher education.

As an EC Policy Officer, she is involved in issues related to marine observations and data, the European Marine Observation and Data network and the development of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean.

Chantal Martens holds an M.Sc. in Marine Geology (Ghent University, Belgium) and an M.Sc. in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering (CAU Kiel, Germany). 

She has experience coordinating research, monitoring and innovation projects, and linking research to policy. 

She joined Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in 2018 as Blue Innovation Officer, ensuring collaboration with the blue economy and facilitating the link between industry, academic research, and development.

Emma Reyes, Ph. D. in Marine Sciences, is the Head of the Scientific Area at SOCIB. She is a physical oceanographer with over 16years of experience in operational ocean observing and forecasting systems. Herresearchinterests include coastal ocean dynamics at key circulation chokepoints, air-sea interaction, remote sensing oceanography, oil spill transport and dispersion. She has published more than 30peer-reviewed scientific articles as well as several referenced reports, guidelines and proceedings and presented her work in more than 50 communications in international scientific meetings since 2012. Since 2016, she has been involved in several projects(CMEMS-SE INCREASE, Jerico NEXT,CMEMS-In Situ TAC phase II, EuroSea, Jerico-S3) focused on HF radar data standardization & integration, the harmonization of HF radar maintenance best-practices, advanced products development, and its integration in downstream services (as principal investigator of the projectCMEMS -User Uptake IBISAR).

She is a memberof theEuroGOOS HFR Task Teamand of severalnational Steering Committeesto support the implementation of the agreement between SOCIB and: i)the Spanish Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency,since 2017; ii) the Port System, since 2019; iii) the University of Cádiz, since 2021. She actively participates in student supervision and training and outreach activities(e.g. leaflets, case studies, video tutorials, short videos, educational materials, 11#F activities).