Founders Navigating the Future in BlueTech
Moderator: Thom Ruhe
President and CEO, NC IDEA Foundation
Thom Ruhe is President and CEO of NC IDEA, a private foundation committed to strengthening the economy by helping North Carolinians realize their entrepreneurial potential. He is an entrepreneur, investor, mentor, and philanthropist working to create the entrepreneurial ecosystems needed to grow equitable and vibrant economies.
He spent the first half of his career starting and working in various startups and high-growth companies, and the second half helping others do likewise. While at the Kauffman Foundation, he directed its programs on entrepreneurship education, mentoring, access to capital, and fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Thom has served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Entrepreneurship, addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Entrepreneurship, and lectured at conferences worldwide in various capacities. He also serves as the Board Chair of the North Carolina Textile Innovation and Sustainability Engine, which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Panelists
Writer, Speaker, and Founder of Partners of Commercial Fishermen (POCF)
A first-of-its-kind global community and digital platform, POCF empowers women connected to the commercial fishing industry with support, education, and meaningful connection. A journalist for over a decade, Megan met her partner, commercial fisherman Chris Dabney, in 2015 while working as an editor in Santa Barbara, California. As she navigated the emotional and logistical challenges of long-distance love and a partner working in multiple fisheries, Megan saw a glaring gap: there was no dedicated space for partners of fishermen to find the community and resources they needed. In response, she launched Partners of Commercial Fishermen in 2019 to uplift the often-overlooked voices of women supporting one of the world’s most dangerous and vital industries. Since then, Megan has become a leading advocate for fishermen’s partners, sharing her message on national podcasts, industry panels, and conferences nationwide.
Dylan Gretok
Founder of Seagull Sustainability
As a third-year student at North Carolina State University pursuing degrees in chemical engineering (B.S), and Interdisciplinary Studies, conc. Sustainable Tech Initiatives (B.S), Dylan hopes to inspire other change-makers to dare the world's obstacles without hesitation. As founder of Seagull, he is a passionate problem solver in clean technology. Dylan believes overcoming economic limitations is paramount to an epic change for a sustainable future. To break these barriers, he founded Seagull, a startup smashing the green premium in sustainable replacements for plastic. This has led Dylan to work from an interdisciplinary approach in his sustainable solutions. Between innovative cost-reducing technologies across the value chain and creative economic supply-side solutions, Dylan is ready to tackle society's climate and material challenges
Jennifer McCall
Co-Founder and CSO of SeaTox
Dr. Jennifer McCall is the co-founder and CSO of SeaTox Research. Her work focuses on bioassay development for marine toxins that contaminate commercially and culturally important seafood. She collaborates with multiple partners across academia, industry, and federal agencies, with the ultimate goal of improving access for user-friendly and inexpensive testing methods in remote areas. Jennifer received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where her research focused on the interface of immunology and endocrinology. In addition, she received her MBA in the business of biotechnology from UNC Wilmington.
Mark Huang
Co-Founder of SeaAhead
Mark Huang is a Co-founder and Partner at LongLeaf Studios, a company that supports startups with innovative services and seed funding. Mark is also 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 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.
