Panel: Sustainability in the Sea

Courtney is an entrepreneur, environmentalist, and writer. Prior to launching AKUA, she helped build the Summit Community, a global network of founders, creatives, and innovators. Previously, she helped market companies such as Four Sigmatic and Unframed Ice Cream. She began her career as a journalist at Forbes Magazine and The Next Web and has been recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business. She currently serves as an advisor to GreenWave.

Dr. Xun Wang, President and CEO of Triton, is a leading biotechnology executive in the algae industry and a thought leader in the future food market space. Before joining Triton, he was the head of bioscience technologies at Reliance Industries Ltd (a global Fortune 100 company), and the CTO at Sapphire Energy Inc. Prior to that, Dr. Wang had a successful 20-year career in several prominent agriculture companies. Dr. Wang was the President of Syngenta China, the Biotech Research and Technology Head of Syngenta in North Carolina RTP, the Founder and a Director of Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute in San Diego, and Research Manager of Corn Genomics in Pioneer Hi-Bred International, in Johnston Iowa. Dr. Wang is an author or co-author of over 50 patents, and has published over 20 international peer-reviewed research articles. Dr. Wang earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Biophysics from Iowa State University, and a BS in Chemistry and a MS in Biochemistry from Jilin University, China.

Jacek Prus is the founder and CEO of Kuleana, a food technology company that offers plant-based products that look, taste and delight like actual seafood. He first became involved in animal activism while pursuing a philosophy degree at the University of Texas. A committed sustainability advocate, Prus was an architect of the ProVeg Incubator, an accelerator dedicated to launching plant-based and cultured food startups. Kuleana was inspired by Prus’s extensive experience promoting ecologically minded businesses and has been deemed “The Beyond Meat of Sushi” by Fox Business. Prus is based in San Francisco.