Our team commitment is to build a community around a new narrative.
Our founders story.
The founders of Oceans 2050 are focused on the strategies that can successfully close the gap between people and the planet by empowering ocean change makers, scaling innovative technologies, enabling transformational initiatives, and further developing the public tools that can accelerate the restoration of abundant oceans by creating a connected experience right at our fingertips.
Alexandra Cousteau comes from a long line of ocean advocates, explorers and storytellers. Fritz Neumeyer comes from a family of architects, academics and philosophers.
Together, their visionary approach and ability to build represents the potential of creating ocean abundance in the 21st century. They have brought together a team who believe in their mission, while all sharing the same passion and urgency.
This collective is dedicated to shaping the ocean narrative to rebuild our planet for the generations to come.
Meet our core team.
Alexandra Cousteau
President & Co-founder
Alexandra Cousteau has been advocating for the oceans since age eight, when she joined her grandfather’s petition to create an Antarctic nature reserve. A filmmaker, public speaker and advisor to governments and non-profits, she has conducted deep-sea surveys, campaigned for the expansion of marine protection areas, rescued dolphins and manatees, and investigated the impact of oil spills and agricultural run-off on coastal ecosystems. As co-founder and president of Oceans 2050, she uses her gift for storytelling and her background in political science to align interests and bring people together around the common good of abundant oceans.
Alexandra studied international relations at Georgetown University and received an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from her alma mater in 2016. Her advocacy for the oceans has been recognized by, among many others, the National Geographic Society, which named her an Emerging Explorer; the World Economic Forum, which named her a Young Global Leader; and the University of California Irvine, which presented her with its Human Security Award. Alexandra serves as a member of the advisory boards of SeaLegacy and Oceanswise and as a senior adviser to Oceana.
Fritz Neumeyer
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder
As Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Fritz has been shaping Oceans 2050's organization, strategy and concepts since its inception. He applies his unique skillset to design the Oceans 2050 ecosystem using architectural theory and practices, while creating first-of-its-kind digital tools for the ocean community. He serves as the Executive Director of the Oceans 2050 Foundation.
Fritz comes from a German family of architects and philosophers. He grew into his profession by osmosis — playing in temple ruins and Tuscan Renaissance churches with private lectures from Fritz Senior, an Ivy-league professor of architectural theory. With a Master from ETH Zurich and several years in corporate architecture, he runs a boutique studio for private residential clients based out of Berlin.
He is a student of philosophy, psychology and religions, as well as a passionate sports fan. Becoming a father shifted his lens towards generational thinking and the need for system designs better suited for future generations. He now works to ensure that his children and grandchildren will live in an abundant and thriving world. Raised as a self-professed urbanite, the transition into environmental work has been gradual, and profound.
Carlos Duarte
Chief Scientist
Dr. Carlos M. Duarte (Ph.D. McGill University, 1987) has published more than 900 scientific papers and been ranked the world’s top marine biologist and 12th most influential climate scientist by Thomson Reuters.
Together with various UN agencies, Dr. Duarte developed the concept of Blue Carbon, which builds on his research showing mangroves, seagrasses and salt-marshes to be globally-relevant carbon sinks. Focused on developing nature-based solutions to climate change and evidence-based strategies for restoring abundance to the oceans by 2050, he conducts research across all continents and most marine ecosystem types. He has received numerous international awards and accolades for his work.
Dr. Duarte is Distinguished Professor and Tarek Ahmed Juffali Research Chair in Red Sea Ecology at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and holds adjunct positions at the University of Western Australia and the Arctic Research Center of Aarhus University, Denmark. He serves as interim Executive Director of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform.
Megan Reilly Cayten
Senior Advisor
Megan is excited about seaweed's potential to be restorative to the oceans and to the climate at significant scale. She created Oceans 2050's blue carbon workstream, including designing and raising funding for the seaweed aquaculture carbon project, and represents Oceans 2050 on the Verra Seascape Initiative, and is a key point of engagement with the investor and commercial community to scale-up projects and companies that deliver on Oceans 2050's restoration objectives.
Megan has developed, financed and managed projects to deliver positive impacts for people and the planet on four continents, and is currently Senior Investment Manager with CAM, a new institutional natural capital platform. She has a background in power and infrastructure development (AES Corporation, the Los Guzmancito wind project), finance (Citi, Javelin Capital) and asset management (Alinda Capital Partners), and has advised funds, companies and projects on climate and carbon offset strategy and impact.
She also founded, grew and sold an impact-focused business with operations in Mexico and India. She is a board member of the Fondo Nacional para la Conservacion de la Naturaleza (Mexico) and Environmental Voter Project and is on the National Council of World Wildlife Fund. Her passion is climate restoration, with the goal of leaving our children a habitable planet.
Meet our support team & advisors.
David Diallo
CEO of Social Publish and Good Impact
William K. Reilly
Former Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, Chairman Emeritus, WWF
Monica Ellis
CEO of Global Environment and Technology Foundation
Paul
Dobbins
Senior Director of Impact Investing- Ecosystem Services, WWF
Juan Verde
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce, President of the Advanced Leadership Foundation
Ferdinand von Hammerstein
Co-Founder INVICTO, Investments and Strategy
Mark Spalding
President of the Ocean Foundation
Lasse Gustavsson
President and CEO of OceanWise
Geoff Green
Founder, Executive Director & Expedition Leader of Students on Ice
Jennifer Bushman
Strategic Consultant, Route to Market
Mo Gawdat
Former Chief Business Officer Google[x], best selling author, and a serial entrepreneur
Lili Xu
Presencing Institute China Partner/Council on Extended Intelligence Executive Team
Andre Uhl
Director, IEEE Earth Lab
Want to join the team?
We are always interested in meeting new people and being inspired by incredible ideas when it comes to our ocean. We are not currently hiring, but we are always looking for freelance and contractor support. Reach out and let’s see if there’s a way to work together.
Meet our partners.
We partner with those who think differently. We look for visionaries, innovators, leaders and dreamers to join the blue commonwealth. If you’re interested, reach out.
