“BLUE & AltaSea will be USA's BlueTech bookends.” - Beth Zonis, Director ACT/CTO Northeast

BLUE on Boston Harbor

initiative Strategy Director

Poroy Global Advisors

Market Dynamics & Strategy

Undersea Emerging Tech, MBA

  Omer is a seasoned business leader with a deep passion for driving profitable growth through data-driven strategies, empowerment, and unwavering commitment to excellence in execution. With a visionary mindset, he excels at navigating the ever-evolving intersection of emerging technologies and shifting market dynamics. Omer brings a wealth of expertise in autonomy, robotics, sensors, systems engineering, and manufactured products, garnered through a diverse career spanning startups, a mentor for the BLUE Excelerator, to Fortune 500 companies, including successful turn-around experiences in both commercial and defense sectors on a global scale.

Omer has an MS in Ocean Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

BLUE on Boston Harbor

initiative Finance Director

Golden Seeds, Partner

MIT I-Corps instructor, Mentor

 Angel Investor, CEO, MBA

Kate Putnam is an angel investor, Managing Director at Golden Seeds Boston, mentor at MIT Venture Mentoring Service, advisor and board member for various organizations including startups. Formerly she was President of Package Machinery Company Inc. a manufacturer of flexible packaging machinery for consumer products manufacturers. She 

has been a member of the Investment Committee at the MassMutual Catalyst Fund and the Springfield Venture Fund, both seed capital impact funds. 

Kate has a background in corporate banking in New York, corporate treasury for a Fortune 500 company and consulting to small businesses. She led the investor group that purchased Package in 1996 and arranged the sale in 2015. 

She has served on the boards of a number of non-profits in the human services ecosystem, is a mentor for the BLUE Excelerator, and is now serving as a Commissioner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. 

She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (BA History) and New York University’s Stern School of Business (MBA Finance). She is certified as a CEO peer forum facilitator and an instructor for 

I-Corps, a core competency is Customer Discovery. 

BLUE on Boston Harbor

initiative Operations Director 

Score Portland, Maine

Global Executive, 

Chemical Engineer, MBA

Charlie is a retired C Suite executive with 40 years of business experience in a variety of domestic and international markets. Charlie dedicates his time supporting emerging companies through his work as the Score Program Leader in Portland, Maine, mentoring Climate Tech startups in the BLUE Excelerator at the Blue Institute, mentoring for Northeastern University Chemical Engineering students, and at the Roux Institute in their Founders (Start-ups) Program. Charlie holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from Northeastern University, where he also serves on the Chemical Engineering Department’s Industrial Advisory Board.

Co-Founder & CEO,

Blue Innovation Labs

Blue Institute, Founder

BlueTech Cluster &

Blue Economy Expert  

Judith Underwood is a social impact entrepreneur, educator, and environmentalist. She believes strongly in "innovation through collaboration,” and has 25+ years of scientific development & technology transfer experience at institutions including MIT, the United Nations, and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. Judith co-founded Blue Innovation Labs in 2017 (through the CleanTech Open), a for profit public benefit corporation designed to scale and commercialize BlueTech startups through the BLUE Incubator program, and to create the first US eastern seaboard ocean access physical space and ecosystem that supports the entire BlueTech community. 

Judith is the Founder (2016 through EforAll) of the nonprofit 501c3 Blue Institute, Inc.  She currently volunteers leading the BLUE Excelerator, which since 2020 has graduated 40 Climate Tech startups. In additional to advanced coursework in environmental studies, entrepreneurship & innovation, and national security studies, Judith holds an bachelor's in international relations from UMass Boston, and a master's in politics from NYU.

Co-Founder & COO (fractional)

Blue Innovation Labs

ArdRed Enterprises, Owner

International Business

Tech Architecture & Security

Andrew Nicholl is a global technology business executive with over 30 years of experience in a number of technology-related sectors worldwide, having fulfilled leadership roles in many functional areas from design and development engineering, sales and marketing, systems engineering, product management and marketing, customer 

and business operations, compliance, risk management, information 

security and privacy, and general management for worldwide product and service portfolios. Andrew has lived and worked in Europe, the Americas and Asia/Australia and has worked with clients and partners globally in a variety of business sectors, including telecommunications, healthcare, energy, and ecommerce. Andrew has a Bachelor’s in applied physics, a Master’s in electrical and Electronic Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer and holds various credentials and certificates from (ISC)2, IAPP, PMI, CSA, MIT Sloan and extensive corporate business training and development. Throughout his career, Andrew has contributed extensively in a number of extracurricular activities, including board memberships, STEM program sponsorships, BLUE Excelerator mentorship, start-up company collaboration, coaching and participation, and guest lectureships. 

Entrepreneur in Residence,

Blue Innovation Labs

Frankenbuild Ventures, GM

Hardtech, Finance

Emerging Fund Founder

Dr C. Innocent’s career is the development of innovations across the deep-tech, sustainability & De-Fi sectors, and so she draws upon her experience as an investor, a serial-entrepreneur/founder, and as a former researcher to support startups and small businesses through venture capital. As the GP for Frankenbuild Ventures – a VC firm focused on supporting climate hardtech – she brings unique insight in evaluating both the viability of technologies as well as market readiness for innovative technologies. Cvic’s PhD is from Cornell University, a Postdoc from Oxford University, she was research faculty at Harvard Medical School, and in 2019 Cvic was the recipient of a Chan-Zuckerberg Innovation Award.