Ocean Innovation Lead
World Economic Forum
Ronald Tardiff leads the ocean innovation work of the Ocean Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum. In this role Ron also leads the Lighthouse (executive team) of the 1000 Ocean Startups Coalition. In addition, he curates ocean-related challenges on the Forum’s UpLink open innovation platform. Ron is a recognized expert on ocean innovation and regularly advises startups, investors, accelerators, and innovation programs and judges several innovation challenges per year. Prior to this, he worked with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance to build the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders and SOA’s international grant making program, which to date has funded more than 200 youth-led ocean projects in 50 countries. Ron is a marine ecologist with degrees in Marine Sciences, Maritime Studies, & Aquaculture, Environment & Society.