Meet the 2019 Ocean Talks Speakers

Tom joined the British Army and over a six year career lead soldiers in multiple combat tours of Afghanistan and overcame complex leadership and logistical challenges. He now applies those skills to his role as Director of Operations at Cookson Adventures, where he’s overseen multi-yacht expeditions to the remote fjords of Patagonia and arguably the most complex private Antarctic expeditions of modern times. He has been at the forefront of pushing the company’s boundaries and has engaged with local authorities to gain access to some of the least visited locations on earth for their guests.

Amanda Keetley founded Less Plastic in 2015 to raise awareness of the ocean plastic crisis and inspire individuals and organisations to use less plastic. She has brought the “less plastic lifestyle” to a wide audience via her blog, infographics and social media following. She has also written a book, Plastic Game Changer, to empower professionals to accelerate plastic reduction efforts in their organisations. This features her practical five-step framework to become a Plastic Game Changer and invaluable insights from real-world Plastic Game Changers. She also offers talks and workshops, consultancy services and educational materials to inspire positive change.

Dr Jessica Wade is a British physicist and early career researcher in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London. Her research investigates polymerbased light emitting diodes (LEDs). She also carries out public engagement work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly in the promotion of physics to girls. Dr Wade won the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Robin Perrin Award for Materials Science in 2017, the Institute of Physics Daphne Jackson Medal and Prize in 2018 and was included in Nature’s 10 people who mattered in science in 2018.