Meet the 2018 Ocean Talks Speakers

Captain Philip G. Renaud, USN (Ret) is the Executive Director of the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, an American public benefit organisation with a global mission.

Throughout the past 14 years of his leadership, the Foundation has matured into a world-class scientific organisation dedicated to conservation of the marine environment, particularly coral reef ecosystems. He successfully implemented and completed the Foundation’s ambitious Global Reef Expedition program; a five-year circumnavigation of the globe with the objective of mapping and surveying coral reefs of the world to stem the decline in coral reef health.

His career in oceanography began at the Naval Academy where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Oceanography in 1979. During his distinguished 25-year career in the Navy, he served as the oceanographer of an aircraft carrier, the lead oceanographer for the Commander, Second Fleet, and his naval career culminated as the Commanding Officer of the Naval Oceanographic Office.

Facebook: /livingoceansfoundation, Twitter: @LivingOceansFdn

Vripack Creative Directors Bart M. Bouwhuis and Marnix J. Hoekstra share their passion for yachting and creating yachts that make each owner feel at home, at sea.

From the moment it threw open its doors in 1961, Vripack studio’s approach to design has been governed by the playful interaction of form and function, intuition and intelligence, and balance and performance. The studio is yet to receive a yacht-related request it could not grant, nor a question it could not answer.

The emphasis on placing the client’s needs and satisfaction at the heart of our designs is essentially the secret of Vripack’s success.The spirit of adventure embodied by the physical reality of our yachts comes into being at the very start of the process of creation. And it is very much a collaborative process between us and our clients, whose needs are aspirations we translate into yachts that appeal to the heart, mind and senses in equal measure, offer light-filled, elegant and comfortable spaces, and are ready to take to the sea in any direction.

It is with genuine gratitude that we accept each commission, for each is an opportunity to play a role in somebody else’s dream of sailing the world and feeling at home at sea.

Facebook: /vripack  Twitter: @VripackDesign  Instagram: @Vripack