Team Bios
Management Team
1. An exceptional group of founders have joined together in the effort of creating, designing, and operating Vieques Aquaponics. Headed by the Chief Executive Officer Malcolm J. Wright, CPA, and constructor with vast experience in starting and growing companies. Mr. Wright has owned businesses in England, Spain, the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Bahamas, and the United States. He has had varied and profound experience in all matters of corporate finance. He has been very active in Puerto Rico since the Hurricanes of 2017 creating proprietary resilient building materials and systems to construct energy-efficient and water-conserving homes that can withstand storms and earthquakes yet improve the residents’ quality of life.
2. Further experience has been added through the integration of Jorge Gaskins who has spent the last forty years working in the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors of the Puerto Rican economy. He has organized production cooperatives, constructed, and operated the tropical fruit processing plant that became the second-largest food exporter, and organized the largest Organic Certification initiative in Puerto Rico. He has been a consultant to the United Nations FAO, the Puerto Rican Department of Agriculture, and to producer cooperatives in Costa Rica, Brazil, Jamaica, and Nigeria. He directed the start-up of the first Certified Organic Tilapia and Prawns farm and processing plant in the Americas in Brazil in 2000. The Organic Fish Company operated a company farm in western Paraná state consisting of over 2,500 acres of freshwater ponds and had a network of small farmer producers with an equal amount of production. The Company operated an animal feed mill dedicated to Certified Organic rations and a fish processing plant in the city of Marechal Candido Rondon. In addition to Brazilian customers, 8TH SEA exported fresh, never frozen fillets and whole fish via air freight to European cities such as Lisbon, Frankfort, Paris, Amsterdam, and London as well as North American destinations such as Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto and Montreal to local distributors and supermarket chains such as Whole Foods, Stop ‘n Shop, Kings, A&P, Shop Rite, Wegman’s, and Loblaw’s.
3. Omar Jimenez, CFO, is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), and a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) who is an operationally oriented bilingual executive with multi-industry experience in building, strengthening, and leading the corporate finance function for public (OTC, NASDAQ and AIM-listed companies) and private companies that were in various degrees of corporate maturity including start-up, stable, high growth or turnaround situations. Mr. Jimenez has demonstrated the ability to quickly adapt to dynamic environments and make immediate improvements on cash flow, cost reduction, planning, reporting, and controls. He has comprehensive, in-depth experience across all corporate finance, accounting, treasury and IT functions. Mr. Jimenez is a good communicator with a reputation for unwavering accuracy, credibility, and integrity.
4. John Gamble is the CEO of the publicly traded EHT Hybrid Company of Niagara Falls Ontario. In addition to being a solar PV panel manufacturer, Gamble also manufactures an aquaponic “Grow Pod” a well-insulated solar-powered structure design to grow vegetables during the long winter months of the Canadian North. His design and operational experience and business financial acumen have been contributed to ensuring the Company’s success.
OUTSIDE EXPERTISE
Vieques Aquaponics will receive outside expertise from the involvement of Dr. Mario Velasco who received his Master of Science Degree from UPR-Mayagüez in Marine Biology and his Ph.D. in Aquatic Species Nutrition from Texas A&M University. Dr. Velasco is a world-renown expert in aquaculture, including RAS (Recirculating Aquaculture Systems) nutrition and feed, water quality, farm operations, and HAACP, Certified Organic and GMP, and other certifications. Velasco has been the general manager of fish and prawns farms and feed mills in Ecuador. He will approve the Vieques facilities and operations design and plan, help in recruitment and training of personnel, and will be an ongoing consultant during the Company’s development.
Ken and Sean Burrows are the owners of Dachnik Aquaponics and have more than twenty- years of experience in the design, construction, and operation of intensive aquaponic systems. They will design the interiors of the Bunkers and the packing and processing facilities. They will also help in the recruitment and training of personnel.
Dr. Gregory Morris, hydrologist, of GME Engineering Services in San Juan will provide services in water system design, evaluating water sources and quality.
Engineers Alton Reich and Dr. Geoffrey Chew of Streamline Automation Laboratories in Huntsville, Alabama are providing access to their patents and intellectual property to design a commercial pilot plant for the processing of marine seaweed in Vieques. They will be present during the initial operations and consult as to expansion and the diversification of products that will be produced from this raw material.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
To channel additional outside expertise into Vieques Aquaponics, to address opportunities in other geographical locations or associated industries, the Company will create an Advisory Council. We have invited the following persons to join our efforts:
Ken Burrows, Dachnik Aquaponics, Salt Lake City, Utah
Dr. Gregory Morris, hydrologist, GME Engineering Services, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Dr. Mario Velasco, VelMon Partners, Aquacultural Consultancy, Madrid, Spain
Dr. Michael Tlusty, Director of Research and Aquaculture at the New England Aquarium (Boston) (Retired), Boston Massachusetts
José Fernández-Richards, President of the Educational Foundation Kinesis of San Juan, Puerto Rico
Dra. Catalina Dávila, Microbiologist and Researcher in Algae and Seaweed, Professor Gurabo Campus of the Ana G. Méndez University