Above & Beyond Hangout #5 // A Sea of Opportunities

Register in this event to claim your ticket to attend in person or remotely. Remote event ticket holders will receive the Zoom link the day before the event.

Event held in English.

In a week marked by the UN Ocean Conference that is taking place in Portugal, we unite our community to discuss what challenges we face to protect one of our significant resources – the sea. As one of its primary goals, the conference aims “to propel much needed science-based innovative solutions to start a new chapter of global ocean action”.

With more than 900km of coast, Portugal is in a place of great responsibility. It is not only a guardian of this great resource but also has the power to unveil the opportunities it may bring to our economy.

Who’s developing ideas to protect or make the most of this resource? And what are investors looking for in this field?

Register to get your free tickets and free beer on our hangout.

AGENDA

0600 PM OPEN DOORS

0630 PM ECOSYSTEM BRIEF w/ António Dias Martins (Startup Portugal)

0640 PM WARM UP w/ Mark Kaplan, (En)visible

0700 TALK w/

António Costa Silva, Ministry of Economy and Maritime Affairs

Carlo Fedeli, FlexSea

Dianne Dain, Today

Stephan de Moraes, Indico Blue Fund

Rita Sousa, Faber Ocean

(moderated by) Miguel Marques, Skipper & Wool

0735 PM Q&A

0745 PM DRINKS + CONNECT

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

António Costa Silva, Minister of the Economy and Maritime Affairs

António Costa Silva was born in Angola in 1952. He has a degree in Mining Engineering from the Lisbon University Higher Technical Institute, a master’s degree in Petroleum from Imperial College (University of London), a PhD in Petrol Reserve Engineering from Lisbon University Higher Technical Institute and Imperial College.

He is professor emeritus at the Lisbon University Higher Technical Institute, where he also taught Planning and Integrated Management of Energy Resources. Upon invitation of the Portuguese Government, in 2020 he drafted the Strategic Vision for Portugal’s Economic Recovery Plan for 2020-2030 and presided over the National Steering Committee for the Recovery and Resilience Programme since May 2021.

Chairman of the Partex Executive Committee from 2004 to 2021. He was Director of Reservoir Engineering and Production at Beicip-Franlab, the corporate branch of the French Petroleum Institute (Paris, 2001-2003) and Executive Director of the Compagnie Géneral de Geophysique in Portugal (1998-2001). He began his professional career at Sonangol (Angola) in 1980, and from 1984 to 1997 he worked at the Portuguese Service Company.

Throughout his career, he was charged with coordinating several international energy projects, particularly the Middle East, Algeria, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Angola. He was selected in 2002 by the International Court of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce as the expert charged with solving the legal and technical dispute between two of the major oil companies in the world in an oil rig on the China sea.

Since 2018, he has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Aveiro University; he was also Chairman of the Fuel Board of the regulator - ERSE, member of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Advisory Board and Chairman of the Water Initiative Advisory Board at Católica University in Lisbon.

He was member of the ISCTE- Lisbon University Institute Board of Trustees and the Advisory Board of the Gulbenkian Programme for Development Aid.

He was a guest speaker at international conferences on energy, energy and geopolitics, and has published several articles and papers in the fields of energy, strategy, geopolitics, and international relations.

Carlo Fedeli, CEO & Founder of Flex-sea

Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Warwick Business School and a Master’s Degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Imperial College London, Carlo has always had a strong passion for everything innovation and sustainability. He truly believes there can always be a way to improve upon what already exists. He has a well-rounded background in marketing, advertising, finance, operations and project management.Holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Management from Warwick Business School and a Master’s Degree in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Imperial College London, Carlo has always had a strong passion for everything innovation and sustainability. He truly believes there can always be a way to improve upon what already exists. He has a well-rounded background in marketing, advertising, finance, operations and project management.

CEO & CO-Founder of FlexSea, he now works to help reduce plastic pollution and global dependency on petroleum-based materials by leveraging one of the most powerful marine resources: seaweed.

Dianne Dain, Co-CEO of Today

Diane Dain is the Co-CEO of Today and President of the Singer Foundation. She serves as a champion for resonant business transformation, sustainable tech, social innovation, heart centered leadership and sense making. She was on the WHO Innovation team through the pandemic and was on the founding team that created the United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL). She also led the creation of the United Nations Reboot Accelerator, helping thousands of global youth innovate and design sustainable climate action solutions.

Stephan de Moraes, Manager General Partner at Indico Blue Fund

Stephan Morais (de Moraes) is the founder and Managing General Partner of Indico Capital Partners (www.indicocapital.com), a leading venture capital tech and sustainability focused firm based in Portugal.

Indico focuses on software as a service, artificial intelligence, web3, fintech, cybersecurity, digital and climate tech companies, targeting investments at Pre-Seed to Series B level. Founded in 2017, the team at Indico have backed or founded, in the last decade, the majority of the Portuguese global tech success stories, including 6 global unicorns, as investors and entrepreneurs (Farfetch - PT/UK, Talkdesk - PT/USA, Anchorage - PT/USA, Remote - PT/USA, Tier - Germany and Fever - Spain).

With a diversified background as an investment banker, consultant, entrepreneur and CEO, he has lived in 8 countries and 4 continents over the last 26 years. Stephan was formerly an Executive Board Member at Caixa Capital, a Private Equity and Venture Capital fund management company. He is also a former Advisor to the European Commissioner of Science and Innovation, Past Chairman of the European Venture Finance Network and Past Council Member of Invest Europe and Board Member of the International Venture Club. He has been and is a Non-Executive Director and Board Observer in numerous companies.

He is an Entrepreneurship Expert with the Entrepreneurship Center at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, an Advisory Board Member at AMROP, Executive Search and Board Member of the Portuguese Private Equity Association (APCRI). He is a YPO (Young Presidents Organization) Officer, Vice president of the American Club of Lisbon, Advisory Council Member of Portuguese American Leadership Council (PALCUS) and President of the Harvard Club of Portugal.

Appointed as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010, and Member of their Digital Leaders of Europe Community, he holds a degree in Engineering from Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon), and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Stephan is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English and French.

Rita Sousa, Partner at Faber Ventures

Rita Sousa is Partner of the Ocean / Climate Tech Fund at Faber, an early stage, specialty VC firm in Southern Europe, that invests in teams transforming the world with technology.

With more than 8 years experience in VC, Rita co-leads the fund early stage investments in deep tech startups aiming for positive impact on ocean sustainability, climate action and decarbonization of the global economy. Prior to joining the VC space, Rita worked in the energy and utilities industry and in management and innovation consultancy. Rita has a degree in Mechanical Engineering (Instituto Superior Técnico), MSc. Energy/Environment (Univ. Strathclyde), MBA (AESE/IESE BS) and Master in Finance (Católica BS).

Miguel Marques, Founder of Skipper & Wool

Miguel Marques founded Skipper & Wool and its international thought leadership project named Blue Info, which aims to make relevant contributions to the various pieces missing for the complex "blue puzzle" of sustainable development of our oceans, seas, rivers and lakes, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. At the core of the activity of Blue Info is the analysis of blue big data. Before Blue Info, Miguel Marques was a PwC Partner and founded and led for over a decade (2010-2020) PwC’s Blue Economy Global Centre of Excellence, which was focused on blue growth, the promotion of economic development, the creation of new jobs and the protection of the environment, through shipping, ports, shipbuilding and other ocean-related industry sectors.

A subject matter expert on the blue economy, Miguel is author of several books and more than 100 blue economy reports and studies all around the world and regularly speaks at conferences (including the UN, EU and World Bank) and other events, attends meetings with shareholders, boards of directors and senior management around the world, sharing insights and best practices. He is regularly invited as keynote speaker in relevant international blue economy forums and has also been featured in a number of reputable journals and newspapers.

ABOUT ABOVE & BEYOND HANGOUTS

Above & Beyond Hangouts are a monthly hangout for all of those hacking the Portuguese entrepreneur ecosystem.

Happening every last Wednesday of the month, at Ferroviário, it is a great opportunity to gather all level ecosystem players wanting to contribute to overcoming the community’s challenges.

Every year, in November, Lisbon is turned into the epicenter of the entrepreneurship community. We want to leverage that community, and create a frequent space where everyone can discuss important topics for the development of the ecosystem.