Meeting roles in:
Toward a Thriving Ocean Enterprise
The Blue Economy: Cultivating Collaboration, Innovation, Financing, and the Next-Generation Workforce I Oral
The Blue Economy: Cultivating Collaboration, Innovation, Financing, and the Next-Generation Workforce II Poster
Millicent Wallace Pitts is the CEO/Executive Director of OceanExchange.org, a US based, international non-profit in its tenth year with the sole mission to help the advancement of innovative solutions that support healthy oceans and coastal systems, and the decarbonization of ocean shipping/ports. Ocean Exchange awards two $100,000 non-dilutive grants to start ups with globally scalable solutions. Previous finalists and winners in the awards process are making significant technical and commercial progress. Additionally, Ocean Exchange awards a $10,000 award to a collegiate innovator, a process that has yielded five former finalists in five years that were later named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in their fields.

Millicent was an operating executive for thirty years in the chemical/materials industry with Atlantic Richfield, Rohm & Haas, Engelhard/BASF and with a university-based start-up. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. While at Ocean Exchange, she has helped grow a start-up ecosystem with roles as innovation judge at Penn Innovation Day, as a mentor at Clean Tech Open Northeast, as a member of the NOAA sub-committee on the Blue Economy, as a steering committee member of OceanVisions.org, and as a judge at the DOE/NREL Marine Energy Collegiate Competition.