Daniel

Kleinman
SIM AMBASSADOR
Daniel Kleinman
SIM SDG 14 Ambassador
LIFE BELOW WATER
Daniel Kleinman is Seaworthy Collective‘s Founder and CEO, and a marine roboticist. Daniel received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida, focusing on ocean technology while following a passion for exploring and understanding the oceans.


Daniel
As an undergraduate, Daniel interned with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and became a University Innovation Fellow. After graduating in 2015, Daniel spent two years as a Pilot and Test Engineer for Bluefin Robotics’ unmanned underwater vehicles in Boston.
Daniel spent the following three years in San Diego as a Navy Contractor contributing to mechanical engineering research and development for maritime systems. Daniel is currently in graduate school at University of Miami RSMAS, and will be graduating with his Masters in Exploration Science in 2021. Daniel launched Seaworthy Collective in the fall of 2020, channeling his passion, network, and industry knowledge to empower a community of current and aspiring ocean innovators and entrepreneurs.
Here is Daniel Kleinman’s first TED Talk at MIT during TEDxBoston Planetary Stewardship this past November. It’s titled “Co-creating a Regenerative Blue Economy for All”. His talk encapsulates Seaworthy Collective‘s approach to driving systems change in democratizing the opportunity for participation in the blue economy.
While their vision and focus have evolved in the months since his talk with the launch of their new Founder Mentorship Program (which they are accepting applications for here: https://lnkd.in/gddAU2R ), the roots of their work and the larger scale impacts they look to catalyze remain strong in what he covered through his presentation, summarized below.
The greatest barriers we have to solving climate change and marine degradation aren’t technical. They are barriers to opportunity, implementation, and collaboration for people, solutions, and regions alike. A bottom-up approach for holistic regional development is necessary to break down systemic barriers for ocean and climate impact, which enables leveraging the other 71% of our planet as an asset against climate change.
Not only do we need to support the development of communities and solutions, but also think bigger by growing innovation ecosystems. Altogether, this bottom-up approach is key to unlocking the untapped talent and ideas that will drive the scale of regional innovation needed to collectively regenerate our blue planet.