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Speakers

Previous editions 2023

This is the fantastic group of speakers that will bring to the table exciting and new content to share and discuss with the international diving community. This list will be updated periodically.

Andreia Teixeira

Lieutenant Commander Andreia Filipa Guedes Teixeira was born in Lisbon, on April 23, 1983.
She joined the Naval School in 2002, completing the Naval Military Sciences Course – Naval Medicine in 2008.
Hospital Assistant in Pulmonology since 2017.
She has been part of the medical team at the Navy Center for Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine since 2011.
Has carried out more than 2000 consultations and is part of the emergency response prevention team, having treated more than 200 patients.
She was responsible for the medical support in 16 deep diving missions and two exercises with underwater use of explosives, both demolition and disposal.
At the moment, she is finishing her master’s degree in Hyperbaric and Underwater Medicine, with the title of her thesis: “Characterization of decompression sickness in divers treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the Center for Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine – does it make sense to create a greenway for decompression sickness in Portugal?”
Author and co-author of 6 papers and posters at international conferences.
Author and co-author of 21 communications and posters at national congresses.
Participation in 31 postgraduate training courses.
Participation in 12 congresses and meetings.
She is married and has two sons and one daughter.

Becky Kagan Schott

Becky is a 5-time Emmy -Award winning underwater cameraman and photographer whose work appears on major networks. She is Co-owner of Liquid Productions, Inc specializing in capturing imagery in extreme underwater environments including caves, under ice and deep shipwrecks. Becky’s projects have taken her all over the world from the Arctic to Antarctic and many places in between where she’s earned a reputation for being able to bring back quality imagery from challenging environments. Her biggest passion is shooting haunting images of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. She combines her artistic style with powerful stories of tragedy, mystery, and survival to ignite the viewer’s imagination. She’s constantly pushing her creative limits and trying new techniques to capture the beauty of the underwater world. That includes photogrammetry and producing 3D models of shipwrecks to showcase them to divers and non-divers. She’s a frequent contributor to magazines and her photography has been used in books, advertising, and museum exhibits. Becky has been actively diving for 28 years and is currently an active TDI Mixed Gas Rebreather Instructor. She leads expeditions all over the world to capture unique images that inspire others to explore our planet!

Brian Helmuth

Professor Brian Helmuth is the lead scientist with Proteus Ocean Group, the company behind PROTEUS™, envisioned as the International Space Station of the Ocean. Helmuth is a
A marine biologist and underwater explorer based at the Coastal Sustainability Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. His research and teaching lie at the interface of multiple disciplines, and focus on better understanding the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, and on co-developing solutions to those problems with diverse stakeholders. He has published over 125 scientific journal articles, is an author on the 5th US National Climate Assessment, and was named a Google Climate Science Communications Fellow. A veteran of multiple saturation missions using the Aquarius habitat and science advisor to Fabien Cousteau during Mission 31 in 2014, Helmuth has led scientific research expeditions across the planet, and is a Fellow National of the Explorers Club.

Carolina Schrappe

Carolina Schrappe is a Freedive athlete and a 13-time South American Record Holder in the depth disciplines of Freediving. She has performed several freedives below -100m and is always seeking new challenges. She has been an Instructor Trainer of Freediving since 2009 and has been a diver since 1999, dedicating 23 years to the Diving World. She is a Technical Trimix diver and a Full Cave diver.
Carolina is also a Physiotherapist, having graduated from Pontifical Catholic University in 2001, and a Technician of Medical Emergencies from Tuiuti University in 1999. In addition to her diving accomplishments, she is a Taekwondo Pan American champion, purple belt (2007), and has been a Diving Instructor since 2002 by several international agencies, including NAUI, PDIC, IANTD, PADI, and PFI.

Best performances in freediving are as follows:
Static apnea: 6’30”
Dynamics with fins: 125m
Dynamics without fins: 100m
Constant fins with fins: -74m
Constant fins without fins: -44m
Free immersion: -70m
Variable ballast: -114m

Cat Braun

Cat Braun, originating from the United Kingdom, has made significant contributions to the field of scuba diving. Her initial introduction into the industry occurred with her first try dive at the age of 15 in Egypt, marking the start of her involvement with the diving community.
Living in Egypt for nearly two decades, Cat worked extensively within the scuba industry, working for multiple training agencies. The latter time in Egypt, was distinctly devoted to technical diving. She managed her own technical diving operation, Tekstreme Diving. This operation distinguished itself by offering specialized technical diving training and services, notably focusing on bespoke pure technical diving safaris in the Red Sea. Presently situated back in the UK, Cat is one of the International Technical Training Directors for SSI. In this role, she assumes a central team position in developing global initiatives focused on the advancement of technical diving within SSI.
Cat is excited to remain an integral part of the diving industry and see the growth of technical diving within the community. She finds it exciting to see the technological advances that have accompanied the rise of technical diving. Notably, there’s a growing awareness among enthusiasts about this type of diving. Cat believes in making technical diving accessible to the global community, a mission that lies close to her heart.

Darrell Adams

Darrell Adams is the founder and co-owner of Public Safety Instructor Group (PSIG) which is a collective of instructors teaching together with the simple mission to help facilitate quality training programs for the public safety community with commitment and dedication to providing students with the highest quality level of training programs with an emphasis on professionalism and safety.
Darrell is a native of North Carolina, he began his emergency service career in 1991 when he joined the Angier Black River Fire Department. In 1993 he helped develop and organize what has become the Harnett County Underwater Search & Recovery Dive Team. In 1998, Darrell was hired by the City of Raleigh as a firefighter. With the fire department, he has been temporarily assigned several times to the training division to help develop recruits for active service. Darrell’s current position is Captain on Engine 21 which is a fire company/technical rescue special operations water rescue station. He is also a member of NC Task Force 8 USAR Team and retired member of North Carolina Helicopter Aquatic Rescue Team. He also works with the NC Community College system as an adjunct instructor in multiple discipline areas.
Darrell’s Instructor qualifications are but not limited to: Diving Instructor Trainer for SDI, TDI & ERDI, FRTI Instructor Trainer, Firefighter Instructor, Live Burn Instructor, LP Gas Instructor, Hazardous Materials Instructor, and Technical Rescue Instructor with subset specialties in Confined Space, Vehicle Extrication, Rope Rescue, HUET, Small Boat Operations and Swiftwater Water Rescue.

David Doolette

Assoc. Prof. David Doolette is the 2022 recipient of the Albert R. Behnke Award for outstanding scientific contributions to advances in undersea medicine and physiology. He is expert in the development of decompression strategies, the pathophysiology and management of decompression sickness, and the evaluation of closed-circuit rebreathers. He has over 100 scientific and technical publications, He has developed and tested decompression tables, dive computers, dive planners, diving standards, and specialized diving procedures for the technical diving, commercial diving, and military diving communities. He began scuba diving in 1979, is a pioneer of technical diving, and is an avid underwater cave explorer.

Fabien Cousteau

Aquanaut, Oceanographic Explorer, Environmental Advocate and Founder of Proteus Ocean Group
Fabien’s first experience with scuba was at the age of 4, and since then his life has been immersed in ocean exploration and conservation.
In 2014, Fabien led a team of aquanauts on Mission 31, the longest science expedition to take place at Aquarius, the only remaining underwater marine laboratory. The mission broke new ground in ocean science and honored his grandfather’s underwater living experiment (Conshelf Two) by going deeper, longer and further.
Mission 31 inspired Fabien to found Proteus Ocean Group with a vision to build a new state-of-the-art modular habitat designed to facilitate ground-breaking marine research and exploration. PROTEUS™ is slated for deployment off the coast of Curacao.
Fabien has produced and collaborated on numerous television projects, including “Attack of the Mystery Shark”, “Mind of a Demon” and a PBS series called, “Ocean Adventures” with his father, Jean-Michel Cousteau, and sister, Céline.
He founded the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center (FCOLC) to drive positive change in the marine world. He dedicates much of his time to Proteus Ocean Group and to the initiatives of the FCOLC, including a coral reef resilience program, beach clean-ups, sea turtle and mangrove restoration projects and an Ocean Discovery Educational Curriculum Program.

Gareth Lock

Gareth Lock is the owner & founder of The Human Diver, an organisation formed to bring human factors knowledge, experience and practice from high-risk domains and academia into the sport of diving. Since January 2016 when he formed the company, he has taught hundreds of people in face-to-face classes around the world and thousands via online and webinar-based programmes. He has published Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors, the only textbook that looks at this topic and in May 2019, released ‘If Only…’ which looks at a tragic diving accident through the lenses of human factors and a Just Culture. Over the last 3 years he has also led two reviews of fatal military diving accidents on behalf of Defence departments, applying systems thinking and human factors.
Recognising that the need for human factors is greater than one person can deliver, he has also trained ten instructors to deliver Human Diver materials around the globe and is working with two agencies to incorporate human factors concepts and tools into instructor development and diver training materials.
The Human Diver website is https://www.thehumandiver.com where you can find everything you want to know about HF in Diving and associated training materials.

Gouveia e Melo (Adm.)

Admiral Henrique Eduardo Passaláqua de Gouveia e Melo was born on November 21, 1960, in Quelimane, Mozambique.
He joined the Naval School in 1979, and graduated in Naval Military Sciences, in 1984. He was promoted to Midshipman, at the age of 23 and served as the Executive Officer of Patrol Boat Save until 1985.
He joined the Submarine Squadron in September 1985 and assumed the post of operation officer on board several submarines. Later on, he was the Executive Officer of the Submarines Albacora and Barracuda. Between 1992 and 2002, he was the Commanding Officer of submarine Delfim and then Barracuda as well as head of the Training and Assessment Service of the Submarine Squadron and the Staff of the National Submarine Operating Authority.
He was Public Relations and Spokesperson for the Navy, and from 2006 to 2008 he was appointed as Commanding Officer of the Frigate Vasco da Gama.
He returned to the Submarine Squadron as its Commanding Officer and led the process of renewing it in order to support the new submarine´s class Tridente.
Afterward, he was assigned Deputy Commander of the Flotilla, Head of the Lighthouse Directorate, and Head of the Institute for Lifesaving.
Upon his promotion to Rear Admiral, in April 2014, he served as the Chief of Cabinet to the Chief of the Naval Staff, until 2016. He was then appointed Deputy Fleet Commander and substitute Fleet Commander and, in January 2017, when promoted to Vice Admiral, he was appointed Fleet Commander. In addition to his responsibilities, over a period of two years, he was also the Commanding Officer of the European Maritime Force (EUROMARFOR), which includes Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian assets.
From January 2020 to December 2021, he was the Deputy for Planning and Coordination to the Portuguese Chief of Defence at the General Staff of the Armed Forces. Additionally, following a joint decree of the Minister of Defence, Minister of Internal Affairs, and Minister of Health, he coordinated the Task Force against COVID-19 in Portugal, between February and September 2021,
He attended manifold courses and specialized in Communications and Electronic Warfare. He holds a Post-Graduation in “Information Warfare” from Universidade Independente. He also attended the Naval Warfare General Course and the Flag Officer’s Promotion Course.
He was promoted to Admiral and appointed Chief of the Navy on December 27, 2021.
Throughout his career, he has been distinguished with several orders and decorations amongst which: the Grand Cross of The Military Order of Avis; nine Distinguished Service Medals (four gold five silver); 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class Military Merit Medals; Grand Officer of the Brazilian Order of Naval Merit; Grand Master of the French National Order of Merit.

Jean Claude Monachon

JC Monachon, a diving industry pioneer, began his underwater journey in 1974 at age 14. His passion for diving led him to become a professional after 12 years. In 1986, JC left his corporate job in Switzerland to pursue his dream of working as a diving professional in the Maldives. This decision transformed his life and the lives of many others.
After rising to CEO within a prominent diving organization, JC drove change by transitioning the industry to digital programs. His leadership revolutionized diving education at SSI – Scuba Schools International. Fluent in five languages, JC’s international business development expertise enabled him to identify market needs and launch innovative programs such as the successful Mermaid Program.
With a belief in taking action rather than remaining idle, JC emphasizes imperfect progress. He specializes in social media marketing and has conducted over 2400 webinars in five languages over the past four years. JC aims to improve marketing strategies organically, staying connected to local communities and markets.
JC, now a Chief Executive Human, combines the power of AI with his social media marketing education. He is dedicated to rejuvenating the diving industry by promoting sustainability and marine ecology. Diving encompasses relationships, health, and wealth, ensuring a promising future. With JC at the forefront, the industry is poised for a prosperous era of ecological consciousness and sustainable growth.

João Correia

João was born in 1972 and is a raconteur with a Ph.D. in marine biology, who’s been focusing his academic research on shark fisheries and conservation. A three-times featured TEDx speaker, he began his career in Bimini, studying lemon shark behavior, then became curator of sharks at the Lisbon Zoo, researched deep-sea shark growth at IPMA (then IPIMAR), and joined the Oceanário de Lisboa in 1997, one year before the opening, where he’d become Head Diver and Curator of Collections.
In 2006 he founded his own collections firm, Flying Sharks, and, as a professor at ESTM since 2005, he also teaches future marine biologists. João is also a prolific speaker, with over 200 motivational lectures, and/or on the biology and conservation of sharks, climate change, and other ocean related topics. In 2015/6/7 João also published his trilogy ‘Sex, Sharks and Rock & Roll’, an illustrated memoir covering his career studying sharks and moving marine animals all over the world, while selling adult toys on the side.
His Portuguese title ‘Tubarões Voadores’ (which is Portuguese for ‘Flying Sharks’) was also a best-seller and the sequel features not just the birth of his beloved baby boy Nikola, but also how the Covid-19 pandemic turned a completely dead fish business into a thriving odyssey of PPEs, alcohol, and disinfectants, among many other amazing items, such as plush toys. In the end, Flying Sharks enjoyed its finest financial result ever in 2020, only to be surpassed in 2021, while simultaneously running a half million euros EEA Grants project which will yield the most modern unit for moving live fish built to date anywhere in the world.

Jonathan Bird

Jonathan Bird is an Emmy award-winning cinematographer specializing in underwater production. He is the host and producer of Jonathan Bird’s Blue World, an educational family-friendly underwater adventure series with more than a million subscribers on YouTube @BlueWorldTV. This series has won 8 Emmy Awards. He has shot and produced over 50 films. His films have appeared all over the world, on networks such as National Geographic Channel, PBS, ABC, USA Network, Discovery and even the SciFi Channel. He is currently in production on his fourth IMAX® film. He is the principal at Resolution Post, a post-production facility that specializes in giant screen film finishing. Jonathan is the president and founder of Oceanic Research Group, Inc., a non-profit environmental organization founded in 1990 to promote conservation of the world’s oceans..

Karen van den Oever

Karen van den Oever is a Cave and Trimix Diver and Instructor based in South Africa. Karen along with her husband (Francois) are owners and founders of “Somewhere Out There Diving”. “Somewhere Out There Diving” was created for the purposes of out of the ordinary, expedition and exploration type diving trips. Karen is very passionate about technical diving and cave diving and in March 2021 set a new Woman’s World Record for the deepest Scuba dive with a depth of 236.04m, in Boesmansgat Cave in South Africa and in October 2022 bettered that record with a depth of 246.56. Karen has a passion for exploration and also enjoy teaching others and sharing her knowledge and passion for technical diving.

Kirk Krack

Kirk Krack is a multi-disciplined diver having reached the highest levels of technical and mixed gas diving in the 90’s before turning his attention to Freediving and forming Performance Freediving International (PFI). Having developed one of the earliest freedive specific educational systems in January of 2000, he has trained 7 athletes to over 23 world records, won the ‘DAN Rolex Diver of the Year Award’ in 2016 for his focus on freedive safety, continues to train nine different military special operations groups from three different countries and developed the innovative concept of ‘Technical Freediving’. In 2017, he was hired by James Cameron to train cast and crew for the recent ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’. Kirk now has moved into another career leveraging his educational experience and multi-disciplines in diving by working for DEEP, a UK based ocean technology and research company soon to be manufacturing underwater habitats and submersibles. His focus is on developing the Aquon Training program, a NASA-like 24 month multi-disciplined system training the next generation of undersea explorers.

Luiz Rocha

Luiz Rocha is the Follett Chair of Ichthyology and co-Director of the Hope For Reefs Initiative at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. His major research interests include evolution, conservation, taxonomy, and community ecology of coral reef fishes. He has spent over 6,000 hours studying fishes underwater, and published over 170 peer-reviewed articles and two books. In addition, his work has been featured in many popular media outlets including CNN, the New York Times, Scientific American, National Geographic, Science Channel, etc, and supported conservation efforts across the globe. Currently his main area of work involves the exploration of little-known deep coral reefs (between 60 and 150m depth) throughout the tropics using technical rebreather diving. Because this ecosystem is so unexplored, it is largely unprotected. His work has mainly focused on describing the uniqueness of the fauna from those depths, and on advocating for both the inclusion of deep reefs into existing marine protected areas, and the creation of conservation areas dedicated to those reefs. He recently won a Rolex Award for Enterprises for this research on deep reefs of the Maldives.

Mark Caney

Mark first started scuba diving while serving with the British army. In 1980, he left the military to open a diving center in Cyprus and has worked full time in the diving industry since.
For eighteen years, he travelled to many countries training scuba instructors and working on diving-related projects. He also led an award-winning, four-month diving expedition to east Africa.
In 1996, he became a vice president of PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors) and was based in their office in Bristol, England which covers the area of Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2016, Mark moved into a global role for PADI Worldwide, although he continues to live in England.
Mark was instrumental in setting up PADI’s TecRec rebreather training range is presently involved in creating ISO standards for rebreather diver training and scientific diving.
Mark is well known in the diving world; he is the President of the European Underwater Federation, is President of the Rebreather Training Council and continues to serve in the senior positions in leading diving industry bodies such as the World Recreational Scuba Training Council. He is also the chairman of a major marine charity, PADI AWARE Foundation for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Mark published the novel Dolphin Way – Rise of the Guardians in 2016, and in 2020, also released it as an audiobook.

Mark Powell

Mark had his first experience of diving at the age of 10 when he did a try-dive in a local pool. He was hooked from that point onwards. He learnt to dive in 1987 and has been diving ever since. He has dived in the Red Sea, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, California, Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, Truk Lagoon, Caribbean and the Mediterranean. However he is most at home in the waters around the UK where there is some of the best wreck diving in the world.
Mark became an instructor in 1994 and has been actively instructing since then. In 2002 Mark set up Dive-Tech, a dedicated technical diving facility, with the intention of providing the highest quality technical diving training. He has been a full time diving instructor since then. Dive-Tech provides technical training at all levels up to and including CCR Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor Trainer. It also provides consultancy services to other diving organisations.
Mark is a TDI/SDI Instructor Trainer and Director of Global Development for International Training. He also represents TDI/SDI on a number of international standards groups. He is a regular contributor to a number of diving magazines and a regular speaker at Diving conferences around the world.
In 2008 Mark published Deco for Divers, a widely acclaimed overview of the theory and physiology of decompression. This has quickly become the standard text on the subject and is recommended reading by a number of the technical diving agencies. In 2010 Deco for divers was awarded “Publication of the Conference” at the EuroTEK.10 technical diving conference and in 2014 it won the Media Award at TekDive USA. In 2019 Mark followed this up with a new book Technical Diving – An Introduction.

Martin Parker

Martin Parker, born in 1960, is an avid diver whose innovative contributions have revolutionised the diving industry. With a passion for exploration and a visionary mindset, Martin has dedicated his life to advancing rebreather technology and ensuring safe diving practices.
On launching the Inspiration rebreather in 1997 it was described by Diver magazine as “the most significant development of diving equipment since Cousteau/Gagnan invented the aqualung” and making them readily available to sports divers for the first time has transformed diving for the better. 25 years on, through continual development, his Inspiration rebreather remains at the forefront.
Hailed as the “Henry Ford of the rebreather world,” Martin’s relentless pursuit of production quality innovation has earned him widespread recognition. His contributions have garnered prestigious awards such as the Jack Lavanchy European Underwater Federation award, the Colin McLeod Jubilee Trust Award, and the Tridente d’Oro in the technology sector.
Martin’s expertise extends beyond product development. Since 1991, he has actively participated in European standards committees, ensuring the establishment of rigorous safety standards for all diving equipment including rebreathers.
With an illustrious career that includes winning a British Design Award and the Millennium Award amongst others, Martin continues to push the boundaries of rebreather technology, inspiring divers worldwide and making an indelible mark on the diving industry.

Melodie Trevino

Melodie Treviño is a Mexican diver and entrepreneur. Based on the Carribean Coast, she is an accomplished Trimix (450ft/137m), Cave and Wreck diver and has been involved in several exploration expeditions. Besides being a dive instructor, she also holds an MBA. Melodie was able to carve out a life at the intersection between her professional and academic interests, as well as her passion for diving; co-founding The Chilam Group, a diversified company that owns and manages multiple regenerative tourism operations, with a heavy focus on diving. She also co-founded an NGO called The Regenerative Development Alliance that strives to solve problems related to keystone species, reef restoration, cenote and aquifer conservation as well as regenerative tourism initiatives. Some of the projects run by the Alliance are exploration expeditions, such as the Taam Ja project that is leading the exploration of the deepest Blue Hole in the world. Melodie has stood out due to her tenacity, love for the ocean, conservation and for pushing the limits of her comfort zone. A free spirit, a passionate athlete and naturalist, she is addicted to exploring the wonders the world has to offers in order to share them with others.

Michael Menduno

Diving since 1976, Michael Menduno is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of InDepth, and an award-winning reporter and technologist who has written about diving and diving technology for more than 35 years. He coined the term “technical diving.
His magazine aquaCORPS: The Journal for Technical Diving (1990-1996), helped usher tech diving into mainstream sports diving. Menduno also co-organized the Enriched Air Nitrox Workshop (1992), and produced the first Tek.Conference (1993-1996), EUROTek (1994), and ASIATek (1995) conferences in the nineties.
Menduno has been reporting on rebreather technology for more than thirty years. He organized and co-chaired Rebreather Forums 1.0 (1994) and Rebreather Forum 2.0 (1996) with engineer Tracy Robinette, was a presenter at Rebreather Forum 3, Orlando, FL (2012) and is now organizing Rebreather Forum 4 to be held in Valletta, Malta (2023). He is certified on the Divesoft Liberty and AP Diving’s Evolution rebreathers.
In addition to InDepth, Menduno is a senior editor for DAN Europe’s Alert Diver magazine, a contributing editor for X-Ray mag, and a staff for DeeperBlue.com. He is also on the board of the Historical Diving Society (USA), and an associate member of the Rebreather Training Council.

Nuno Sa

A full-time cameraman since 2015, Nuno Sá was part of the team of the BBC series – Blue Planet 2, having been awarded in 2018 with a BAFTA award as well as a Panda award for your participation in this series. The following year he was the main cameraman for the documentary of the National Geographic Wild channel “Europe’s Wild Islands”, and on several high profile documentaries such as BBC “Animal with cameras”, NHK  “Islands of the Atlantic” and several others.
Between 2017 and 2019 he divided his time between participation as an underwater cinematographer for major international productions and the production of the first major series about the Sea of Portugal, the series “Sea, the last frontier” in partnership with Oceanário de Lisboa and Fundação Oceano Azul, that is currently being show on chanels RTP1 and RTP3.
Nuno Sá is also part of the Mares ambassador team.

Paula Lima

Paula Lima is a Marine Biologist with a specialization in Aquaculture and work experience in Biomedical Engineering and more recently in Marine Robotics. After finishing the PhD in Animal Science her research interest shifted towards innovative medical therapies that enable the body to repair, replace, restore, and regenerate damaged or diseased cells, tissues, and organs. For three years, she worked on the development of artificial intelligent matrices inspired by the tissues of echinoderms. Later she focused her research on immunomodulatory biomaterials for cardiovascular devices. In 2017 she joined the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS – INESC) as a researcher, participating in projects in the field of underwater robotics. She is also an Industry-research liaison officer at TEC4SEA (INESC TEC’s strategy for Marine Science).

Paulo Vicente

Degree in the Naval Academy, he is currently the Diretor of the Portuguese Live Saving Institute.
He served at the PRT MOD-National Defence Policy Directorate (Strategic Planning) after commission at the NATO Head-Quarters (International Military Staff) Brussels. In his military training, stand out among others, the Senior Course at NATO Defense College, in Rome ITA, The Joint Staff Course, The Salvage Diving Officer Course at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, U.S.A, and NATO courses: Crisis Management and Civil-Military Cooperation at the NATO School in Oberammergau.
As a Navy junior officer assumed duties related to his EOD and Salvage Diver specialization, where in addition to a variety of missions and exercises in the country and abroad, was the Portuguese Delegate of the Underwater Working Group (UDWG) and Very Shallow Water MCM Working Group (VSW MCMG), NATO. After the operational cycle related to military diving was assigned as Company Commander at the PRT Naval Academy.
As a senior officer was assigned at Naval Operations Command Staff, as Head of Planning and Current Operations first, and later on as Head of Surface Operations with a structural link to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre of Lisbon, where he assumed the task of Operations Manager.
After the Joint Staff Course, he assumed the post of teacher in the Joint Command and Staff College, Military Operations Area, until the invitation to Command at Sea and later on, the Portuguese Navy Public Affairs Office responsibility, as Chief of the Navy Spokesperson.
He has a Master’s Degree in Peace and War Studies in the New International Relations (UAL).

Pete Mesley

Learning to dive off the south coast of England in 1990 and moved to New Zealand in 1994, Pete has made a full time career out of diving. An Instructor trainer and technical instructor trainer in Rebreathers for over two and a half decades, Pete is arguably the Southern Hemisphere’s most experienced Technical diver, Instructor and explorer. Pete has been hunting, finding, diving and documenting shipwrecks throughout his entire dive career and has planned and led expeditions in over 29 countries. Pete’s primary business is doing all the logistical planning, organising and leading technical dive trips to the most remote locations on the planet. Pete has been DSO (Dive Safety Officer) for many underwater film shoots for Natural History, National Geographic, and other production companies. He has also a co author for 7 scientific studies which have been published in prestigious medical journals round the world. A DMT (Dive Medical Technician) and fully qualified chamber operator. Pete is also a world class underwater photographer. Dedicating over 2 decades in perfecting the art of light painting over very long exposures stitching multiple images together. The main objective is to light up areas in Wrecks or Caves which would never be able to be seen by a diver.  Capturing these images is a massive process and something Pete loves doing.

Phil Short

Phil Short is a professional diver and explorer whose passion is the exploration of caves. A diving educator specialising in closed circuit rebreather training at all levels both open water and overhead to students, instructors and instructor trainers.
A 3 month cave project in 2013 under the leadership of Bill Stone saw Phil and Marcin Gala pass the fourth sump of the J2 cave in Southern Mexico 12 kilometres horizontally and over 1 kilometre vertically into the cave whilst spending a total of 45 days underground.
Over the last 12 years Phil has focussed on Scientific Diving project supervision and management working with organisations including WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, US NPS SCRU (United States National Parks Service Submerged Cultural Resources Unit), Lund University Sweden and the DPAA (Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency). Projects have included Archeological Excavation of the 1492 Danish King’d ship Gribshunden and the successful recovery  and repatriation of WWII American airmen from a B-24 and B-17 Heavy bomber in 40 and 70 metres respectively.
Currently Phil works in Research and Development within the Commercial and Scientific Diving communities as a Trainer, SME and Underwater Missions Lead.
Phil is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Explorers Club and currently works as Underwater Missions Lead for a Commercial/Scientific Diving Research and Development company..

Rui Madeira

Commander Rui Manuel Zambujo Madeira was born in Lisbon, on January 3, 1976.
He joined the Naval School in 1994, having completed the Naval Military Sciences Course in 1999.
During his career he served on several naval units, between 1999 and 2004 as operations and executive officer, and, more recently, between 2018 and 2021 as commanding officer, mainly participating in search and rescue, diving support, and public service missions.
However, his main career has been with the Portuguese Navy Divers, which he joined in 2004, having served as Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, Mine Warfare Staff Officer, and Salvage and Search and Rescue Diver.
Between 2011 and 2013 he was appointed as chief of the logistics and divers training and evaluation department, and between 2015 and 2018 also as Technical-Pedagogical Director of the Portuguese Navy Diving School.
From 2021 until the end of 2022, he served at the Chief of Defence Staff Office as an adviser for NATO, European Union, and Innovation.
On December 2022, Commander Rui Madeira assumed the command of the Portuguese Navy Divers Group.
Rui Madeira is a recreational and technical diving instructor.
He is married to Mrs. Sandra Madeira and has 2 daughters and 1 son.

Simon Caruana

Simon Caruana is Senior Manager (Academia) at the Institute of Tourism Studies ITS.  His main role is to consolidate the existing Sustainable Tourism Department which currently runs a Bachelor Degree in Dive Safety Management and a Diploma in Climate Friendly Travel, the former being run in blended learning mode, whereas the latter is fully online. He has a PhD from the University of Leeds and is an active PADI Staff Instructor. His research interests are:  sustainable tourism, niche tourism, use of social media in tourism, blended learning and assessment in higher education, learning outcomes design and implementation, intercultural competence as a skill set within tourism education.

Simon Mitchell

Simon works as an anaesthesiologist at Auckland City Hospital, a diving physician at North Shore Hospital (Auckland), and is Professor of Anaesthesiology at the University of Auckland. He is widely published with two books and over 170 scientific journal papers or book chapters. He co-authored the hyperbaric and diving medicine chapter for the last four editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and has been Editor-in-Chief of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Journal since 2019.
Simon has a long career in sport, scientific, commercial, and military diving. He was a member of teams that were first to dive and identify three historically significant deep shipwrecks in Australia and New Zealand, including one in 2002 which was the deepest wreck dive undertaken at the time. He was conferred Fellowship of the Explorers’ Club of New York in 2006, and was the Rolex Diver of the Year in 2015. In February 2023 he was a member of the Wet Mules expedition to the Pearse Resurgence cave in New Zealand where a 230 m dive was conducted using hydrogen as a breathing gas on a deep dive for the first time in over 30 years.

Teresa Amaro

Teresa Amaro is a deep-sea ecology researcher who adopts a holistic view of Marine Sciences and uses a multidisciplinary approach to solve scientific problems. Teresa has a degree in Biology from the University of Porto in Portugal (1998) and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University in The Netherlands (2005).
Since 1998 she has acquired an extensive experience in seagoing (over 50 cruises) and sampling the seafloor using many different techniques such as Remote Operated Vehicles, man-submersibles, landers, sediment traps, corers, trawlers and especially in-situ experiments. In 2013, she had the chance to dive to 5262 m in the Pacific Ocean using SHINKAI 6500.
Teresa has been a diver since 1996, but only in 2017 she became an Open Water Instructor from both SSI and CMAS. As she has an extensive admiration for the deep sea, during Covid pandemic, she became a rEvo Decompression Diver.
Teresa has only used recreational diving as a hobby, but currently, she is leading a project in Cabo Verde islands, where she will combine both deep-sea instrumentation and diving (recreational and technical).

Tom St George

Tom discovered a passion for diving over 20 years ago after emigrating from the UK to New Zealand. A decade later, the wanderlust struck again but with renewed force, motivating him to quit his office job and travel the world. When he settled on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula it was in cenotes that his dual obsessions of scuba diving and photography truly came together. He is best known for his award-winning images of the cenotes and underwater caves which have been published worldwide. He now works full-time as a professional photographer as well as offering underwater photography coaching and group workshops.

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