Jarvis Green
CEO, Oceans 97; Chairman, Green Reef Foundation
Jarvis Green is a dynamic venture developer and entrepreneur whose path has taken him from a successful career in the National Football League to becoming a prominent figure in the seafood industry and a dedicated advocate for global sustainable development. His journey reflects a blend of athletic prowess, entrepreneurial spirit, and a steadfast commitment to making a positive global impact.
Born in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, Jarvis made his mark as a four-year letter winner for the LSU Tigers from 1998-2001, where he was a dominant force on the field. After graduating with a degree in Construction Management, he was drafted by the New England Patriots in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Over his eight-year NFL career, Jarvis played a key role in two Super Bowl championships and earned the prestigious New England Patriots Ron Burton Community Service Award in 2006 for his philanthropic contributions.
Following his football career, Jarvis channeled his passion for cooking and nutrition into the seafood industry. He gained hands-on experience at the New Orleans Shrimp house, where he worked in various roles, from shrimp peeling to truck driving. In 2015, he founded Oceans97, a seafood company known for its flavorful shrimp pâté and its partnerships with major retailers across the United States.
Jarvis’s venture firm, GRV, LLC, is focused on establishing an industry-led innovation supercluster to drive collaboration between industry, government, and academia, to address illegal fishing challenges and support of the Atlantic Cooperation agreement. GRV is working to develop a network of coastal innovation centers to enable small and medium sized businesses to participate. The firm is dedicated to advancing solutions in resilient nutrition and food systems, logistics and mobility infrastructure, and natural resource management across target regions that include West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Beyond his entrepreneurial ventures, Jarvis’s commitment to community service deepened after a transformative trip to Africa. Recognizing the importance of modernizing the seafood industry for nutritional security, poverty alleviation, and the empowerment of women-led enterprises, he founded the Green Reef Foundation. This non-profit organization focuses on providing fishing and aquaculture communities with access to nutritious food, clean water, sustainable livelihoods, and ecological well-being. In collaboration with U.S. government agencies and leading academic institutions, Jarvis is actively developing innovative strategies to strengthen Africa’s seafood sector, secure critical supply chains, and build next-generation workforce programs that emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Reginald B. Blaylock, Ph.D.
Director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center
Reginald B. Blaylock, Ph.D. is Director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Thad Cochran Marine Aquaculture Center at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, MS. Dr. Blaylock’s expertise is the ecology and epidemiology of marine pathogens. He received a B.S. in Biology from Wake Forest University (1986), a M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Texas at El Paso (1989), and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Alberta (1996). Dr. Blaylock has been with USM since 1996. His work at USM focuses on alleviating the biological, technical, and economic bottlenecks constraining development of marine aquaculture to facilitate aquaculture’s potential to responsibly and sustainably contribute to food security and the blue economy. Dr. Blaylock served as a Board Member and Secretary-Treasurer of the U.S. Aquaculture Society, Treasurer of the World Aquaculture Society, and President of the American Society of Parasitologists. He received the U.S. Aquaculture Society’s Distinguished Service Award in 2017.
Paige O’Neill, MBA, CGBP, EDFP
NC EcoTech™ Program Manager
Paige O’Neill is a dynamic leader with global experience in business development, business acquisition and integration, strategic technology development, and international economic development. She embodies a unique skillset across business strategy, technology strategy, and entrepreneurship. Paige has an extensive background in the technology field and has led strategic planning, emerging technology introduction, equity investments and acquisitions of technology companies. As the NC EcoTech™ Program Manager, Paige coordinates cross-sector teams of business owners, entrepreneurs, multi-institutional researchers, and community stakeholders to establish an Innovation Engine that drives EcoTech emerging technology innovations for economic and workforce impact in rural communities while maintaining ecological sustainability in emerging aquaculture and coastal resilience technologies.
Daniel Hicks
Irregular Warfare Policy Advisor; Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict
Dan Hicks is an Irregular Warfare Analyst in the Department of War’s Office of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict in the Pentagon where he is the lead for economic competition. Prior to this position, he retired from the United States Agency for International Development’s Foreign Service. In that role, he designed and managed programs that advanced good governance, food security, biodiversity, and community-based natural resource management. Mr. Hicks is an Army veteran, with multiple combat tours as a Cavalry Scout and Civil Affairs soldier. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Alabama; a master’s degree in International Development from the Brussels School of International Studies, and a master’s certificate in Tropical Forest Management from the Yale School of the Environment.