Team ÆRTH
Adina Popescu
Founder / CEO
Founder & CEO, ÆRTH - building global ecological intelligence infrastructure
Built cross-sector networks across science, tech, and institutions
Former Advisor to Apple (Media Arts Lab) & Conservation International, McKinsey, Paramount
International speaker on AI ethics, data sovereignty & emerging tech systems
Background in German philosophy & systems design; focused on governance for frontier tech
Ion Vonic
Chief Technology Officer
20+ years building mission-critical systems across defense, aviation, and telecom
Programs with Lockheed Martin, Leonardo, Marconi
PhD Engineer; full-stack architect (AI/ML, real-time, embedded, secure systems)
NATO research & interoperability working groups (cybersecurity & communications)
CTO-level leadership scaling high-assurance platforms & multinational teams
Brandon Levy
Head of Partnerships
First employee & Chief Program Officer - Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA)
Leadership roles: California Clean Energy Fund / New Energy Nexus
Deployed $5M+ into early-stage ocean & clean energy startups globally
Launched the first ocean tech accelerator; built the largest youth ocean leadership network
Global speaker & convener - United Nations, NASA, Goldman Sachs
Sam Gbafa
Privacy & Interoperability Lead
Founder, Tiny Cloud - AI infrastructure & distributed systems
Experience across OpenAI ecosystem and digital identity (SpruceID)
Builder of privacy-preserving data & trust architectures
Electrical engineering background; full-stack AI engineer
Bridges AI, identity, and decentralised intelligence systems
Janne Kuka
Product & Design Lead
Design Lead at Ōura (Oura Ring)
18+ years in product & design across leading Silicon Valley tech companies
Previous roles at Sonos and other consumer tech leaders
Work recognized by TIME and Fast Company for Innovation by Design
Expert in product strategy, UX, and design-led innovation
ÆRTH Advisory Board
Dr. Newton H. Campbell Jr.
Remote Sensing – Director at AROSE space consortium
Newton Campbell Jr. is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and the director of space programs at the Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth Consortium. Campbell began his career supporting US Department of Defense (DOD) research programs, primarily with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. For ten years, he served as principal investigator and technical lead of multiple DOD research programs, developing new technologies in the domains of internet privacy, Internet of Things, and cyber-physical systems. After DOD, Campbell served as an artificial intelligence (AI) subject matter expert for the NASA Langley Research Center Office of the Chief Information Officer Data Science Team.
Jurgen Valckenaere
Reef Systems & Coastal Environment Specialist
Jurgen is a Reef Systems & Coastal Environment Specialist
He is a PhD candidate at the University of Western Australia, working within the Wernberg Lab and the UWA Oceans Institute. His research focuses on future-proofing temperate reef systems and coastal environments.
With over a decade of international experience, Jurgen advocates for integrating regenerative strategies, fostering collaboration, and leveraging innovative technologies to promote the long-term health of our marine environments while supporting societal growth.
Alan Jamieson
Deep Sea Science, Technology and Exploration
Minderoo / UWA / Inkfish
Alan Jamieson is Professor at The Oceans Institute at the University of Western Australia and founding Director of the Minderoo UWA Deep Sea Research Centre. He is an international authority on the deepest places in the oceans known as the ‘hadal zone’, meaning depths between 6000 and 11,000 metres. He has published over 120 peer reviewed scientific papers and has participated in nearly 70 deep-sea expeditions spanning every ocean. He also pioneered the design, construction and operations of the full ocean depth Hadal-Landers and has deployed these baited camera systems over 500 times throughout the world’s deepest trenches. Since 2018 he has been the Chief Scientist of the DSSV Pressure Drop, notably during the round-the-world Five Deeps Expedition (2018-19) and the follow-on Ring of Fire expeditions (2020-present).
ÆRTH Partners
