Welcome to the newest part of our running blog series on members of the OrbitMI Corporate Advisory Board. The advisor we'd like to spotlight this week is Melvin Mathews.

Melvin has a long and significant career in both startup ecosystems and maritime industry - he first became involved in the maritime industry in 1993, when he joined the maritime industry as a cadet. Later in his career at sea he went on to command several vessels which included super-tankers. He was adjunct faculty at the Naval Maritime Academy before embarking on his MBA and then participating in the Entrepreneurship and Global Leadership program at Lehigh University. Since then, he has worked as the Director of Regulatory and Environmental Solutions, as well as the Director of Maritime Business, for Eniram Oy, a Finnish maritime clean energy management company. He was the Co-founder and Director of Recunnect Ltd, and served on its board until 2018. Since 2019 has been the Director of New Businesses at Wärtsilä.

On his blog, he has written extensively about the unique challenges faced by the shipping industry, and regularly uses his background and expertise to draw conclusions about the future of the maritime industry. Melvin's core interests can be separated into four distinct categories: technology, environment, innovation, and people- these are his motivators, and he devotes a considerable amount of time to learning about and exploring each. Melvin deeply believes in the inevitability of a digital revolution in maritime, and as a result, has been a member of OrbitMI's Corporate Advisory Board since 2019, and uses his extensive experience to advise us on matters of market strategy. We thank Melvin for his continual support in OrbitMI's mission, and we look forward to growing together.