Speakers

Amy Thompson

Product Manager

Amy started with us as Product Manager in October 2023. Prior to this she gained a Master's degree in Oceanography from the University of Southampton. After completing her degree, she worked for several years in the marine industry for a metocean monitoring systems provider, with tasks ranging from the installation of sensors, project management and ongoing customer support.

Outside of work Amy likes to spend time outdoors, from gardening in her allotment to hiking, cycling and surfing. She also enjoys watching live music.

Iain Slade

Head of Product and Innovation

Iain joined us as Innovations and Product Manager in 2022. He is responsible for formulating ideas for new products and solutions, as well as managing the New Product Introduction (NPI) process from prototype to finished project. This includes reviewing existing products to ensure they remain relevant and meet customers’ current and future needs.

With over 18 years’ experience as an accredited hydrographic professional working within a range of sectors including: civil hydrography, marine renewables, coastal monitoring and offshore oil and gas, Iain has an established international reputation within the hydrographic community.

Most of his free time is focused on his young family but he also enjoys outdoor activities. In particular mountain biking, surfing and stand up paddle boarding. He plays the drums to a high standard and is interested in music production and technology.

Dr Edward Steele

IT Fellow for Data Science, Met Office

Dr Edward Steele is the Met Office IT Fellow for Data Science, responsible for shaping and supporting the development and delivery of the organisation's artificial intelligence and machine learning capability. Consistent with his expertise in Environmental Intelligence, and many years of leading related contributions across academia, industry and government, is his experience and enjoyment of working with both internal and external colleagues and collaborators to help them look around corners and capitalize on new and emerging technological opportunities to unlock pioneering approaches for radically enhanced weather and climate related decision-making - with his work in the marine sector, in particular, credited with helping de-risk multi-million-pound projects for the offshore energy industry, ensuring the safety of life at sea, and evolving sector-wide standards (and ambitions) for the use of meteorological and oceanographic information.

Peter Holt

Marine Habitat Specialist, Sonardyne

Peter Holt is a marine technologist who is currently investigating novel methods for mapping marine habitats for Sonardyne International Ltd. Peter has designed subsea positioning systems, built several small manned submersibles and autonomous vehicles, located and investigated historic shipwrecks, and been a lecturer in hydrography. A chartered engineer and maritime archaeologist, Peter has published several books and papers on marine technology, marine geophysics, marine autonomy and underwater archaeology.

Eva Perrin

Research Fellow in River Pollution, University of Plymouth

Dr Eva Perrin is a Research Fellow in River Pollution at the University of the West of England with a background in freshwater sciences. Eva has undertaken research into the development and implementation of novel water quality monitoring technologies in rivers throughout the UK, looking at new ways to detect and monitor pollution from agriculture and sewage. Eva also has an interest in citizen science and community engagement, and has contributed to both local and national initiatives that bring together communities, researchers, and policymakers to support the improvement and protection of our waterways.

Holly Pearson

Senior Monitoring Officer, West Country Rivers Trust

Holly has been working for the Westcountry Rivers Trust since June 2017, after gaining a PhD from Plymouth University and working in academia for several years. Her background in environmental sciences means she has been able to assist with a wide variety of projects from catchment management to species conservation and natural flood management. Her main roles are the design and implementation of water quality monitoring campaigns and in-depth analysis, visualisation and interpretation of environmental data. She currently leads the Trust’s water monitoring programme.

Dr Ian Ashton

Senior Lecturer in Offshore Technology, University of Exeter

Dr Ian Ashton, Senior Lecturer in Ocean Technology at the University of Exeter has over 15 years’ experience leading offshore wave measurement, modelling, and analysis for wave, tidal, offshore wind energy and aquaculture projects. His research focusses on improvements in the accuracy and application of metocean data for operational and design use. Ian is currently a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellow, embedded with SSE Renewables Met Ocean team. In this role he is implementing new observation-driven short-term forecasting to explore the next-generation of offshore monitoring.

Amy Gibson

Product Manager, Subnero

Amy Gibson is a Product Manager at Subnero with several years of experience leading cross-functional teams to deliver advanced underwater communication systems. She works closely with engineering, product, and clients to ensure effective execution while translating stakeholder feedback into product development decisions. Her role emphasises collaboration, long-term client engagement, and aligning technical capability with real-world use cases. Representing Subnero at local and international events, Amy supports product positioning through technical presentations, demonstrations, and strategic partner engagement, with a strong focus on driving innovation in subsea communication technologies.

Jasmine Eggleton

Commercial Lead, Oshen

Jasmine holds a degree in Oceanography. She began in sales at Nortek, building a foundation in marine instrumentation, before moving to Sofar Ocean where she played a key role in growing the commercial adoption of Spotter buoys across global markets. Now at Oshen, she is focused on building the commercial sector from the ground up, bringing the C-Star autonomous surface vessel and its persistent metocean and acoustic data to customers across the globe.

Jonathan Bailey

Coastal Process Scientist, South West Coastal Monitoring

Jonathan Bailey has been part of the South West Coastal Monitoring team since January 2025, after completing an MSc in Applied Data Science and Modelling at University of Exeter. His main role is as the representative for South Cornwall, supporting the processing and analysis of coastal data while working closely with local authorities, RMAs and the Environment Agency.
Building on the expertise gained during his MSc, Jonathan is responsible for developing and maintaining quality control tools for a variety of data types. His recent work leverages machine learning and computer vision techniques to automate key components of current workflows, improving efficiency while also bringing new approaches to coastal analysis and management.
He is actively part of projects such as Making Space 4 Sand, contributing to community science initiatives that help drive evidence based, sustainable use and development of coastal fringe areas.

Ben Howey

Senior Data Scientist, Surfline

Dr. Ben Howey is a Senior Data Scientist at Surfline Coastal Intelligence, specializing in the application of AI, machine learning, and computer vision to marine and coastal monitoring. His work focuses on extracting actionable information from large-scale environmental datasets, including coastal camera networks, ocean observations, geospatial data, and forecast systems.
With experience spanning operational satellite remote sensing, oceanographic data systems, predictive modelling, and public-safety applications, Ben has worked across academia, research institutions, and industry to develop technologies that improve understanding and management of the marine environment. He holds a PhD in ocean engineering from the University of Plymouth and is particularly interested in the future role of AI and automated sensing in coastal intelligence and marine measurement.

Rob Hamilton

Water & Environment Sector Lead, ANB Sensors

With an MBA from the University of Birmingham, Rob has spent the last 15 years working with start-ups across various sectors to help introduce challenger technologies into established markets. Rob joined ANB Sensors at the start of last year and looks after Business Development for the Water and Environmental sectors as the company launches the next generation of it's calibration free pH sensor, the AQ2.

Sam Kirby

Sales & Business Development Manager, Planet Ocean

Sam holds a master’s degree in marine biology and has almost 10 years’ experience working with sensing technologies for aquatic environments. At Planet Ocean, he focuses on the application of water quality monitoring systems, working with both established and emerging technologies to support practical environmental monitoring.

Lizzie Cresswell

Community Water Quality Officer, Surfers Against Sewage

Lizzie is the Community Water Quality Officer at Surfers Against Sewage, where she supports communities across the UK to protect and improve their local blue spaces. She works closely with groups campaigning for bathing water designation at inland and coastal waterways as part of SAS's drive to improve how our wild waters are monitored and protected.
Through the Protecting Wild Waters programme, Lizzie provides hands-on support to communities navigating the designation process and supports SAS's Citizen Science water quality monitoring, helping communities take an active role in gathering data and holding polluters to account.
She joined SAS in July 2021 with an entrenched belief that protecting the ocean is the Most Important Thing – a conviction that hasn't wavered since.