About us
The Sea Forest team is dedicated to fighting climate change by being the first in the world to cultivate Asparagopsis at a commercial scale and producing SeaFeed™ livestock supplement. Our scientists have now replicated the bioactives found naturally in this seaweed.
Composed of industry’s best scientists, the Sea Forest team is producing the highest methane abating supplement in the world by using the most effective production facilities and methodologies. Sea Forest is now producing more SeaFeed™ than ever, and as our farming, manufacturing and production operations continue to grow, so too will our positive impact on the planet.
Stephen J Turner | Executive Director & Co-Founder
Stephen Turner has a record of delivering large scale greenfields projects. He co-founded International Ferro Metals; a mining and smelting company which produces 4% of global ferrochrome supply and was listed on the LSE. For seven years Stephen was its CEO. He was also a founding director of South American Ferro Metals, a Brazilian iron ore producer that was listed on the ASX where he was CEO for three years. Until 2014 Stephen was also a non-executive director of Iluka, the world’s biggest producer of zircon.
Sam Elsom | MD & Co-Founder
Sam Elsom is a passionate environmentalist with over 15 years experience in sustainability. Having founded one of Australia’s first sustainable apparel businesses to measuring social and environmental impact across supply chains as well as implementing a satellite factory in India to support poor communities with income, training, clean water and education. Sam was drawn to explore seaweed cultivation for its impressive capacity to sequester CO2 as a potential solution to reverse Climate Change.
Teresa Garces | CFO
Teresa brings financial discipline and listed company reporting experience to Sea Forest. With over 15 years of experience as a Group Financial Controller, she has worked in financial leadership roles across various industries, including companies listed on ASX and LSE.
She is a dedicated and passionate advocate for the environment, having worked on other sustainability ventures.
Professor Emeritus Rocky de Nys | Chief Scientific Officer
As the Chief Scientist and Emeritus Professor within the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University in Nth QLD, Rocky works broadly across the fields of algal biology, chemistry, and aquaculture. An advocate for building sustainable organisations to address real-world problems, Rocky has played an instrumental role in the discovery of Asparagopsis for methane abatement having either authored or co-authored seminal scientific papers on Asparagopsis. Rocky brings leadership, experience and practical know-how to the Sea Forest team.
Dr Louise Edwards | Head of Product Development and Regulatory Affairs
Louise as Head of Product Development brings a wealth of knowledge across the feed to food supply chain. She has significant experience across multiple functions including applied research, regulatory affairs, quality management and technical business development. Louise is agile in her approach having worked across diverse commercial environments, including companies listed on the ASX and private enterprises.
Dion Cohen | Chief Commercial Officer
Dion is a Chartered Accountant with extensive experience in the resources and investment banking sectors. Over the past 15 years, he has played a pivotal role in several greenfield operations that have successfully transitioned to primary stock exchange listings. He has served as CFO for multiple companies listed on both the ASX and LSE. In addition to his corporate experience, Dion serves as a Director and Founder at the Forever Foundation, where he is intricately involved in the sustainability aspects of abatement calculations. Dion leads capital projects planning and execution.
Dr Masa Tatsumi | Head of Research and Development
Before joining Sea Forest as the head of research and development Masa spent many years as a researcher for the University of Tasmania studying ecological impacts of climate change as well as the rehabilitation and conservation of coastal and estuarine environments. Masa brings a wealth of seaweed knowledge having completed his doctorate on dynamic resilience and stability of Ecklonia as well as having spent years cultivating Macrocystis to restore Tasmania’s kelp forests at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.
Dr Christopher Glasson | Agri Product Development
Chris is chemist with broad experience in applied science. Specific expertise in synthetic organic chemistry, marine natural products chemistry, analytical chemistry, and statistical modelling. His research has contributed to the development of materials and catalysts, and more recently macroalgal bioproducts and innovations in aquaculture. Chis brings deep knowledge in structure-function relationships and the mechanistic details that underpin the efficacy of bioactive and functional molecules. Chris leads agricultural product development from concept to final product.
Erica Maginnis | Head of People and Culture
Erica is a passionate environmentalist who for the last seven years has developed her skills working as the people and development manager at the Wilderness Society. She has a strong track record across the full range of HR generalist functions, including the development and delivery of strategic HR initiatives.
Dr Marie Magnusson | Science Lead
Dr. Marie Magnusson has over 10 years of experience in the fields of applied algal biology, biochemistry, and product development. Specific research interests are algal product development for food, feed, and human and animal health applications in circular bioeconomy models, and the use of seaweed for enteric methane mitigation in ruminants. She is the Program Leader for the Macroalgal Biotechnology Enterprises at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, where she leads a team focussing on the development of a sustainable seaweed aquaculture industry in NZ.
