We’re a dispersed team of remote sensing and data scientists, software engineers and designers, and business and communication experts. Our team is based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and North America and has worked for NASA and the European Space Agency, through to tech startups, aircraft manufacturers, humanitarian organisations, and academic institutions.

We’re passionate about protecting our marine environment and supporting the people who rely upon it. Our oceans play a critical role in the lives of billions of people around the globe and ocean health is essential to planet health.

Where we’re based

Business Team

Emma Scarlet

Chief Operating Officer

Emma has been involved with Xerra and Starboard right from the start, initially joining as the Establishment Manager for Xerra. Her business experience and talent with people enables Starboard’s high performing team to continuously thrive.

Heather Deacon

Commercial Manager

Heather has a passion for providing customers with the very best value by really getting to the heart of the problems they need to solve. She has a background in aerospace, remote sensing and growing new business, and was most recently working at NZ’s Innovation Agency, Callaghan Innovation.

Kristin Armstrong

Business Administrator

Kristin has worked in business support for over 7 years spreading across multiple industries. Kristin loves being the person who can help others make their work life feel more at ease and being the one-stop shop to help solve daily matters.

Mat Brown

Chief Revenue Officer

Mat takes a customer-centric approach and believes in consistently adding value to his clients as a long term commercial partner. After a 17 year career in the advertising industry, the Sales Manager role for Starboard allows Mat to bring together his commercial acumen and previous PGDip in Marine Science.

Megan Charley

Maritime Domain Awareness Analyst

Megan has worked in Maritime Intelligence for over 10 years, with experience in the Defence, Fisheries, and Border Security sectors. She is passionate about geo-spatial analysis and developing meaningful intelligence in support of sustainability and humanitarian goals.

Trent Fulcher

Chief Executive Officer

Trent is an entrepreneur at heart with an extensive background in strategy and startups, having worked across the globe in Financial Services and Aerospace, turning complex technology into marketable products, and growing high performing teams.

Vincent "Vinnie" Nguyen

Business Development and Enablement Manager - North America

Vinnie is a 21-year US Navy and Coast Guard veteran, bringing experience in data analytics, linguistics, international affairs, fisheries enforcement, emergency disaster management, and training to Starboard. Before joining, he consulted on projects at the nexus of environmental security, capacity building, and emerging technology across Asia and the Americas.

Data science team

Dr Dave Kelbe

Senior Data Scientist

Dave is an imaging and remote sensing specialist. He is an expert in geospatial science and satellite imagery processing and has spent time working in this field at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). His PhD is in Imaging Science earning him the Doctoral Dissertation of the Year award for his environmental monitoring research with NASA.

Joseph Corbett

Senior Data Scientist

Joseph is a data science and machine learning expert. He is responsible for designing and implementing machine learning solutions for Starboard. Previous work includes 7 years as a researcher at NASA's Langley Research Center focusing on satellite measurements of climate related data. His experience combines both advanced data science skills and a Masters in Physics.

Product and design team

Julie Jeon

Principal Product Designer

Julie makes products and services work better for people. She’s excited and humbled by the potential for positive impact that building good software can enable, both for the people and our planet. As a design practitioner, she’s led projects and teams in her work with government agencies, Xero, and Trade Me.

Dr Moritz Lehmann

Sales Engineer

Moritz is an oceanographer and remote sensing scientist who likes to squeeze every little bit of knowledge from ship tracks and vessel behaviour at sea. He leads our biosecurity research and supports operations against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing using satellite dark vessel detections. Moritz is a well-published scientist and a skilled communicator. His work has been featured in several interviews for radio, newspapers and TV.

Sarah Fleetwood

Senior Product Designer

Sarah crafts elegant experiences that put people at their core. She is humbled by the opportunity to combine her love of creativity and solving complex problems to help people look after our oceans and planet. Previously, she's helped start-ups build industry-leading software, services and brands such as Karbon and Atomi.

Engineering team

Danika Chhour

Software Engineer

Danika is interested in harnessing the potential of technology to provide for a more sustainable future. Currently working towards a degree in Law and Software Engineering at the University of Auckland, she is excited to apply what she has learnt to develop features that help people better care for the planet.

Denise Rivera

Senior Software Engineer

Denise has been working with software for over 10 years now, switching confidently between fullstack and frontend engineering. She loves a challenge and the fast-paced forever changing landscape of frontend engineering. Her work is tidy, logical and well-documented, always thinking about how future Denise will hate it if she doesn't write good code now.

James Player

Senior Software Engineer

James has spent his career crafting beautiful and valuable web experiences. He has led the front-end strategic direction for well-known companies such as Hootsuite Campaigns and Optimal Workshop and particularly enjoys the creativity and excitement that comes with developing new products and services.

Justin Harding

Senior Software Engineer

Justin has spent over 25 years developing statistical financial and engineering software. Prior to this Justin was a civil engineer. He enjoys developing quality software and is deeply involved in the development of Starboard's complex data structures and layering.

Laszlo Peter

Principal Software Engineer

Laszlo is a software developer and problem solver. With more than 20 years experience including as Principal Software Engineer at Oracle. He has a unique talent for turning researcher and client needs into effective and efficient technology solutions.

Max Collier

Software Engineer

Max is a recent graduate in Computer Science. During his studies he worked in software development roles involving satellite data processing and interactive GIS systems for end users. He applies his keen interest in optimised algorithms to his work on Starboard.

Nick Wittenberg

Software Engineer

Nick has been passionate about problem solving and technology for as long as he can remember. Despite holding a Masters's degree in Health Science and working as an Osteopath for 10 years, this natural inclination eventually led him to study software development, and an internship with Starboard solidified that the career change was exactly the right fit.

Dr Robert Schafer

Senior Software Engineer

Robert has a passion for spatiotemporal analysis and has applied this to build various core algorithms and models in Starboard. He has developed innovative algorithms for calibrating and analysing satellite imagery. He has focused his career on earth science and remote sensing and has a PhD in Physical Science.

Rody Oldenhuis

Senior Software Engineer

Originally from the Netherlands, Rody has been writing software in the aerospace domain for well over 10 years. He aided a flagship geostationary communication satellite in gaining its software qualification, and has worked alongside astronauts to realise night-time photography on the ISS. With a keen eye for software quality, he now implements his skills into the development of Starboard.

Simon Graham

Senior Software Engineer

Simon has over 20 years experience as a software engineer, with an impressive history building both frontend and backend software systems for top global hedge funds. He feels privileged to be able to apply his extensive data engineering experience to Starboard’s databases and software development as the team work to protect the world’s oceans.

Tama Pugsley

Chief Technology Officer

Tama has worked on websites and software for over 25 years. He is passionate about making the connection between science and end users as he helps develop products. He has a deep technical knowledge that spans the entire development lifecycle and has led teams at start ups and larger companies in New Zealand, France, Canada and the USA.

Ersin Buckley

Senior Software Engineer

As a Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience across product, agency and start-up contexts, Ersin takes a people focused approach to software development. They specialise in building platforms enabling faster and better software development. Ersin prioritises the needs and goals of end-users, creating intuitive, efficient and enjoyable software.

We’re a multidisciplinary team brought together to help build a sustainable future through the power of science

Business Team

Data science team

Product and design team

Engineering team

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