Congratulations to the 10 Finalist Teams!

Hello Everyone,

 

It has finally arrived! Today, the X PRIZE Foundation  announced the Finalist Teams competing in the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE and we couldn’t be more proud.  These hard-working teams are about to develop technology that may influence the of future oil spill recovery technology and effect an  entire industry.

 

Five teams from the United States qualified to move on and the remaining five teams are all from Scandinavian countries.  They are (drum roll please):

 

• CRUCIAL, USA
• Elastec, USA
• Koseq, Netherlands
• Lamor, Finland
• NOFI, Norway
• OilShaver, Norway
• OilWhale, Finland
• PPR, USA
• Voraxial, USA
• Vor-Tek, USA

 With $1.4 million on the line, teams are excited to begin this journey and so are we. We look forward to seeing all the teams test in New Jersey this summer.

 

Congratulations again and welcome to the Final Countdown!

 

Good luck!

Alex at X PRIZE

IOSC 2011: Booth 851

Greetings from Portland!

This is going to be a big week for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. We are currently preparing for at the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC), in Portland, OR where we will be showcasing the Finalist Teams and chatting up the conference attendees about the Competition which is moving full speed ahead. The conference brings together people from around the world, enabling them to discuss in various formats the best responses to oil spill cleanup. This year, the X PRIZE Foundation has sent members of our team to the conference to meet and greet everyone that stops by our booth. Everyone is looking forward to a week filled with discussions of innovation, oil spill cleanup technology, and of course, our Competition!

We will be at booth #851 in the Oregon Convention Center Exhibit Hall so if you're in the Portland area be sure to stop by and say hello!

May 23: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
May 24: 10:00am - 500pm
May 25: 10:00am - 5:00pm
May 26: 10:00am - 2:00pm

Next week after the conference, we'll have a special guest-blogger who will give us the full run-down of the events.

I can’t wait for the announcement of our Finalist Teams!  Stay tuned!

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Dennis Takahashi-Kelso

Introducing Dennis!

Dennis serves as the Executive Vice President of Ocean Conservancy. Kelso's distinguished career has covered every aspect of ocean conservation, including public service in natural resources conservation, university teaching, research on fisheries and environmental policy and environmental grant making. Most recently he served as the Program Officer for Marine Fisheries Conservation at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Executive where his responsibilities included strategy development and grant making for fisheries conservation policy reforms and for market interventions to encourage sustainable fishing and aquaculture. Prior to that, Kelso was a member of the faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz where his research examined changes in Pacific Coast fisheries, particularly as a result of the shift toward production of farm-raised rather than wild-caught salmon.

Before coming to California to pursue his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, Kelso had an extensive and industrious career in conservation in the state of Alaska, serving as Alaska Commissioner of Environmental Conservation, a member of Alaska Governor Steve Cowper's cabinet, Deputy Commissioner of Fish and Game, and director of Alaska Division of Subsistence Hunting and Fishing. When the tanker Exxon Valdez went aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Kelso directed the state's oversight of the cleanup and enforcement of environmental laws. He also served as Chair of the Alaska Emergency Response Commission and a member of the Alaska Coastal Policy Council, the Alaska Land Use Council, and the Alaska Water Resources Board. In addition to his doctorate from UC Berkeley, Kelso also holds a law degree from Harvard University.

Our judges are very qualified and excited to participate! Can't wait for more!

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Henry R. "Skip" Przelomski

Hello Everyone,

Our next judge is Skip Przelomski!

Mr. Przelomski has been Vice President and Senior Technical Advisor of the Clean Caribbean & Americas (CCA) since 1991. His major responsibilities are to maintain and use for immediate deployment a multi-million dollar stockpile of air mobile oil spill response equipment covering all technically accepted methods of oil spill response. Hand-in-hand with the maintenance of the equipment, he is relied upon to maintain expertise and knowledge of oil spill response strategies, methods, issues and equipment developments, in order to recommend modifications and improvements in the inventory to the President and members of the CCA, and to provide technical advice on actual spills.

Mr. Przelomski developed specifications and oversaw the procurement of approximately $6 million dollars of response equipment for the CCA. He has deployed to numerous spills in the Caribbean and Latin America since coming to the CCA and has been a key participant in technical seminars, conferences, and working groups in the U.S. and Latin America, particularly on the subject of dispersant use and in-situ burning. He has also participated in numerous oil spill response exercises as an advisor and controller.

Mr. Przelomski is an active member of the Hazardous Substances and Oil Spill Response Committee F-20 of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). ASTM is a nonprofit organization devoted to the development of voluntary full consensus standards for materials, products, systems and services. The mission of the F-20 Committee is to be the foremost developer, producer and custodian of voluntary, world class consensus standards, specifications, test methods, guides, terminology and practices for the design, construction and operation of oil and hazardous substance response equipment, technology, and techniques.
During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response in the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Przelomski headed up the CCA deployment team operating the CCA Airborne Dispersant Delivery System (ADDS) out of Stennis International Airport, Kiln, MS. Over 360,000 gallons of dispersant were safely sprayed on the oil slick during 81 missions.

Prior to the CCA, Mr. Przelomski served twenty years in the U.S. Coast Guard and retired as a Commander in June 1991. The majority of his career was spent in the marine safety and environmental response field. His last tour of duty was as Assistant Chief, Marine Safety Division of the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami, Florida. Two of his duties were to serve as the Coast Guard Alternate Co-Chair, to the Caribbean Regional Response Team and to the Region IV Response Team.

More to come,
Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: Don Toenshoff

Hey Readers!

I would like to introduce to you, Don Toenshoff!

Donald A. Toenshoff, Jr., became Executive Vice President of the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) in April 1996. His responsibilities at MSRC include the executive leadership of: MSRC’s Health & Safety program, MSRC’s marine engineering & maintenance functions; MSRC’s vessel dry-docking program; the MSRC Marine Operations Division; federal regulatory spill response classifications; MSRC’s Quality Assurance & Quality Control programs; the MSRC dispersant program; and MIS & Telecommunications.

From 1998 to early 2010, Don provided leadership to MSRC’s Eastern Region, which includes the coastal region from Maine to Georgia, and the Mid-continent Region.
He previously spent four years during the creation and with the National Response Corporation (NRC) as Executive Vice President. His responsibilities at NRC included the development and oversight of the NRC program; commercial oversight of oil spill response activities; oversight of the NRC Training Institute; business development; and development of NRC’s operational infrastructure. Concurrently, he was Director of Clean Pacific, providing regional U.S. West Coast oil spill response services.

He presently is on the Board of Directors of SCAA, the Spill Control Association of America. Additionally, he is a member of APICOM, the Association of Petroleum Industry Co-Operative Managers.

Mr. Toenshoff represented the oil spill response industry on the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Response Plan Negotiated Rulemaking Committee in 1992, which developed the present oil spill response planning guidelines, under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

He previously held positions with Phibro Energy, Inc. (Commercial Petroleum Operations); Hess Oil Virgin Islands Corporation (Marine Operations Port Captain); and Stolt-Nielsen, Inc. (Fleet Operations and Sea-Going Deck Officer)

Mr. Toenshoff is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point (BS, Marine Transportation, 1984); University of Bridgeport College of Business and Public Management (MBA, International Business, 1990), and has attended the Columbia Business School Executive Program (1995) and the University of Virginia Darden Business School Executive Program (2000)

Mr. Toenshoff is the recipient of: The Women’s Propeller Club of the United States Port of New York 1983 Heroism Award; the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 1983 Special Award for Heroism, and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Outstanding Professional Achievement recognition (2004).

 

More tomorrow,

Alex at X PRIZE

Judges Spotlight: John Joe Dec

Hey Readers!

So, as you all know, our final judges have been selected for the competition. So, for the next few days, I'll be spotlighting a few of the judges, so you can learn all about them, and the knowledge they will bring to the judging panel. It's set to be a great competition!

John Joe Dec

John Joe Dec (JJ) is a retired United States Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, environment equipment specialist and oil spill response professional. During the BP oil spill, Mr. Dec outfitted more than 30 Coast Guard and commercial boats to skim oil near and offshore, training more than 200 crew members along the way. He also assists with classroom and field oil spill training, as well as field demonstrations for the Coast Guard Oil Spill Response Training course at OHMSETT. Mr. Dec began working in the oil spill field in 1984 at Marine Safety Office Hawaii then at Marine Safety Office Guam. There, he was a Response Supervisor with the Gulf Strike Team responsible for contracting all necessary personnel, equipment, and supplies to support Coast Guard led responses to oil and hazardous substance spills from the Mexico/U. S. border through the navigable U.S waters.

Mr. Dec then went on to the First Coast Guard District in Boston, MA. He was required to travel on short notice to the location of any ICS Command Post to personally support the Incident Commander. Under the overall direction of the Incident Commander, he interfaced regularly with contractors, making independent judgments as to the type and amount of oil spill equipment and supplies needed. Mr. Dec also maintained close relationships with other engineering and operating organization elements, government agencies, proven professional engineers, and industry and technical organizations to keep abreast of the latest developments in the Engineering/Environmental Response fields. He developed a local database of available response equipment and expertise, as well as coordinated oil spill equipment training for Coast Guard response personnel. Mr. Dec was also responsible for conducting inspections on oil spill response companies, evaluating types and kinds of skimmers, booms and trained personnel.

More later,

Alex at X PRIZE

Final Teams Announcement Coming Soon!

Hey Readers,

I know you are all waiting anxiously for the announcement of the final teams for the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE competition! Well, it's going to happen later this month! We will be announcing our teams around the date of the International Oil Spill Conference, which takes place in Portland, OR, May 23-26!

Just a few more weeks!!

Alex at X PRIZE