maritime
(5)
Yasovardhan Chinni
Yasovardhan Chinni, known in the industry as YC, is a marine engineer turned entrepreneur who runs YC Ventures, a Dubai-based diversified investment group built around a maritime core. Starting from the engine room, he founded Nan Lian Ship Management in 2015 and expanded into commercial shipping, ship management, maritime fintech, marine e-commerce, and energy storage. Through YC Ventures he owns and operates a fleet of tankers, bulk carriers, and offshore vessels while backing ventures like ShipFinex, Shipskart, and Terranova Green Energy.
Corey Cook
Dr. Corey Cook is the Vice President and CEO of Cal Poly Solano Campus (formerly California State University Maritime Academy), a role he assumed July 1, 2025. A political scientist with deep roots in Bay Area politics, Cook brings decades of academic leadership experience from Saint Mary's College of California (where he served as Executive Vice President and Provost) and Boise State University (where he founded the School of Public Service). With bachelor's degrees from UC Berkeley and a doctorate from Wisconsin, Cook is a go-to political analyst on KTVU News and has contributed to national outlets including The Atlantic, making him one of the few higher-education executives who regularly shapes public political discourse.
Charles Wong
Charles Wong is the CEO and Co-Founder of Bifrost AI, a San Francisco-based generative 3D data platform that lets robotics, aerospace, maritime, and industrial teams train and test AI models in hours instead of months. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree from Singapore, Wong built Bifrost after working on AI perception models for autonomous vehicles at NuTonomy (an MIT spinout). Bifrost has raised $13.7M in total funding, counts NASA JPL and the U.S. Air Force among its clients, and generates synthetic datasets for some of the world's most demanding physical-world AI challenges - from Mars rover navigation to maritime collision avoidance.
John Keh
John Keh is the Founder and CEO of Valtec, a San Diego-based maritime AI and drone company that deploys autonomous VTOL systems on commercial fishing vessels to detect tuna schools in real time. A UC Berkeley alumnus and former US Air Force geospatial intelligence analyst with 250+ missions across South Korea and the Middle East, Keh pivoted from food delivery (3rd employee at Caviar, Uber Eats courier intelligence lead) to maritime defense after four years building startups in Taiwan. Valtec raised a $2M pre-seed round in March 2025 backed by SparkLabs Taiwan, Wavemaker VC, DRONE FUND, Guitar Hero founder Kai Huang, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, with the company's Larus VTOL drone and Fulcan AI platform now deployed on 40+ fishing vessels across Taiwan and the Philippines.
Sampriti Bhattacharyya
Sampriti Bhattacharyya is the founder and CEO of Navier, the company building America's first all-electric hydrofoiling boat. She grew up in Kolkata, India, arrived in the US at 20 with $200, and went on to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT. After her first venture — Hydroswarm, an underwater drone startup — she co-founded Navier in 2020 with MIT engineer Reo Baird. Their flagship product, the N30, is a 30-foot, eight-passenger electric foiling yacht that glides four feet above the water at 35 knots, runs 10 times more efficiently than gas-powered boats, and delivered its first customer unit in October 2024. Navier's investors include Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Android co-founder Rich Miner.