Critical Minerals and the Race for Deep-Sea Mining
Virtual Briefing Series
Thursday, August 29th, 2024 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
The technological world is built by critical minerals like nickel, cobalt, and lithium. As the demand for clean energy expands, so does the demand for these metals and rare earth elements. While these materials have historically been mined on land, a trove of critical minerals is lying on the seabed and being captured by the competitive, booming, and opaque deep-sea-mining industry. The U.S. is missing out in this race while its geopolitical competitors, China and Russia are getting ahead in this industry. On the other hand, scientists and environmentalists are raising concerns regarding the environmental impacts of the industry’s activities. What is the scope and growth potential of this industry? How is it governed? How can countries balance environmental goals with economic and geopolitical ones?
Join us on Thursday, August 29 from 12 to 1 PM ET for a conversation with Julian Jackson, Project Director of Ocean Governance at the Pew Charitable Trusts; Vasser Seydel, President of The Oxygen Project ;and Victor Vescovo, Founder and CEO of Caladan Capital LLC and Renowned Undersea Explorer where they will discuss the deep-sea mining industry, its governance, geopolitics, potential environmental impacts and more.
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SPEAKERS:
Julian Jackson
Julian Jackson heads Pew’s work to safeguard the marine environment by advocating for precaution in the development of a management regime for deep seabed mining at the International Seabed Authority. He also leads engagement in Europe on Pew’s campaign to protect ocean life on the high seas.
Before coming to Pew, Jackson was a civil servant with the U.K. government, working on international agriculture and biodiversity policies. He led the U.K.’s delegation to various international negotiations with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Jackson also co-authored several papers on the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources and is passionate about climate change and biodiversity loss.
He holds a diploma in physiology and pharmacology from the University of Southampton, England.
Vasser Seydel
Vasser Seydel is the President of The Oxygen Project, an organization on a mission to ignite a global community of nature champions and drive collective action through campaigns, education, and storytelling. Under her leadership, the organization is committed to catalyze a regenerative, conscious, and climate-resilient reality.
Vasser is a Trustee of the Turner Foundation, where she continues to promote her family’s legacy of environmental responsibility and was the inaugural Chairperson of the Turner 3rd Generation Board. She also serves on the boards of the National Center for Family Philanthropy and Dr. Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue. In addition, Vasser is an Arctic Angel for Global Choices and an Advisory Board member for One Earth and the University of Georgia’s Sustainability Certificate.
A cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s in Communications, Vasser contributed to UGA’s Office of Sustainability as the Grants and Engagement Director, served as a Student Sustainability Ambassador, and interned at the United Nations Foundation and TEDWomen. Following graduation, Vasser began consulting for social impact organizations specializing in communications, digital media, and strategic development and championed environmental causes as a Global Ambassador for Julian Lennon’s White Feather Foundation and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Victor Vescovo
Victor Vescovo is a private investor with over thirty years of experience in a variety of complex business situations. He co-founded private equity firm Insight Equity in 2002 with his business partner, Ted Beneski and raised over $1.5 billion in equity capital across four funds investing primarily in industrial, asset-intensive industries. Victor’s primary investment focus while at Insight Equity were in the defense, aerospace, and electronics industries with a specific emphasis on executing operational improvements at the investments as Insight’s Chief Operating Officer. In 2023, he departed Insight in order to focus on his own investments with new capabilities to support industrial startups, life sciences, and other areas of venture capital and special situations.
Victor received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a Master’s Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated as a Baker Scholar. Additionally, Victor served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence and targeting officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander.
In 2017, Victor completed the “Explorer’s Grand Slam” which requires climbing the highest peak on all seven of the world’s continents including Mt. Everest and skiing at least 100 kilometers to the North and South Poles. He piloted the first repeated dives to the ocean’s deepest point, Challenger Deep, in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench — now fifteen times, and in August 2019 became the first person to visit “The Five Deeps,” the deepest point in all five of the world’s oceans. Victor has now personally explored the bottom of seventeen deep ocean trenches and has made three dives to the Titanic including the only solo dive ever made there. He and his team also discovered and surveyed the two deepest shipwrecks in the world: the USS Johnston in 2021 and the deepest, the USS Samuel B. Roberts at 22,600 feet, in 2022.
He is also a commercially rated, multi-engine jet and helicopter pilot, a certified submersible test pilot, and recently flew into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, becoming the first person in history to climb Mount Everest, dive to the bottom of the ocean, and visit space.
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Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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