New England Section Elects New Leadership
The New England Section held elections for the section officer positions and we are pleased to welcome the following section officers:
Chair
Description: The Chair of each section shall serve ex officio as a member of the society’s Council. The local section Chair is responsible to the Vice President of Section Affairs. The Chair is responsible for the overall administration and leadership of the Section. The Chair presides at all Section meetings, appoints committee chairs, and serves as liaison between the Section and the Society Headquarters.
Nick Rotker - Nick Rotker is MITRE's Chief BlueTech Strategist and leads the Underwater and Acoustic Systems department within MITRE Labs. He leads MITRE’s efforts to solve big challenges in the BlueTech space, including internal R&D, partnerships, and government work programs. He has experience developing and leading solutions in underwater acoustics, SONAR, signal processing, algorithm development, and distributed sensing systems. Nick facilitates maritime innovation-related collaboration across the government, industry, and academic stakeholders, and provides connection and mentorship to early-state entrepreneurs. Prior to MITRE, Nick worked as an Acoustic Research Scientist at Scientific Solutions, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University.
Vice-Chair
Term: Two years
Description: The Vice-Chair is responsible for the duties of the Chair in the latter’s absence. It is important that definite responsibilities be assigned to the Vice Chair so that all aspects of Section operations are covered.
Dan Shropshire - Dan Shropshire is the Vice President of Teledyne Marine Vehicle Sales and Marketing in North Falmouth Massachusetts. In this role, Dan oversees Global Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management for a variety of Teledyne Webb Research, Teledyne Gavia, Teledyne SeaBotix, Teledyne OceanScience and Teledyne Benthos products which include: the Webb Slocum Glider, Webb APEX Profiling floats, Benthos Acoustic Systems, Benthos Towed Sonar Systems, Gavia AUVs, SeaBotix ROVs, OceanScience ASVs, and Teledyne TapTone. He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dan started his career as a systems engineer on commercial Geo Communications Satellites for Hughes Space and Communications and later worked for over ten years for Northrop Grumman at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory as a Flight Dynamics Engineer, Mission Planning Manager, Engineering Manager, and Program Manager. Dan came to work for Teledyne in 2013 and has held several different positions including Program Manager and Director of Product Line Management. While at Teledyne, Dan has managed several project lines and worked on several large programs including multiple vehicle design and development projects and low frequency acoustics for the Seismic Industry.
Secretary
Term: Two years
Description: The Secretary is responsible for recording minutes of Section business meetings, maintaining the Section correspondence files and archives, preparing meetings notices and arranging for their mailing to the Section membership, and preparing and submitting an Annual Report to the Society headquarters.
Chris Ordoñez - Chris has spent the last two decades working in Marine Technology and Ocean Science, spanning and interconnecting multiple sectors including: Offshore Construction, Hydrographic Survey, Oceanographic Research, and Marine Robotics. His work has involved installing subsea infrastructure, operating Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, developing new marine technology applications, managing offshore operations, and managing hydrographic, research, & engineering teams. As an active member of the Marine Technology Society since 2007, he has served as Vice Chair for the Puget Sound Section, Co-founder & Vice Chair of the Oregon Section, and regularly contributes papers & presentations to OCEANS conferences. He has worked on boats, large and small; lived on the three US coasts, the Caribbean and in SE Asia; and traveled widely for work. His Bachelor of Science is in Ocean Engineering from Texas A&M, and Master of Science is in Physical Oceanography from Oregon State. He currently lives in Boston MA and recently joined as Vice President of Program Management at Ocean Aero.
Treasurer
Term: Two years
Description: The Treasurer is responsible for the receipt and disbursement of Section funds in accordance with the budget and for the preparation of all required financial reports, including the financial section of the Annual Report to Society headquarters.
David Pearson, CMarTech - David is a Chartered Marine Technologist with MTS. As a shaper of marine robotics from the seafloor to the beach, David collaborates with diverse technical teams to develop practical solutions with cutting-edge technology. He is currently at Greensea Systems Inc and leads technology initiatives for programs tasked with advancing AI and perception systems within Greensea's Opensea GNC Team. Before Greensea, he was the Principal Engineer at Terradepth, developing technology and innovations for the Terradepth AxV and subsea survey data collecting technologies. David started his career as an Ocean Engineer at ASV, working as a technical/project lead to develop and field autonomous surface vehicles for Energy, Government, and Academia customers. He holds a Bachelors's and Master's degree in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University.