A Growing Community, A Shared Purpose
As 2025 comes to a close, I want to pause and simply say: thank you. To our members, volunteers, and partners around the world – your time, trust, and commitment continue to shape MTS in meaningful ways.
This year marked a particularly important milestone for our community with the welcoming of Ocean Exchange into the MTS family of programs. Ocean Exchange has long been a catalyst for bold ideas and emerging solutions, and its integration into MTS represents more than growth – it reflects an expanding, connected ecosystem where innovation, talent, and experience meet. We are grateful to the Ocean Exchange community for their partnership, leadership, and shared belief in what is possible when we work together.
With flagship programs like Ocean Exchange, the MATE ROV Competition, and the Ocean Enterprise Initiative – alongside our long-standing member-led programs such as Sections and Committees, TechSurges, EMERGE, scholarships, and the MTS Journal – MTS serves as the connection and innovation platform for the global marine technology community. A place where people, ideas, technologies, and opportunities intersect; where individuals and organizations can engage in one program or many, at different stages of their journey, and in ways that deliver direct and enduring value.
What unites our evolving ecosystem is not any single program or idea, but the way people, companies, and programs reinforce one another in our shared mission to shape, grow, and support the marine technology workforce, innovations, and blue economy of the future.
From students and startups to researchers, practitioners, and leaders, each individual contribution strengthens the whole. At MTS, our role is to intentionally steward these connections and define these pathways. And as we look ahead, our commitment is to listen closely and to better tell the story and elevate the collective impact of this remarkable community.
Thank you for being part of MTS, and for everything you contributed in 2025. I look forward to what we will continue to build together in 2026 and beyond.
Warmly,
Chris Ostrander, MTS CEO
