April 2023 Message from the CEO

Earlier this month I had the honor of joining a small group of ocean leaders for an intimate and invite only conversation focused on defining a collaborative future for marine priorities in the United States. That MTS was the only membership community at the table alongside the most senior executive leadership in the country spanning defense, diplomacy, ocean research, and environmental science is a testament to the reputation, talent, and richness of our MTS community.

It also is a recognition of the steady transformation MTS has undertaken over the past 12 months. Emerging from the worst of the pandemic impacts on our organization, and with a full complement of talented staff, visionary board members, and dedicated volunteer leadership across the society, MTS clearly is the community of choice within our industry. 

Over the past year, we have seen record attendance at in person events, an increase in our Journal impact, and an expansion of our community - membership has grown by 20%. With partners at NOAA and GOOS we have launched a new signature program, Dialogues with Industry, that has served to expand and elevate our global thought leadership role. Revenue is rising, public engagement is rapidly expanding, and the buzz within our expanded community is hard to miss!

As we welcome the boreal start to Spring and look forward to Summer, MTS is preparing for the largest transformation in our 60-year history. The integration of the MATE ROV Competition has been approved by regulators and we look forward to formally welcoming the MATE team, alumni community, and competition partners and sponsors into MTS in July. You'll notice recent changes in our bylaws approved by the Board have paved the way for that formal integration - title updates, board composition, and administrative process updates have positioned us for continued growth and excellence. 

As our community expands and our reach grows, we find within MTS an increasingly rich and diverse fabric of individuals, organizations, committees, sections, and personal perspectives. In my conversations with you over the past year, though, I have consistently heard three north star priorities that unify our community: building our future workforce, catalyzing innovation and advancement of marine technology, and the use of technology, by our workforce, to capture data and generate information that leads to the creation of new knowledge that serves our entire society

How timely and appropriate that the needs of our community today are the same as those that our founders captured in our first Constitution nearly 60 years ago. Their focus and prescience have enabled unrivaled growth and impact across our industry - including innovation and discovery by our members that has altered the course of human history. Six decades on, MTS remains true to those founding ideals that drove our creation and we look forward to working with everyone across our community to deliver countless more decades of impact and innovation. 

Warmly,
Chris Ostrander, MTS CEO

Share this post:

Comments on "April 2023 Message from the CEO"

Comments 0-5 of 1

Thomas Wissing - Thursday, April 27, 2023
2006984580

Chris, I'm excited to be the first to comment! This is just an absolute PAT ON THE BACK to you and the Executive team at HQ. You all have done a fantastic job and I know you've worked hard in changing tides. Keep up all of your great work! Please share with the team that Gulf Coast appreciates all you do! -Tom Wissing

Please login to comment