David Heydon, is recognized as the pioneer of the modern deep sea mining industry. He was the Founder . and until 2008 CEO of seafloor minerals company Nautilus Minerals Inc., which was the world's leading deep sea minerals company; developing the world's first hard rock copper-gold mine in 1,700 metres of water. He attracted investments from senior miners such as Placer Dome (now Barrick Gold), Teck Resources and Anglo American while at Nautilus. He oversaw the deep sea mining feasibility study and EIA which led to Nautilus being granted a seafloor mining license. Since taking Nautilus public in May 2006, Mr Heydon raised US $334 million in cash for the Company to fund development of seafloor polymetallic sulphides; demonstrating Mr Heydon’s ability to raise significant capital in short time frames, as well as the committed support Mr. Heydon has from the world’s capital markets, in which he has built a strong reputation and developed world class networks. Mr Heydon was the recipient of the Moore Medal for contribution to science and man’s knowledge of marine minerals and its environs. Since retiring as CEO of DeepGreen Resources (now The Metals Company), David has continued his passion for the Oceans with a focus over the last 8 years on the polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctica taking both scientists and passengers to view the changes in these areas over recent years. In 2024 at his initiation, he along with 20 international scientists visited the North Pole of Inaccessibility. Being the first people ever to reach this pole of inaccessibility they gathered valuable data from this remote polar transect - creating data points of the Arctic never before accessed.

Dr. John Halkyard is an Ocean Engineer and active in deep ocean projects involving mining and oil & gas since the late ’60s. He was the Director of the Ocean Mining Laboratory for the Kennecott Manganese Nodule Consortium in the 1970s and led the successful mining system development effort. From 1988 – 2000 he was Technical Director for the Deep Oil Technology, Inc., which successfully developed and commercialized a proprietary deep water oil and gas platform, the “Spar”. From 2000 – 2007 he served as the Vice President R&D and Chief Technical Adviser for Aker Maritime, Inc. which was acquired by Technip, the world’s largest energy engineering and project service company. Following his retirement from Technip in 2007 he continued consulting on deep-sea mining and ocean renewables while serving as Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore. In 2011 he co-founded Deep Reach Technology, Inc., which provided services for the re-remerging deep-sea mining business. In 2014 DRT entered into a Cooperative Research Agreement with the U. S. Army Research Laboratory Materiel Command (“Investigation of Rare Earth Element Extraction from Deep Sea Sediment”, Prime Award W911NF-12-R-0011). This study led to the formation of Ocean Minerals, LLC to seek an exploration license in the Cook Islands, which was awarded in 2022. DRT and Dr. Halkyard also served as the Competent Authority regarding the offshore technology for the Preliminary Economic Assessment and SEC SK-1300 report for the Metals Company in 2021. Dr. Halkyard holds an ScD degree in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Life Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). He is a Licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer in California.

With a background in law and business, Robert has spent the last 15 years commercializing and developing seafloor mineral projects. He created the following world leading companies and has played an instrumental role in re-igniting global commercial interest in seafloor polymetallic nodule exploration and development: (i)Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), which was ranked as having the largest undeveloped nickel deposit in the world, and whose project has a plus US$6 Billion NPV; (ii)Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML); (iii)DeepGreen Resources Inc. (Canada), which is the world leader in deep sea mineral exploration and development, and which listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange at a valuation of approximately US$3 billion as TMC The Metals Company; (iv)DeepGreen Resources LLC (North Carolina), now operating as The Metals Company USA, LLC; (v)United Nickel Inc., which successfully pioneered international seabed mineral ventures with Pacific Island nations. Robert pioneered the model under which Developing States were able to finally participate meaningfully in mineral exploration in the international seabed area under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a result, NORI and TOML became the first private sector companies to be granted a licence by the International Seabed Authority to explore for minerals in the international seabed area. These companies created by Robert have now spent over US$500 million on seafloor mineral exploration and development, including: Successful trial harvesting at over 4,000 meters below sea level, recovering 3,000 tonnes of seafloor polymetallic nodules; Carrying out over 20 offshore environmental campaigns, culminating in one of the largest deep-sea environment datasets ever compiled; and Development of proprietary hydrometallurgical processing technology to treat seafloor polymetallic nodules. Robert has also worked extensively promoting the development of the international legal framework regulating deep sea minerals, culminating in successfully invoking for the first time the jurisdiction of the Seabed Disputes Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.