Captain Jim “Homer” Holm
Founder
Captain Jim “Homer” Holm has been U.S. Coast Guard licensed since 1979, working for over 30 years in the maritime trades on various configurations of sail and motor craft including private luxury yachts, grand prix racing sailboats, marine research vessels, square-rigged training ships and fast rescue boats.
Captain Holm has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, sailed into the Mediterranean, North and Caribbean Seas, transited the Panama Canal, crossed the Pacific Ocean from California to Hawaii and back numerous times, and voyaged among many Pacific islands including Hawaii, French Polynesia, Fiji, Vanuatu, Australia, New Zealand and the Marshall Islands.
Captain Holm’s management experience includes developing and operating acclaimed non-profit marine education programs for clients including O’Neill International and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, serving over 50,000 kids and 5,000 adults over the last fourteen years. He has also been a successful fundraiser for people with Autism.
As Co-founder and Director of Operations for “Clean Oceans International”, Captain Holm is tasked with identifying and developing the technologies that will play a key role in removing destructive plastic marine debris from the world’s oceans.
Captain Holm feels extremely fortunate to reside on the beautiful central coast of California where an abundance of marine education resources and an awareness of environmental issues has provided him the perfect platform to share his knowledge and passion for the health of the sea. He is excited to discuss marine environmental and educational issues and invites inquiries through your favorite medium.
John Jefferies
Vice President
John Jefferies is a serial security entrepreneur and Chief Marketing Officer of CipherTrace the leading bitcoin forensics and cryptocurrency anti-money laundering startup. He has been marketing security a broad spectrum of security products for over twenty years resulting in six successful exits. Before April 1st he led blockchain initiatives at Samsung’s Strategy Innovation Center as Head of Security Marketing for the IoT business unit collaborating with the IoTa Foundation and evaluating numerous startups and blockchain use cases.
He joined Samsung from Cayuga Networks, which applied machine learning to web application security where he served as Chief Operating Officer and VP Product Management. John Jefferies served as the GM and Chief Marketing Officer of Abaca Technology which applied machine learning to filter six billion emails daily for AT&T, iCloud and Yahoo Mail which sold to ProofPoint. He served as Vice President Marketing of IronKey the worlds first tamper-proof encrypted flash drive. Before this, he held senior marketing positions with, among others, RedCannon, Hewlett Packard, Teros (Citrix) and Dascom (IBM). He began his career as a financial analyst and was among the first Fortune500 webmasters.
Mr. Jefferies obtained his MBA from the Ivy School of Business in London, Ontario and his BA in Finance from Michigan State University’s Honors College. He is an avid surfer and teaches high-speed driving.
Elizabeth M. Patron
Secretary
Elizabeth Patron is a recent graduate student from California State University Monterey Bay with a B.S. degree in Environmental Science Technology and Policy and a concentration on Watershed Systems. Throughout her academic career Elizabeth has been involved with COI in several ways from beach cleanups, marine debris monitoring, stakeholder meetings, coordinating and assisting with fundraisers and tabling events and most of all spreading awareness through outreach and education for both kids and adults. Elizabeth’s has been progressively researching plastics throughout both her academic and professional career, with an analysis on the socio-economic and political implications, as well as the impacts on wildlife and technological advancements.
Elizabeth’s became apart of Clean Oceans International to be of service to her community and to give back to the ocean, wildlife and all aspects of the natural world. Her love for science, surfing and the ocean are all deeply intertwined and expressed through her work at Clean Oceans International.
David Schwartz
Education Director
David Schwartz is currently the only full time Geology and Oceanography Instructor at Cabrillo College in Aptos California. He is also the Department Chair of Geology, Oceanography and Environmental Science. He obtained a B.S. degree in Geology and Mineralogy from The Ohio State University in the spring of 1979. He then worked as a Water Quality Technician for the Environmental Protection Agency in Columbus Ohio. David earned a M.S. degree in Marine Geology from San Jose State University and Moss Landing Marine Labs in 1983. His emphasis is in marine geology, estuarine evolution and coastal systems. His master’s thesis on the Geologic History of Elkhorn Slough was published in “Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science” in 1986 and again in “Changes In A California Estuary” in 2002.
David began teaching Physical Geology, California Geology and Oceanography part time at Hartnell College in Salinas, Ca in 1984. He also taught several introductory geology courses at San Jose State University in 1984 and 1985. In the Fall of 1986 David became a full time member of the Cabrillo College faculty, and in 1998 he was the recipient of the Floyd Younger Award for Teaching Excellence.
David has worked with faculty and students from San Lorenzo Valley High School (SLVHS) for over 20 years. He mentored SLVHS students in Beach Profiling research projects, and gave lectures and led field trips to the Environmental Science A.P. students. He is a member of the Science Panel for the Elkhorn Slough Tidal Wetland Watch whose mission is to resolve erosion problems and preserve wetlands in Elkhorn Slough. He also works with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.
His ongoing passion is to clean up the coastal environment and raise awareness of global marine plastic debris. He has hosted 40 coastal cleanups over the last 20 years and is proud to be an active member of Clean Oceans International (COI) since 2010. He also works with USGS, UCSC, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and The Coastal Watershed Council. Students enrolled in David’s classes do hands on work in the lab and in the field. Geology field trips explore and study at Big Sur, North Coast, the Santa Cruz Mountains, local beaches, The Pinnacles National Park and Yosemite National Park. Hands on field monitoring projects include beach profiling, plankton monitoring, watershed monitoring in Aptos Creek and quantitative beach debris surveys with COI.
Tobie Louw
Development Director
Tobie Louw was born and raised near Cape Town, South Africa. He is a husband and father of two young boys. Tobie enjoys and respect nature tremendously. He always has a positive attitude in life and therefore wants to improve the quality of our lives and that of our future generations.
Tobie wants to make a change in our World by raising his kids with a good value system, through demonstrating respect for nature and living a healthy life as well as giving back to our planet by living through example and educating others to help us overcome challenges we face every single day.
Tobie became a part of Clean Oceans International because he is passionate about freeing our oceans of unwanted clutter and believes in a common cause, and in helping to be that change. Please support our cause and we will show you the human spirit is alive and well.
Lynnea Gibbs
Development Director
Lynnea Gibbs is a business development and sales professional with 20+ years of hands-on experience in formulating winning sales and business programs in fast-growth markets in the computer hardware and software industry. She combines insight and vision with pragmatic strategies and solutions to reach revenue and market objectives. Skilled in market channel sales development and management, including strategic planning, program management, team management, marketing program development and contract negotiations.
She has mentored clean tech and international start-up companies as well as sat on the board of Women in CleanTech.
In her spare time, you can find her doing yoga or running on the beach with her pup, Lily.
Patricia Lieberg-Clark
Expeditions Logistics Coordinator
She grew up in Huntington Beach, California, where she fell in love with ocean at an early age. She assisted with marine mammal studies conducted through Orange Coast College before transferring to UCSC as student of biology. During this time, she had the opportunity to participate in shipboard marine mammal studies off the coast of southern California, Puget Sound, and British Columbia. At UCSC, Patricia earned a Bachelor’s degree that was focused on marine mammal biology, strandings, and pollution ecology.
Patricia subsequently participated in two long-term sailing voyages, one from Santa Barbara to Mexico; and the other, a west-to-east transit through the Panama Canal and exploration of the San Blas Islands. She observed a great deal of plastic debris during these journeys at sea, and was shocked to note how much debris could be observed in the remote regions.
She believes that the marine plastic debris challenge may be large, but groups of people with multi-faceted experience can work together to create solutions to this environmental problem. She also believes that education and innovative ideas are the key to the solution.
Patricia became involved with COI while working as teaching assistant for Cabrillo College Oceanography and Environmental Science in 2010, when Cabrillo and COI began an exciting educational collaboration and internship program. Patricia plans to remain active with COI as she studies marine biodiversity and conservation in Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the Fall of 2019.
She enjoys, sailing, hiking, kayaking, biology, geology, and coffee.