Fins Attached Board of Directors Addition

Dear Friends of Fins Attached, Sharks, and our Oceans,

As we close out 2019 we have much to be thankful for. Progress was made for the sake of sharks and our oceans that we rely on. Thank you for all the support you have given and for spreading the word about the important role that sharks play in the marine ecosystem. We look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you in 2020.

Fins Attached is excited to announce the appointment of two new board members, Jason Borkland and Todd Lemons. These individuals have demonstrated that they are passionate about our environment and saving sharks and protecting our oceans.

 

JASON BORKLAND

Jason’s passion for diving goes hand in hand with a commitment to marine conservation, and his experience as a PADI Divemaster has inspired him to take a more active role in efforts to protect the world’s oceans and the boundless life they contain. Dive Mastering students in his spare time allows him to reach people new to the sport and install his passion for conservation. Hoping to make conservation spread at an organic level.

Jason feels it’s impossible to experience the wonders of the undersea world first-hand without coming away with a profound feeling of reverence, and a sense of duty to preserve those wonders for future generations. Conservation is the key to the survival of the planet, as we are all interconnected and our survival is tied together.

Jason helps the cause in more direct ways, too. He has volunteered his time and expertise at Texas State University’s protected marine area at Spring Lake, and in the last few years, he’s become particularly involved  in Ocean conservation efforts through Fins Attached, where he has found his home away from home.

Jason is Tesla certified, involved with the automotive industry his entire life, he sees the push into this new technology as the way forward to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. At his company, Heritage Body and Frame they also use environmentally friendly paint systems to help reduce environmental impact.

“Joining the Fins Attached Board of Directors is an honor first and foremost. I joined the board because the goals and passions of Fins Attached align perfectly with my personal goals of conservation.  Since the first time I stepped onboard the Sharkwater, I have felt a sense of belonging that is rare to find in life.  The mission to conserve the planet is critical, not only for my generation but for my children’s generation. It is a privilege to be included and to forge a path towards a sustainable future with Fins Attached.”

Jason Borkland, Heritage Body and Frame

 

D. TODD LEMONS

For more than thirty years, Mr. Lemons has been on the leading edge of the development of market-based conservation solutions. During his career, he has lived and worked extensively in South America and Asia including: Guyana, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand. Mr. Lemons’ pioneering work in the field of market-based conservation solutions includes Tribal Hands Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving indigenous craftsmanship through adapting these skills to more contemporary architectural millwork components and developing markets for such.

The work was focused around the 400-year-old indigenous craftsmanship of the workshops of the “Misiones de Chiquitania”, a World Heritage Site in Bolivia. Tribal Hands employed a unique “forest to home” business model where virtually every component of a luxury custom home was designed, engineered, and manufactured using indigenous craftsmanship. The work resulted in two award winning mahogany post & beam homes in a coastal golf resort in California and led to the ultimate preservation of the workshops and revival of the craftmanship.

EnTech Industries, subsequently re-structured as Composite Technology International, Inc., is an environmental engineering company that develops, produces and distributes environmentally low-impact “green” building products, using a patented technology developed my Mr. Lemons. CTI supplies industry leaders including: The Home Depot and Lowes and became the largest China supplier to Masonite/Stanley Door and Jeld-Wen Window & Door, the world’s two largest door manufacturers.

Infinite-Earth, Ltd., a Conservation Land Bank management company dedicated to for-profit forest conservation through its pioneering efforts in the development of disruptive environmental finance mechanisms. InfiniteEARTH is the author of the world’s first forest carbon accounting methodology, known as REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation). Its’ Rimba Raya project on the island of Borneo in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia was the world’s first VCS validated REDD+ project, the first to ever earn Triple Gold certification under the CCBA standard and is the largest privately funded orangutan and wetlands reserve in the world.

EcoSmart Labs and Veridium Labs. EcoSmart Labs has developed a revolutionary accounting protocol for the automated calculation of corporate carbon liabilities. Together with IBM, Veridium is developing a platform for integrating the EcoSmart-Protocol into corporate supply chain management systems and then mitigating corporate environmental impacts throughout the value stream through the digitization of environmental assets using blockchain technology.

Mr. Lemons is an honor’s graduate from the University of the South in the United States, with a dual degree in International Economic Development and Spanish, as well as conducting post graduate work in Industrial Engineering and International Business Management (Masters in Industrial Management) at the Universidad Católica in Santiago.

“Indiscriminate over-fishing and pollution have turned our oceans into barren wastelands, with the rare exception of a few remaining biodiversity hot spots. If we do not save these last few glimmers of hope, there is no hope for saving ourselves. I have dedicated the past ten years of my life to creating viable solutions for mitigating deforestation impacts. The next 10 years will be dedicated to creating economically sustainable conservation mechanisms for saving our oceans. Joining the Board of Fins Attached puts me on the leading edge of this fight, with a world class group of conservationists dedicated to the same existential goal and with the extraordinary added benefit of using the SHARKWATER vessel as a platform for this work.”

Todd Lemons, Founder of InfiniteEARTH

 

About Fins Attached

Fins Attached conducts research, promotes conservation and provides education for the protection of marine ecosystems.  Fins Attached believes in the preservation of our world’s precious resources and that through the protection of the ocean’s apex predators marine ecosystem balance can be maintained for the benefit of all living things on earth. Our organization is comprised of scientists, companies, organizations, and people concerned with the health of the world’s oceans. The scientists that represent Fins Attached range in backgrounds from divers to Ph.D marine biologists. Fins Attached is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.