Tighe Merkert, Chairman
President and CEO, Marriner Marketing Communications
Scott Budden
President and Founder, Orchard Point Oyster Co.
Bill Coney
Co-Founder – Legacy Reef Foundation, Kona, Hawaii
Russel Dize
Vice Chairman, Maryland Watermen’s Association
William Gibbons-Fly
Executive Director of the American Tunaboat Association (ATA)
Harold Graul
President, Graul’s Markets
Captain Herman “Jeffery” Harrison
Waterman
The Honorable James J. King
CEO/Owner, Mid-States Management Group and Partner, Bluewater Strategies
Thomas Kountz
Research and Development Chemist, McCormick & Company Inc.
Katie Matthews
Chief Scientist, Oceana
Jim Perdue
Chairman, Perdue Farms Inc.
Maxine Phillips
VP International Business Development, Phillips Seafood
William “Bill” Rice
Waterman and Farmer
Ed Rich
Senior Consulting Engineer, Northrop Grumman Corporation
Jason Ruth
Owner/Operator, Harris Seafood Company, LLC
Ben Savage
Chief Marketing Officer, Flying Dog Brewery
Bill Sieling
Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association
Tighe Merkert, Chairman
Tighe owns and manages Marriner Marketing Communications, a successful marketing communications firm that specializes in the food and hospitality industries. He is intimately involved with and oversees strategic planning and direction of all client work. Prior to Marriner, he served a 16-year tenure as a Senior Vice President of Service America Corporation, where he managed a $350 million business unit. He built a foundation of knowledge and experience, developing strategic, long-term business solutions that worked. Throughout his 16 years at Marriner (MMC), he amplified that experience, building high-level, corporate positioning and communications programs for some of America’s most prestigious companies.
Scott Budden
An Eastern Shore native, Scott founded OPOC in 2015 with the goal of improving the Bay’s health through the cultivation of a premium oyster brand. Since, the company has merged, scaled, and grown to a national brand with distribution throughout the lower 48. OPOC and its partners sustainably farm their brand (“Orchard Point Oysters”) in both the Chester River and Eastern Bay. Scott is a 2007 Bucknell University graduate and worked as a financial analyst in Washington, DC for global media and consulting firms for a decade prior to OPOC. He currently serves on the ShoreRivers Board of Directors (Treasurer), MD Tidal Fish Advisory Commission, MD Sea Grant External Advisory Board, & Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s COA’s Steering Committee, amongst others.
Bill Coney
After retiring from the tech industry in 2015, Bill co-founded Legacy Reef Foundation in Kailua-Kona Hawaii, a coral preservation and restoration non-profit foundation. Bill’s love of the ocean and desire to improve the quality of near shore marine habitats has driven him to seek opportunities in Hawaii, South Pacific, Caribbean, and the East Coast to open restoration projects. Bill lives in Hawaii and Maryland.
Russel Dize
Russell began his career as a Chesapeake Bay Waterman in 1959 at the age of 18. Over the past 50 years, Russell has worked in all aspects of the seafood industry. In 1972 he became a partner in the Tidewater Clam Co. and 10 years later formed his own company, R.D.S. Seafood. He is the owner and captain of the skipjack Kathryn and operates his charter boat Riley Kat out of Tilghman Island, Maryland. Russell also serves on numerous fisheries management committees, including the Oyster Advisory Committee, Rockfish Advisory Committee and the Tidal Fish Advisory Committee. Russell and his wife Joan live in Tilghman Island, Maryland.
William Gibbons-Fly
William (Bill) Gibbons-Fly is Executive Director of the American Tunaboat Association (ATA), representing the owners and operators of the U.S. Pacific tuna purse seine fleet, the last true distant-water fishing fleet operating under U.S. flag. Previously, Bill spent 15 years as the Director of the Office of Marine Conservation at the U.S. Department of State. In this capacity, he led the development and implementation of U.S. policy for the international conservation and management of living marine resources, including as lead negotiator for the United States on a wide range of international treaties, agreements, and arrangements. He also currently serves on the Board of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation, and the Federal Advisory Panels for both Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.
Harold Graul
Harold Graul has worked in his family’s business, Graul’s Markets, for over 60 years. He has experience in all phases of running supermarkets. Seafood has always been a part of these stores, and they try to buy as much local product as possible. Graul’s Markets have six stores in Maryland and are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year, 2020.
Captain Herman “Jeffery” Harrison
Fifth generation Chesapeake Bay Waterman received Captain’s License in 1983. Member of various Fishery Groups (MD Waterman’s Assoc since 1981, Talbot County Oyster Shell Committee since 1986, Talbot Waterman’s Assoc Secretary 2010-2015 and President 2015 to present, Oyster Futures Group 2016 to present, and Oyster Advisory Commission 2016 to present). Member of various Environmental Groups (Choptank Tributary Team since 2006 and Phillips Wharf Environmental Center since 2010). Member of Local Community Groups (Tilghman Volunteer Fire Department Volunteer 1985 to present, Tilghman Elem School PTA Vice President 1994-2000, Coach for SLOT and Homerun Baker youth leagues 1994-2007, Talbot County Parks and Rec Advisory Board 2000 to present, and Tilghman Watermen Museum Board Member 2022).
The Honorable James J. King
James King is the CEO of an Anne Arundel County-based restaurant holding company that owns and manages ten restaurants in the Virginia/Maryland/Delaware region. The restaurants include high-end formal restaurants (eg: Blackwall Hitch) and a number of fast-casual restaurants (eg: Green Turtle). James is a native of the Washington-DC area and has spent most of his professional career in the food services industry. He spent one term as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates (2007-2011).
Thomas Kountz
A Baltimore native, Thomas has combined a passion for flavor in the culinary world with the science of chemistry, getting his start in Maryland based seafood restaurants. Thomas developed a strong passion for the culinarily rich waters of the Chesapeake Bay while developing an understanding of sustainable restaurant practices. Driven by his curiosity for flavor, sustainability and the sciences, Thomas obtained his BS in Chemistry from Towson University. Thomas joined McCormick and Company in 2015, developing a career as a Research and Development Chemist with a focus on clean and sustainable industrial flavor solutions. Thomas is a member of McCormick’s R&D Sustainability Committee, Corporate Multi-Management Board, and an active member in the scientific community.
Katie Matthews
Katie currently works as Chief Scientist at Oceana, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting world oceans. Her varied work environments have included Arctic ice caps, Capitol Hill, international treaty negotiations, and the waters of the eastern tropical Pacific. After 10 years in research, she returned to Washington DC, her hometown, to work as a legislative fellow in the U.S. Congress and then for the Office of Marine Conservation in the U.S. State Department. Katie continued her science-based policy work with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation and then with The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she ran a marine conservation and sustainable fisheries grantmaking program. She also served on the Society for Conservation Biology’s Board of Governors and led its Marine Section’s board of directors as president (2017-2019). She has an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in Earth and Environmental Science.
Jim Perdue
As Chairman and CEO of Perdue Farms, Jim heads the company’s executive team and is responsible for developing the company’s vision and growth strategies. Jim grew up in the family poultry business, but left after high school to attend college to pursue his interests in biology. He received his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and his master’s degree in marine biology from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, doing growth rate research on the Malaysian prawn. In 1983, Jim earned a doctorate in fisheries from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he studied survival of the Japanese oyster to summer mortality through genetic selection. He then returned to the family business and in 1989. Jim earned his MBA from Salisbury State University and became Chairman and CEO at Perdue Farms, Inc. in 1991.
William “Bill” Rice
A lifelong waterman and farmer, Bill started working on the water when he was just 12 years old. Billy, from Charles County, works the Potomac River and the Maryland Tributaries of the Potomac. He is a 3rd generation watermen, crab potting, eeling, and gill netting for Striped Bass. Billy is also very active in the management side of the industry as well. He has served on the Potomac River Fisheries Commission for the past 20 years and has been affiliated with the Maryland Watermen’s Association for over thirty. Bill has served on numerous advisory committees to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources including chairman of the Tidal Fish Advisory Commission and was a member of the Maryland Oyster Roundtable.
Ed Rich
As a judge in the Baltimore Science Fair for more than 15 years, Ed has encouraged the talented youth of our area to pursue science as a career. When Ed first joined the ORP Board, he represented the Windjammers, the founders of Chesapeake Appreciation Inc., which became the Oyster Recovery Partnership. Over the years, Ed has played an active role in supporting outreach events to teach children about the role that oysters play in restoring our Bay. He lives in the Annapolis area with his wife and daughter, and is an active member of the sailing community.
Jason Ruth
Jason comes from a family of Chesapeake Bay waterman and is the Owner and Operator of Harris Seafood Company. His firm’s knowledge of the Bay’s seafood industry and aquaculture dates back to 1947. His seafood products are caught and processed locally and then distributed to over 30 states across the nation.
Bill Sieling
Bill began his career in the Army, serving from 1965 to 1967. He then joined the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as a Fisheries Extension Agent, spanning 20 years, working with watermen and processors to better the industry. Bill later switched to the Department of Agriculture as Chief of Seafood Marketing for 12 years. Now in retirement, Bill works as Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association. He is a graduate of Washington College. Bill is an original ORP Board member. Bill and his wife, Anne, make their home in Bay Ridge, Maryland.
Russell F. Smith III
Russell F. Smith III has worked on international environmental issues for more than 20 years. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In that position he led U.S. international engagement in support of the sustainable management of fisheries, including promoting science-based decision-making and improving efforts to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. In addition, he represented the United States as the U.S. Commissioner in several regional fisheries management organizations.
Russell has also worked for the Office of the United States Trade Representative on efforts to ensure that U.S trade policy and its implementation are supportive of U.S. environmental policy, including through the promotion of the sustainable management of natural resources and ensuring that opportunities for trade and investment liberalization resulting in access to the U.S. market are used as incentives for the enhancement, and not degradation, of environmental protection.
Russell B. Stevenson, Jr.
Russell B. Stevenson, Jr. has practiced law in Washington, D.C., taught law as a Professor of Law at The George Washington University, and served as Deputy General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was General Counsel and Secretary of Ciena Corporation from 2001 to 2008, when he retired. He is currently Professor from Practice at Georgetown University Law School.He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude. He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and the United States Supreme Court and is current Chairman of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance.