MARTIN WEDDELL. TRUSTEE & CHAIRMAN
Diving Nick Name Shark Bite or Great White. Martin is a double Master Instructor and can teach scuba diving for four different agencies. Having completed over thousands of dives, a very experience professional that has developed new courses and trained some the worlds best schools as well as 'A' list Celebrity Children.
Martin specialises in teaching triple amputees to scuba dive. He taught the worlds first Triple Amputee PADI Rescue Diver. Previously a Trustee and lead instructor for the true Charity Deptherapy, working closely with fellow Master Instructor Richard Cullen. Deptherapy worked with veterans who had suffered life changing physical and / or mental injuries arising out Iraq and Afghanistan. Broken bodies, missing limbs, chronic PTSD.
Martin and Sue bought Divecrew, an ailing business, back in 2012. Since then Divecrew has developed into the regions premier dive centre and won many business awards. Not to mention but a few: FSB Family Business of the Year (two years running), being the UK's only Gold Star Dive Centre and currently the proud holders of the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Silver Award.
Martin said, 'The Blue Planet Academy is a natural strategic development for Divecrew. We see and care passionately about the ocean. You need people to witness first hand what we see as a divers. Equally, we need to educate tomorrows leaders and decision makers by giving schools/colleges a clear pathway of education, life skills and scuba development; whilst also being fully inclusive'.
SUE COFFEY. TRUSTEE & TREASURER
Sue and Martin are married and equally both own Divecrew. Another scuba diving Master Instructor who cares about the ocean and conservation.
Martin and Sue worked in senior management in the Corporate World before buying Divecrew. Sue's background is Human Resources, so perfect experience for training and development. Sue and Martin are very hands on in the business and teach on a regular basis. You can find Sue and Martin in the dive centre or in the water on a regular basis.
Sue teaches PADI and BSAC here in the UK and overseas.
Sue is also an Instructor Trainer for NUCO a certified body teaching First Aid and Mental Health.
ROWAN EGAN. TRUSTEE
After completing my open water qualification in 2002, I have progressed too Staff Instructor and teach programmes from three different agencies PADI, BSAC and SSI. A senior Instructor for Divecrew.I have been lucky enough to dive in many of the world’s finest waters from wrecks to reefs to UK quarries.
My passions in diving are to visit the fabulous sea life in their home, and as an instructor, to see the people I teach make progress and overcome any issues they may encounter.
I hope I can instil my passion for the ocean in my students so that they also become ocean ambassadors and learn how their actions and lifestyles can help to protect the underwater environment from the pressures of human-kind and global warming.
IAN NICHOLAS. EDUCATION ADVISOR
A consider myself extremely fortunate that the Combination of my passion for the world’s oceans, explored through a love of scuba diving, and a career in education connected me with Divecrew.
Qualifying as a PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Instructor in 2005, I spent time honing my scuba diving skills in the Red Sea, Caribbean and the cold waters of the Rocky Mountains. Along the way, always encouraging people I taught to dive to take the plight of the world’s oceans very seriously.
Returning to the UK to pursue my career in teaching afforded me the opportunity to widely spread my passion for the values and benefits of scuba diving, not just for young people but everyone. It was an obvious next step to contact Divecrew, a company who rightly claimed experience working with schools, to help deliver a first class scuba diving experience for the children at my school. The discussions of the Blue Planet Academy started to take shape as Martin’s passion and commitment to teaching the plight of the oceans increased to a whole range of schools.
It is a real honour to have been invited to fulfil the role of Education Advisor for the Blue Planet Academy of Scuba Diving. I look forward to serving this initiative to the very best of my ability, encouraging as many schools as possible to see the amazing values of scuba diving and how they can secure a better understanding of the world’s oceans and their need to remain in careful balance.
STEVE BOND. TRUSTEE
Steve is a retired senior civil servant having spent 25 years in and around the Home Office world of policing and law enforcement. Prior to this Steve was involved in professional motorsport for some 20 years travelling the world. He has been an active diver for the last 20 years and has progressed to become a senior instructor delivering courses at Divecrew across most of the major diving agencies. He has dived in many places across the oceans as well as off the coast of the UK.
At Divecrew he has been leading the engagement with the schools based Academy working with the wider team to introduce well over 100 pupils to the underwater world.
At the age of 11 Steve's son learnt to dive with him and together they can occasionally be found exploring the more exotic dive sites.
Together with his other (and better) half Steve has been an active foster carer for many years supporting disadvantaged young people to overcome challenges and progress to become responsible adults.
LUCY HUGHES. ANMBASSADOR FOR PLASTIC FREE OCEANS
After graduation in 2019, Lucy received global attention for developing a possible alternative to plastic film. Her solution, MarinaTex, utilises sustainable ingredients sourced from the sea and fish waste.
Growing up, Lucy got to see first-hand the negative impact that plastic pollution has had on marine environments. As a diver herself she took part in marine conservation initiatives that influenced her personal motives. It is this that became one of the main motivators behind her work as a designer.
She continues to work on developing the material and finding circular solutions to linear problems. Alongside development of MarinaTex Lucy aims to raise awareness of circular design, and how as humans we can make better choices to aid in the preservation of our environment.
LEWIS EGAN. AMBASSADOR FOR YOUNG DIVERS.
Lewis Egan was hooked on diving at the age of 7 after a try dive on holiday. He qualified as an PADI open water diver at age 10 and then further progressed through the Advanced Open Water as well as Rescue Diver Courses.
Lewis was one of the youngest divers permitted onto a live aboard diving with Sharks in Daedalus and Elphinstone in the Red Sea.
Lewis has since qualified as one of the UK's first Junior Dive Masters. He is extremely passionate about protecting the underwater world and helping young people with their diving, so that future, younger generations can experience all of the amazing things he has been privileged enough to experience.
Lewis also shares a dream of pursuing marine biology at university to further cement his passion of protecting the underwater environment and educating others.
A true inspiration to young divers everywhere.
MATTHEW HARWOOD. SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION ADVISOR
Matt is a PADI Divemaster and a current PhD student at the University of Leeds, investigating the use of novel technology to monitor invasive species. He has a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Computer Science from The University of Bath and an MSc in Aquatic Conservation, Ecology and Restoration from University College London.
Matt has a wealth of experience in marine conservation and research having worked for the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and the Community of Arran Seabed Trust. While working for these charities his main role involved monitoring and maintaining the Marine Protected Areas they were responsible for. His other roles included the design, construction and deployment of coral trees and artificial reefs. He has also conducted a range of diving transect surveys in the Dutch Antilles, the Red Sea and the UK studying the different fish communities in each area.
Matt has had his work published in respected academic journals and he has presented his results at leading international conferences. One of his projects was even featured on BBC and ITV news. This experience has allowed him to co-supervise a range of BSc and MSc dissertation projects as well as develop and teach a second year BSc zoology marine field course module at the University of Leeds.
PAUL GISBY. CORPORATE BUSINESS ADVISOR
I have been diving for more than 38 years now, having started off as a BSAC diver moving into the PADI way about 25 years ago. Now an MSDT with PADI I have amassed something like 4000 dives teaching many hundreds of people about this beautiful sport and pastime.
I have travelled the world because of the opportunities diving brought me and even joined the circus as a support diver with Royal Caribbean where I performed in over 300 shows for a number of Cirque du Soleil shows in the onboard Aquatheatre. I have dived throughout the world including Australia, USA, Caribbean, Egypt, Asia, the Maldives and of course the UK to name a few.
My passion is everything about the Ocean, it's care, it's respect and of course it's majesty.
Dr RICHARD CULLEN. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ADVISOR
Richard Cullen is a Master Instructor and RAID Crossover Instructor Trainer. He has been associated with Divecrew since 2006 and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Richard served 30 years in the Metropolitan Police Service, retiring as the Met’s Director of Training and Development and Strategic Head of HR of the National Probation Service. He became the first person in any sector, private public and voluntary to take two separate organisations to Investor in People status. He was the headhunted by Oxford Strategic Consulting to be a managing consultant delivering HR, Management and Leadership projects in Saudi and Dubai.
In 2009 he became involved in adaptive scuba diver training, progressing to be an Instructor Trainer with Disabled Divers International. In 2014 he created the charity Deptherapy, that seeks to rehabilitate UK Armed Forces’ Veterans who have suffered life changing injuries/illnesses. He and the Deptherapy team are credited with saving and changing the lives of many beneficiaries. Deptherapy is acknowledged as the world leader in adaptive teaching and Richard is presently developing a NVQ in Adaptive Teaching that will set the global standards for this speciality. Richard led the charity to become the first totally volunteer led and run charity to be awarded the National Council for Voluntary Organisation’s Trusted Charity Award. Deptherapy has conducted major marine biology expeditions in Chuuk Lagoon, Grenada and two in the Red Sea.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society as a result of his work in protecting our oceans. Richard is totally committed to the Blue Planet Academy.
Richard says:
“The Blue Planet Academy’s aim to bring knowledge and experience of marine biology to schools and groups is an amazing mission. Through the Academy hopefully we can bring a greater awareness that there is: One Planet, One Fate and One Chance.”