Grow Oyster Reefs LLC (GROW) is a woman owned business founded in 2015 that possesses patent-pending, scalable concrete reef building substrate products that dramatically increase the productivity of oyster reefs, improving water quality and aquatic ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and shoreline retention on a global scale.
GROW is also developing coral reef restoration products for scientific research in the lab, for the coral nursery and transplanted in the wild — building blocks for coastal ecosystem regeneration.
GROW operates a manufacturing facility in Norfolk, Virginia, a design and prototyping studio in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a mobile marketing unit covering the entire US coastline.
PEOPLE
Evelyn Tickle; CEO, Founder, Inventor — More than 20 years of experience in the concrete fabrication industry. Invented GROW Oyster Reefs’ biophilic concrete mix. Educated as an Architect, with a specific interest in biomimicry. Evelyn’s concrete oyster reef restoration products have established GROW as an internationally recognized leader in the field of coastal resilience. She is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, was selected as an MIT Solver 2019, and a RISE Innovation Fellow in 2020.
Ben Willauer; Acting Chief Financial Officer — Over 15 years working with high-growth, high-impact ventures to achieve scalable solutions to intractable problems. Past Chief Development Officer for Whole Oceans and General Partner of a 3(c)1 hedge fund focused on corporate governance reform. Founder of The Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership. Current Board Treasurer & Chair of Finance Committee at The Nature Conservancy, Maine.
Andy Belling; Acting Chief Production Officer — Over 30 years of progressive Management, Operations, Engineering, and Quality Control experience in the manufacturing of technical products including expertise in new business development, currently with Siemens Energy.
Kirk Conard; Production Manager — Over ten years of concrete fabrication and mold making experience.