About us
Our story
Combined skills & knowledge for a larger impact
Due to climate change and sea level rise marine life is decreasing and coasts are flooding. Jaime, the founder of Reefy and our marine biologist Leon experienced these problems themselves and saw the impact on local communities. From this experience they decided to combine their knowledge in hydraulic engineering and marine biology to provide coastal protection in cooperation with nature.
What we stand for
Our core values
Large scale impact
Science based
Respect for nature
Our vocation
Vision & Mission
Vision
Using nature as an inspiration, we change the environmental impact of marine infrastructure, from a negative to a positive.
Mission
We create a large scale impact to rewild the ocean to protect the people in the face of climate change.
Our team
Who we are
Jaime Ascencio
CEO | Coastal Engineer
After studying Civil Engineering in Mexico, Jaime followed his passion for the ocean to work as Business Developer in the Caribbean. By supervising all kinds of solutions to stop erosion, he discovered that existing artificial reefs are unstable if used for coastal protection, hitting and breaking each other or damaging the nature around them. Willing to learn how waves and nature interact to find the right solution, he moved to The Netherlands to study Coastal Engineering at TUDelft. During his academic journey, he saw that the same solution was needed worldwide and no project was taking the right steps to make it happen. Therefore, he did an additional year of entrepreneurship at TUDelft where Reefy started. As a scuba diver and ocean passionate, Jaime enjoys spending his free time close to the water.
Leon Haines
CTO | Marine Biologist
Leon studied Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the Netherlands, Majoring in Marine Biology. As a passionate diver and scuba instructor Leon spent 5 years after his studies working in coral reef restoration in Thailand, the Maldives and Indonesia. In 2018 he founded Conservation Diver Indonesia, where he trained students and volunteers in all the ins and outs of coral reef conservation. Convinced of a way to create a larger impact by upscaling reef restoration through infrastructure projects, he joined Jaime to found Reefy.
Daan Houtzager
Coastal Engineer
Daan is a coastal engineer with a passion for engineering and waves. He graduated in 2020 from the TU Delft with his research on the stability of large armour units in breakwaters. Within Reefy Daan does research and development of the reef enhancing breakwater and he is active as project engineer. "I like the combination of nature enhancement and coastal protection, this is engineering for the future."
Antonina Firsova
Marketing and Business Development Manager
Antonina has extensive international experience in strategic business development and marketing. In her career she has worked in several sustainable start-ups and scale-ups as well as multinational companies, lately focusing on launching new services and digital products. After EMBA in HEC Paris, Antonina joined Reefy to help scale eco-engineering innovations to support healthy oceans.
Arthur Pinkse
Operational manager
Arthur studied Civil Engineering at TU Delft and Economics at Erasmus University. After graduating he has been working in construction for 5 years. As Operational Manager, he oversees the projects of Reefy and is in charge of developing the QHSE process within Reefy. `I know Jaime from studying in TU Delft, after he reached out I couldn´t pass on the opportunity to work towards a sustainable future. I´m passionate to help Reefy execute projects safely and making a lasting impact´.
Indy Vester
Product Developer
Indy is a product design engineer in the field of sustainable design, who likes tackling socially relevant issues. She conducted a sustainable material analysis during her master thesis at the TU Delft and worked as freelance graphic designer and consultant hereafter. As product developer at Reefy she will help expand Reefy's material- and product portfolio. "Reefy's products are so unique with their adaptation to any underwater environment and properties suitable to enhance marine life, and I'm excited to help execute their design challenges!".
Daniel Dacomba
Mexico Regional Manager
Daniel is a data-driven Civil engineer with a passion for nature. In the early days, Daniel focused on planning and engineering infrastructure projects in the construction industry. He moved on to an environmental consultancy, where he was involved in evaluating project proposals for the water sector in Mexico. Later on, his passion for nature detonated and led him to pursue and successfully complete his Water Management master’s degree in TU Delft, where he met Jaime. Their common interests in entrepreneurship and making a positive impact for life under the sea connected and Reefy was born. You can find Daniel in the outdoors every opportunity he gets.
Cecile Kwa
Industrial Designer
Cecile studied Industrial Design and is currently doing a master degree in Environmental Engineering at TU Delft. Climate change and biodiversity loss are topical problems that really concerns her. One of the things she finds most interesting is the combination of technology and nature to come to sustainable solutions. At Reefy, she combines her interests and passion for a better future.
Our advisors
They support us
Bas Hofland
Associate Professor at TU Delft
Rutger De Graaf-van Dinther
Co-founder/Director at Blue21
Margaux Hein
PhD, Lead Consultant at MER Research and Consulting
Rewilding the ocean to protect the land.
Delft, The Netherlands
BTW: NL860704518B01