Joshua Berger named president and CEO for Washington Maritime Blue

Mr Berger founded the 115-member organisation in 2018 as Washington State Governor Jay Inslee’s Maritime Innovation Advisory Committee was completing the state’s ‘Strategy for the Blue Economy’, which focuses on growing the regional maritime economy, addressing climate impacts of the ocean and marine environment and supporting resilient and equitable communities.

As the governor’s maritime sector lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce, Mr Berger worked to form and establish the innovation cluster organisation with a mission to implement the strategy led by the same diverse and multidisciplinary stakeholders that created it: private industry, government, research institutions, labour, tribes, workforce and community-based organisations.
Before joining Washington’s Department of Commerce in 2015, he served as director of the Washington Maritime Federation and brings extensive maritime industry experience to his position.

The subject of a spotlight interview at Riviera Maritime Media’s Maritime Hybrid & Electric Conference, North America, Mr Berger is a licensed and professional merchant mariner having worked in the towing industry and aboard traditional sailing ships as platforms for education and training, including captain and restoration project manager of the historic schooner Adventuress.