We’re excited to share a major milestone in Coral Vita’s evolution: the promotion of Austin Martin to Chief Executive Officer!
Austin joined Coral Vita nearly three years ago as Chief Operations Officer and has been a driving force behind our growth: expanding revenue across business verticals, leading restoration and relocation projects across geographies, and guiding our Dubai pilot project to an impressive 96.6% coral survivorship rate one year after outplanting. He has also advanced our BrainCoral technology suite and helped grow our world-class team spanning aquaculture, science, conservation, robotics, and engineering.
He brings more than two decades of leadership experience in controlled environment agriculture, food systems, and energy, with a proven ability to scale companies from startup stages to industry leadership while navigating complexity with clarity and purpose.
Founders Gator Halpern and Sam Teicher remain deeply embedded in the mission. Sam takes on the role of Chief Reef Officer, focused on fundraising, storytelling, advocacy, and partnerships. Gator continues as President, driving science, technology, R&D, and impact. Together with Austin as CEO, this leadership structure positions Coral Vita to move faster and build with greater scale and resilience.
Coral reefs are among the most important ecosystems on Earth — and among the most threatened. They are ecological infrastructure underpinning communities, prosperity, and biodiversity. Meeting that challenge requires not only innovation and urgency, but the courage to evolve in service of the mission.
As Sam and Gator put it: “Austin is a world-class leader who shares our sense of urgency, our commitment to excellence, and our determination to do what it takes to preserve coral reefs for future generations.”
