Navtech is produced by Colibri Northwest. December 2-3, 2025, in Savannah, GA.
2025 SPEAKER BIOS
Captain Paul Amos
American Pilots’ Association
Paul was born and raised in Denton, Texas. In 1974 he permanently relocated to the Pacific Northwest where he was employed continuously in the tug and barge industry for 16 years. From 1980 to 1990 he worked as captain on towing vessels on the Columbia/Willamette/Snake River system. He has a wide range of experience on various types of towing vessels but the majority of those years were spent on grain barge tows between Portland, OR and Lewiston, ID. For the last 34 years, beginning in 1990, Paul has been a Columbia River Pilot. As a member of the Columbia River Pilots (COLRIP) he served two years as treasurer and was vice president in 1999. He was re-elected as vice president in 2006. Shortly afterwards he became president and served in that position for 9 years. He was also deeply involved in developing COLRIP’s AIS-based navigation system with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA. He is a past president of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, a past chairman of the Lower Columbia Region Harbor Safety Committee and has served on a variety of industry related boards and committees.
Captain Alain Arseneault, MM MBA
Canadian National Center of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage
Captain Alain Arseneault is an active St. Lawrence River pilot. He is a graduate of Rimouski’s Maritime Institute. After being issued a master mariner certificate in 1998, and sailing as a master, he pursued postgraduate studies, being awarded an MBA in 2005. He entered the apprentice program on the St. Lawrence River in 2003 and was issued a pilot license in 2005. Within the Mid St. Lawrence Pilots Corporation, he held various management positions and acted as president from 2017 to 2021.
Fascinated by innovation and new technologies, Captain Arseneault participated in several technical maritime committees within his group and ultimately lead the technical committee of his national association (Canadian Maritime Pilots Association) in addition to being elected national vice-president for the Laurentian in 2017. Capt. Arseneault now serves as executive director of the Canadian National Center of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage, and he is actively involved in several technology innovation forum as a participant and speaker. He is also active at the IMO level on the Canadian delegation and IMPA delegation, on technologies related files (MASS). Lately he has been active on R-Pilot project from IMPA.
Capt. Arseneault serves on various boards. Among others, he is the VP of the board of the eastern branch of the Canadian Marine Service Guild (CMSG).
Dr. Scott Beatty, PhD
MarineLabs
Dr. Beatty is a Canadian ocean tech entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in marine technology and R&D sectors. Under his leadership, MarineLabs has grown into a thriving company operating a North America-wide fleet of MarineLabs sensor nodes that provide real-time and predictive coastal weather intelligence that enhances safety and efficiency of port operations and vessel pilotage.
Jon Kjaerulff
MITAGS
Jon obtained his first license (as a Danish yacht master) at the age of 17, and subsequently attended the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. After graduating in 1983, he sailed in positions from deckhand to master aboard ships and workboats all over the world. After running a support vessel during the Exxon Valdez cleanup effort in Prince William Sound, Jon came ashore and founded Fremont Maritime Services in Seattle, Washington. Over the next 27 years, Jon established a reputation as a pioneer in the field of maritime safety, survival and firefighting training.
His company was one of the very first organizations in the US to obtain Coast Guard approval for STCW Basic Safety Courses, and from 2003 to 2015 Fremont Maritime was the only private company utilized by the US Navy to provide marine firefighting training to its military sailors. Over the years Jon and his team worked with tens of thousands of inland and offshore mariners, providing training not only at Fremont’s school in Seattle, but at customer locations in Alaska, Oregon, California, Florida, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean.
When MITAGS established the Pacific Maritime Institute in Seattle, Jon worked to forge a strong working relationship between the two schools.
In 2017, Fremont Maritime was purchased by MITAGS, and Jon came aboard as a marine safety training and business development specialist. At the beginning of 2021, he took over as director of business development.
RADM Tim Gallaudet, PhD, US Navy (ret)
Ocean STL Consulting, LLC
The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, PhD, Rear Admiral, US Navy (ret) is the CEO of Ocean STL Consulting where he serves as a strategic advisor for a variety of tech startups, research institutions, and philanthropies. Formerly, he served as the acting under secretary and assistant secretary of commerce, acting and deputy administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and oceanographer, hydrographer, and navigator of the Navy in the Pentagon. Gallaudet serves on several boards in the ocean, weather, space, and technology sectors, and he is a member of the White House Ocean Research Advisory Panel, recipient of the 2019 Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute’s Champion of the Ocean Award, a fellow at The Explorer’s Club, a distinguished graduate of the University of California, San Diego, and recipient of the U.S. Coast Guard Distinguished Public Service Award. He has a bachelor’s degree from the US Naval Academy and master and doctoral degrees from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, all in oceanography. Gallaudet’s book about leading NOAA during President Trump’s first term is titled Holding Fast in Heavy Seas: Leadership for Turbulent Times and will be published by Koehler Books in the Fall of 2025.
Brendan P. O’Shea
American Pilots' Association
Brendan P. O’Shea joined the American Pilots’ Association (APA) as deputy director – associate general counsel on August 22, 2022. Brendan assists the executive director in the management of APA’s office operations, membership services, and administrative activities. He also assists in a legal capacity by advising pilotage authorities on operations, practices, business structures, and oversight of pilots and pilotage systems.
Prior to joining the APA, Mr. O’Shea served in the US Coast Guard for more than twenty years, reaching the rank of commander. His last assignment was as the legislative counsel in the Coast Guard Office of Congressional Affairs where he was the primary Coast Guard representative to Congress on legislation affecting the Coast Guard, and liaison to Congressional Authorization Committees.
Brendan is a 2001 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy with a BS in government. He was also awarded a juris doctor from The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and a master’s degree of law from Georgetown University Law Center. During his career with the Coast Guard, Mr. O’Shea served in several operational, staff, and legal positions, including service aboard two Coast Guard cutters. During his operational assignments, Brendan was responsible for boarding foreign vessels and enforcing US laws on the high seas, conducting security and ice operations in the port of New York, and conducting search and rescue in the Bering Sea. As a lawyer, he served in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the General Counsel where he advised DHS leadership on operational law issues, the Department of Justice’s admiralty office, the Coast Guard’s Office of the Judge Advocate General where he advised on investigations and personnel issues, and US Marine Corps Base Quantico where he prosecuted cases for the Marine Corps.
In addition, Brendan was in private practice for two years, where he represented individual and corporate clients in civil matters including intellectual property disputes and business litigation.
Brendan is a member of the Maryland Bar and resides in Washington, DC with his wife and three children.
Peter Philips
Colibri Northwest
Peter and his team work with transit agencies, municipal administrators, elected officials and associations to develop policy, communicate policy to stakeholders and successfully implement public policy in the field. Areas of particular expertise include marine transit policy, industrial and urban land use, print communications and public relations. Peter has 35 years of experience in maritime publishing, conference production, industrial and marine lands policy, and advocacy for the maritime and commercial fishing industries. From 1999-2020 Peter was president of Philips Publishing Group and publisher of Fishermen’s News, Foghorn and Pacific Maritime Magazine, monthly magazines for the commercial fishing, marine transit, and maritime transportation industries.
Brian Tetreault
US Army Corps of Engineers
Brian Tetreault is the Marine Transportation System (MTS) program manager for Headquarters, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). In this role he also serves as senior advisor to the US Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) and USACE liaison to the US Coast Guard. Prior to this position, he was a navigation systems specialist at the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center, Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory where he worked on projects to develop and implement navigation information systems. He has been a US representative to national and international navigation-related bodies, including the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC), International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services (RTCM). He is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and served in the Coast Guard for 22 years at sea and ashore.
Captain Wesley Moore
Sabine Pilots Association
Wesley Moore is the current presiding officer of the Sabine Pilots Association. Withmore than a decade of service maneuvering all manner of oceangoing vessels upon the Sabine-Neches Waterway. Wesley is also the chairman of the American Pilots’ Association’s Navigation Technology subcommittee.
Before joining the Sabine Pilots in 2011, Wesley enjoyed a successful career at sea following his 1993 graduation from Texas A&M University in Galveston. Most of his time at sea was aboard tankers trading along the Gulf Coast, East Coast, Caribbean, and through the Panama Canal to the West Coast. During this time, he worked for various companies, rising to the level of master mariner and captain within Chevron’s fleet, where he also completed special assignments for the company ashore.
In conjunction with his professional pursuits, Wesley has a keen interest in technology and all things computer related. His background in coding and logic systems fuels his passion for both hardware and software, prompting his wife to jokingly refer to this affinity for adopting new technology as ‘Early Adopter’s Disease.’ This passion for technology and innovation has enabled him to assist in advancing the use of Portable Pilot Units and other real-time navigational tools within the piloting community, both locally in his branch and nationally for other pilot groups.
Born and raised in the shipping town of Port Arthur, Texas, Wesley grew up immersed in the maritime industry, its history, and its progress.