Karen Scofield Seal

She ditched the Super Bowl to turn seaweed into the future of food and packaging.

It started with a BBC documentary about female seaweed farmers in East Africa.

Karen Scofield Seal saw more than just a crop.

Seaweed grows without land, freshwater, or fertilizers.

It absorbs CO2, restores marine ecosystems, and could replace plastic packaging.

So in 2018, she co-founded Oceanium to turn seaweed into the sustainable powerhouse the world desperately needs.

Her startup is pioneering tech that transforms seaweed into high-value bioactives for food, nutrition, and cosmetics.

Even bigger? They’re creating compostable, marine-safe packaging… taking on Big Plastic.

But building a seaweed economy from scratch isn’t easy.

Karen had no background in marine science.

The learning curve was brutal.

Instead of pretending to know it all, she built a team of experts and led with radical collaboration.

Now? Major consumer brands are lining up.

For her impact, Karen won the 2023 Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award, recognizing female founders changing the world.

A few years ago, she was working in entertainment.

Today, she’s helping rewrite the rules of food, packaging, and climate action.

And she’s just getting started.