Sam Teicher
Sam Teicher is the Co-Founder and Chief Reef Officer of Coral Vita, a social enterprise that grows resilient corals in months instead of decades to restore dying reefs.
Coral reefs sustain up to one billion people’s livelihoods and 25% of marine life while providing an estimated $2.7 trillion of value per year through goods and services. But half of reefs are dead and over 90% are on track to die by 2050. Coral Vita grows corals in months instead of decades while strengthening their resiliency to climate change threats. Through a mission-based commercial model selling coral restoration as a service to reef-dependent customers, it works to unlock critically-needed funding for large-scale restoration. Their first coral farm is in Grand Bahama and they ultimately envision land-based facilities in every nation with reefs to preserve these ecosystems for future generations. In 2021, Coral Vita was the winner of Prince William’s inaugural Revive Our Oceans Earthshot Prize.
Sam previously worked on climate resiliency initiatives at the White House and for the Global Island Partnership. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, co-authored Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water, launched Coral Vita out of his master’s program at Yale, and has been in love with the ocean since becoming a scuba diver as a child.