Mark Andrew Kozlowski is a marine technology entrepreneur and ocean conservation advocate from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the founder and CEO of Blue Horizon Technologies, a company that creates AI-powered tools to support sustainable ocean industries. His work aims to help businesses grow while protecting the ecosystems they rely on.
Mark grew up in Lunenburg, a small coastal town with a strong maritime culture. His parents worked in marine science, and he spent his childhood exploring tide pools, sailing with his father, and building small underwater robots. These early experiences shaped his interest in engineering and the ocean.
He studied Offshore Engineering at Dalhousie University, with minors in Environmental Science and Marine Geospatial Technologies. He led the Marine Robotics Club and co-founded a student sustainability group. He earned top academic awards and was recognized for his work in ocean innovation.
After graduating, Mark worked as a marine systems engineer and later as an Environmental Innovation Fellow with the United Nations. In 2017, he launched Blue Horizon Technologies with a mission to combine data, automation, and environmental responsibility. Under his leadership, the company expanded to research hubs in Canada, Norway, Japan, Kenya, and Chile.
Mark also serves on several industry boards and leads educational programs that promote ocean literacy and climate resilience. He founded the Kozlowski Foundation, which supports coastal communities and youth science programs.
Today, Mark continues to focus on building responsible technology, supporting global ocean projects, and inspiring a new generation of marine innovators.
You grew up around the ocean. How did your childhood shape your definition of success?
Growing up in Lunenburg shaped almost everything about how I see success. My father was a marine biologist and my mother was a coastal geologist, so science was part of our daily life. My sister and I spent a lot of time outside, especially around the water. By the time I was ten, my dad had taught me basic marine navigation. At twelve, I was taking underwater photos of tide pool species and entering them in small local competitions. When you grow up in a place like that, you learn early that you’re part of something much bigger than yourself. Success, for me, has always meant contributing to that larger system in some way.
Many entrepreneurs point to a single turning point. Was there a moment like that for you?
Yes. In high school, a friend and I built a small ROV from old parts we found in a shed. One day we used it to inspect the hull of a fishing boat that belonged to a local family. We found a structural issue that could have caused real damage. It wasn’t a major engineering feat, but it showed me that tools built with curiosity and limited resources can make a real difference. That stuck with me. Later, when I was studying offshore engineering at Dalhousie, I kept coming back to that idea: solutions don’t have to be fancy to be valuable. They just need to work.
Your academic path combined engineering, environmental science, and geospatial tech. How did that shape your approach to success?
I didn’t plan it that way at first. I added environmental science because I wanted to understand the systems we were designing for. Then geospatial technologies because they helped explain patterns we couldn’t see from the surface. Success, for me, means being able to look at a problem from multiple angles. When you’re working in the ocean sector, single-discipline thinking rarely works. My thesis on AI-driven wave prediction came out of trying to merge those different interests. When it won the Dalhousie Ocean Innovator Award, it confirmed something important: curiosity pays off more than trying to fit into one box.
What did you learn about success early in your career?
My early roles were packed with learning. At the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, I worked on seabed habitat mapping using drones. At Fisheries and Oceans Canada, I helped analyze erosion data. Later, at OceanEdge Dynamics, I worked on smart sensor systems for offshore turbines. In each job, I learned that success has a lot to do with paying attention to the quiet details. For example, I once found an anomaly in a sensor dataset that everyone else assumed was noise. It turned out to be early evidence of a structural issue. Success often comes from noticing the things people overlook.
You later became a UN Environmental Innovation Fellow. How did that influence your thinking?
The UN fellowship forced me to think beyond engineering and more about systems change. I worked on climate resilience and community-driven ocean initiatives. One lesson I carry with me is that success is not always fast. Sometimes progress looks like sitting in a community meeting and hearing concerns you didn’t expect. Sometimes it looks like designing a solution that isn’t the most advanced technologically, but fits the cultural and economic reality of the people who need it.
Founding Blue Horizon Technologies must have shifted your perspective on success again.
It did. When I started Blue Horizon in 2017, I had a clear mission: merge AI with ocean conservation. But starting a company means doing a lot of things that aren’t glamorous. My first “office” was a spare room filled with prototypes, cables, and a reef tank I kept as a reminder of why I was doing the work. Success became about consistency rather than big milestones. It meant showing up, even on days when a prototype failed or funding fell through. One of our earliest wins came when a coastal community used our real-time monitoring tool to adjust fishing schedules and avoid overharvesting. That mattered more to me than any award.
You’ve won major awards and lead several boards. How do you stay grounded?
Having twin sons helps. Kids don’t care what boards you sit on. They care whether you’ll read them a story about an octopus for the tenth time. I also write poetry and free dive when I can. Those things remind me that the ocean isn’t just a workplace. It’s a living world worth protecting. Success is not about building the most advanced system. It’s about building systems that let future generations enjoy the same coastline I grew up with.
What advice would you give someone trying to define success for themselves?
Don’t chase the version of success you see online. Pay attention to what feels meaningful to you. Work on projects that make you curious. Keep learning. And if you want to measure success, look at the people and places that are better because you were involved. That’s the only measure that lasts.