News, Activities and Events

Letter from our Founder and Chief Orca – Jeroen van de Waal

January 15, 2018

Dear Orca customers, colleagues and partners, 2017 was a year full of achievements for Orca. We launched our book Together We Can Turn Tides – a fantastic team effort – at the S.E.A. Aquarium. To date, we have distributed 2,000+ copies and more than 2,000...

Dear Orca customers, colleagues and partners,

2017 was a year full of achievements for Orca.

We launched our book Together We Can Turn Tides – a fantastic team effort – at the S.E.A. Aquarium. To date, we have distributed 2,000+ copies and more than 2,000 children of various schools in Singapore and Malaysia attended our Book Assemblies, workshops and Keynote speech. As a result, Orca is now entering into educational partnership projects with various schools, to work on our long-term goals: increasing awareness and supporting behavioural change through education and action.

Founder and Chief Orca
We struck partnership alliances with various respected individuals and organisations. They include:

We won the Singapore “Heavyweight” and overall category for the best start-up idea and pitch during the Get in the Ring final. In May 2018 we are invited on a sponsored trip to Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal to compete in the Get in the Ring Global final, with finalists from over 180 countries. At the same time, we were shortlisted by the SICC (Singapore International Chamber of Commerce) for the Best Collaborative Green Innovation, together with our partner-school SJII (Saint Joseph’s International Institution). On January 30, 2018 we will defend our proposition in front of a heavyweight panel of respected judges.

Without our team of motivated staff, totalling 25 at the end of 2017, we would not be where we stand today. I cannot highlight enough how proud I am of the efforts they all put into our growth and development. Blood, sweat and tears. Thanks to all of you, we made a giant step forward in 2017. We started to work with interns from all over the world: linking various layers of young oceanic enthusiasts together – aging from 8 to 28 – working on projects, conservation and education. We will expand on this in 2018.

We initiated the next expansion steps by engaging with a management team, formalising our organisational structure, starting with the implementation of a fully integrated ERP, CRM and POS system, among others. This will enable the smooth scaling and expansion of Orca.

We will open up various new locations in 2018. At present those are:

  • An Orca Ocean Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • Orca Ocean Resorts in Ashyana Candidasa and Tirta Ayu, Bali, Indonesia
  • Orca Ocean Resort at the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
  • Orca Ocean Resort on Koh Tao, Thailand
  • And more to follow!
Last but not least, I would like to thank all our customers, students, teachers and leadership teams of the schools we work with. Without your support, trust and enthusiasm we would not stand where we are today. I wish all of you a fantastic 2018 and continued support for our mission “To help children and their families fall deeply in love with the oceans, spreading a sense of urgency for their conservation and repair”.

Education as a tool to save the planet. Respect for life and ecosystems. Belief in a positive future. Action over complacency.

All the best,

Jeroen van de Waal
Founder & Chief Orca

Founder and Chief Orca

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