About Us: Why Now?
Novel microplastic research has revealed that the polymers can enter the brain and other major organs, with 75% of breast milk and placentas containing microplastic. Bioaccumulation can lead to chronic inflammation, the center of cancer and other autoimmune diseases.
Alexa McGovern
Founder
Founder, as well as: Mainer, mother, curious, and hopeful.
I am a new mom who is unimpressed, uninspired, and concerned by the products available to me and my baby, and ultimately what they are made out of: plastic. I am a cancer survivor who was told my breast cancer at 29 may be caused from “environmental” reasons.
Knowing that even my body is contaminated with plastics, that those plastics passed to my daughter in utero, and each day more are building up in her body is not something I can ignore. She deserves better, we all do. I’m on a mission to develop an alternative to plastic with kelp.
I have a background in CPG sales and marketing and most recently in SaaS R&D and Strategy & Ops work. I also own and operate a kelp farm. I’ve been told I’m incredibly entrepreneurial, thrive in ambiguity, lead confidently, and have an innate ability to solve the meatiest problems.
I am a Mainer who cares deeply about where I come from. I want to invest in what keeps Maine special and create jobs that support generations of Mainers to come.
Advisory Board Member
Dennis Coulombe
Advisory Board Member, as well as: Grandfather, father, husband, and always searching to be challenged.
Dennis brings a wealth of manufacturing knowledge to Dirigo Sea Farm. He has an extensive background in manufacturing after founding and operating a family owned beverage company in Lewiston, Maine. Operations scaled to >$200 million in sales over the course of 35 years. He retired in 2008 and focused his efforts on a partnership with the Passamaquoddy tribe in Northern Maine to establish a 120,000 square foot bottling facility to sell aquifer sourced water.
He also sits as a board member and investor in a start-up robotics company developing high speed, quick swap lithium battery equipment. He has been with this company from drawing board to customer installation.
Advisory Board Member
Jana Lapoint, MS
Advisory Board Member, as well as: great-grandmother, Mainer, educator
Jana brings an extensive background in manufacturing, secondary education, and workforce development to Dirigo Sea Farm.
She has a BS in history and an MS in business education, as well as more than a decade of experience teaching high school students. She served as the VP Corporate Affairs for the Maine based company, Lapoint Industries. In 1995, Jana was appointed by former governor Angus King to the board of trustees of the Maine Community College System. She also served on the Maine State Charter Commission, with two of those years as chair, during which time she proudly signed the documents that established the Vocational College as a community college of Maine. From 2010–2021, Jana served as vice chair on the Maine State Board of Education. In addition, she acted as trustee at Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts, and Cheverus High School in Portland, Maine. Jana has four children, 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.