#184: John Vickers (Blue Abyss) — Building the World’s Foremost Extreme Environment R&D Facilities for Space and Deep Sea Exploration
09/19/24 • 68 min
John Vickers, Founder & CEO of Blue Abyss.
John is building one of the most ambitious and inspiring projects I’ve encountered while exploring what people are building in Cleveland!
After spending eight years in the British Army, John completed his service at the rank of Corporal in 1991 and transitioned to a civilian career where he worked in management consulting, and leadership roles across IBM and GE Capital.
In 2014, grounded in his desire to prepare for an imagined future of proliferated human spaceflight and extreme environment exploration, he founded Blue Abyss to deliver the World’s foremost extreme environment research, development, testing and training facilities — unlocking our ability to ask and seek to answer some of the most important questions in the exploration of space, aerospace, medical, marine, and other robotic technologies.
Adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and close to NASA Glenn’s headquarters, Blue Abyss is developing the world’s largest and deepest R&D Pool, measuring 40 meters by 50 meters on the surface with a 16m wide shaft plunging to a depth of 50 meters with a volume capacity of 42,000 cubic meters of water.
The Facility will also house ancillary extreme environment capabilities for
- Human Centrifuges to enable training and physiology research at high Gs.
- Hypobaric and Hyperbaric Chambers to enable training and research in pressurized environments.
- and Parabolic Flight to enable microgravity research, training, and public discovery.
Furthermore, besides servicing the gamut of industries from offshore energy to the growing human spaceflight sector, John is deeply committed to educating and inspiring young people to explore and learn about the world around them.
This conversation feels right out of science fiction, but it’s on track to become science reality.
We discuss the balance of ambition and humility, the formative experience of his international upbringing, the influence of his military background and mentors like astronauts and his brother-in-law Sergeant Ian McKay, his appreciation of Cleveland, leadership, persistence, and ultimately the impact he hopes to have with Blue Abyss.
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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvickers1
https://blueabyss.uk/blog/post/blue-abyss-ohio-land-purchase-complete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbgJ01B89So&ab_channel=BlueAbyss
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SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety
John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University — success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen... all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!
With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.
The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu
The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.
Impact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!
John Vickers, Founder & CEO of Blue Abyss.
John is building one of the most ambitious and inspiring projects I’ve encountered while exploring what people are building in Cleveland!
After spending eight years in the British Army, John completed his service at the rank of Corporal in 1991 and transitioned to a civilian career where he worked in management consulting, and leadership roles across IBM and GE Capital.
In 2014, grounded in his desire to prepare for an imagined future of proliferated human spaceflight and extreme environment exploration, he founded Blue Abyss to deliver the World’s foremost extreme environment research, development, testing and training facilities — unlocking our ability to ask and seek to answer some of the most important questions in the exploration of space, aerospace, medical, marine, and other robotic technologies.
Adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, and close to NASA Glenn’s headquarters, Blue Abyss is developing the world’s largest and deepest R&D Pool, measuring 40 meters by 50 meters on the surface with a 16m wide shaft plunging to a depth of 50 meters with a volume capacity of 42,000 cubic meters of water.
The Facility will also house ancillary extreme environment capabilities for
- Human Centrifuges to enable training and physiology research at high Gs.
- Hypobaric and Hyperbaric Chambers to enable training and research in pressurized environments.
- and Parabolic Flight to enable microgravity research, training, and public discovery.
Furthermore, besides servicing the gamut of industries from offshore energy to the growing human spaceflight sector, John is deeply committed to educating and inspiring young people to explore and learn about the world around them.
This conversation feels right out of science fiction, but it’s on track to become science reality.
We discuss the balance of ambition and humility, the formative experience of his international upbringing, the influence of his military background and mentors like astronauts and his brother-in-law Sergeant Ian McKay, his appreciation of Cleveland, leadership, persistence, and ultimately the impact he hopes to have with Blue Abyss.
-----
LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnvickers1
https://blueabyss.uk/blog/post/blue-abyss-ohio-land-purchase-complete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbgJ01B89So&ab_channel=BlueAbyss
-----
SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety
John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University — success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen... all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!
With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.
The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu
The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.
Impact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!
Previous Episode
#183: Laura Bennett & Alex Krooglik (Embrace Pet Insurance) — The Story of A Cleveland Unicorn
Laura Bennett and Alex Krooglik, co-founders of Embrace Pet Insurance, which was sold in 2023 for $1.5 billion to JAB Holding Company.
The duo founded Embrace Pet Insurance after graduating from Penn’s Wharton School of Business in 2003 and moving to Cleveland, where they built and grew this e-commerce, specialist insurance company selling pet insurance directly to pet owners — from their first policy sold in October 2006 to insuring over 500,000 pets across the country and handling over 4.6 million claims to date, with more than 1 million in 2023 alone.
Having both stepped away from their business a few years prior, this conversation is a truly reflective one. We cover the crucible moments for the company:
- effectively creating a new market category and overcoming the complex regulations of pet insurance,
- the evolution of their relationship as co-founders,
- the sheer tenacity, persistence, determination and consistency required of entrepreneurship,
- earned lessons on founder equity and company ownership,
- becoming one of Jumpstart’s first investments,
- the significance of immigrants and entrepreneurship in the US,
...and a whole lot more! I believe Laura and Alex’s story is one that should be familiar to far more in Cleveland than it may be, and I’m very excited to share it with you today!
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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/krooglik/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabennett/
https://www.embracepetinsurance.com/
-----
SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety
John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University — success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen... all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!
With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.
The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu
The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.
Impact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!
This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!
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Past guests include Justin Bibb (Mayor of Cleveland),
Next Episode
#185: Franco Kraiselburd (Asclepii Inc.) — Building the Next Generation of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Cell Therapeutics to Improve Human Health
Franco Kraiselburd — Co-Founder and CEO of Asclepii — building the next generation of tissue engineering therapeutics for wound healing.
I’ve recently heard a life’s work described as a lifelong quest to build something for others that expresses who you are. It feels to me that Franco is not just building a company, but has found his life’s work and is truly pursuing a grand mission.
Grounded in an international childhood living across the United States, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, Franco began his scientific career at the early age of 12, and has spent the last 9 years dedicating his life to the development of accessible and impactful advanced medical devices, translating the ideas from several different labs within the Tissue Engineering field into reality and the market.
After 5 years working in the University of São Paulo (Brazil), Franco moved to Cleveland, OH, to work in the Regenerative Medicine field as a Biomedical Engineering student at Case Western Reserve University with Dr. Arnold Caplan, the Father of Mesenchymal Stem Cells and the very person who’s research had inspired him to set off down this path in the first place.
A scientist and entrepreneur, Franco is constantly trying to bridge the world's ideas and reality. His wound care innovations are internationally recognized, being awarded a Gold Medal at the 2019 GENIUS Olympiad, nominated for 2025 Forbes Under 30 and MIT Innovators Under 35, and a finalist in the Rising Tech Star category of Ohio's 2023 Best of Tech Awards.
Accolades and recognition aside, I can just express personally having gotten to know Franco and listened to him tell his story, that his mind is a wonderful thing to behold and we’re lucky to have him as an entrepreneur in Cleveland
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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francokrais/
https://www.asclepii.com/home
-----
SPONSORS: John Carroll University Boler College of Business || Impact Architects & Ninety
John Carroll University Boler College of Business: https://business.jcu.edu/
As we’ve heard time and time again from entrepreneurs on Lay of The Land — many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University — success in this ever-changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technology and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen... all qualities nurtured through the Boler College of Business!
With 4 different MBA programs of study — spanning Professional, Online, Hybrid, and 1-Year-Flexible — The Boler College of Business provides flexible timelines and various class structures for each MBA Track — including online, in-person, hybrid and asynchronous — to offer the most effective options for you, in addition to the ability to participate in an elective International Study Tour, providing unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture.
The career impact of a Boler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University’s Boler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu
The Boler College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a College of Business can have.
Impact Architects & NinetyLay of The Land is brought to you by Ninety. As a Lay of The Land listener, you can leverage a free trial with Ninety, the platform that helps teams build great companies and the only officially licensed software for EOS® — used by over 7,000 companies and 100,000 users!
This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!
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