Captain Lauren Lamm

VP of Business Operations, aka: The voice of the customer

A Boston native, Lauren Lamm grew up hearing stories of her father’s U.S. Coast Guard career. While in high school, Lamm attended a Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) program at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) and knew her career would follow in his footsteps.

“I realized then that I didn’t want a traditional desk job,” Lamm said. “The STEM program at Mass Maritime exposed me to some aspects of ship life, from maintenance to safety. It was exciting.”

After graduation, that passion inspired her to enroll at MMA, to which she was accepted. It was during her freshman MMA Sea Term that she reaffirmed her passion for bridge navigation aboard ships. Her four-year stint at the academy began as a marine transportation major and member of the crew team, and ended as regimental training and retention officer, with sea-going experience as a deck cadet aboard a Maersk Line car carrier. While still enrolled at the academy, she met her husband (a fellow mariner-in-training) and earned her 3rd Mate Unlimited Tonnage license, an accreditation that helped her land her first job after graduation in 2013, sailing for Otto Candies.

As she gained experience on the bridge with Otto Candies, she also upgraded her license to a Master Unlimited Tonnage upon Oceans and began to take an interest in marine autonomy.

“I was originally attracted to autonomy as a way to help avoid human error in our industry,” she said. “Now, I also view it as a tool that will make the marine sector safer and more efficient. While the industry has been slow to change, it’s obvious this is the direction it’s going. I view autonomous marine technology like dynamic positioning (DP) was viewed 20 years ago. Back then, it seemed foreign to mariners, but now people rely on it and it has added so much value. It’s just a matter of time before our systems are embedded in maritime operations, helping to make everything smoother.”

In July 2018, she followed her new interest in emerging marine technology and joined Sea Machines as a vessel test lead. The job now lets her use the company’s SM series of products for commercial vessels and provide recommendations from the mariner’s perspective that make them easier to use and more intuitive.

“Sea Machines considers me the voice of the customer,” Lamm said, referring to the mariners who use Sea Machines products. “I love being out on the water putting our products to the test so we can make improvements. I take this responsibility seriously and I enjoy showing the industry that this high-end technology is easy to use and integrates fully with vessels. I know the work I’m doing is going to help create a safer environment for mariners to operate in.”

Lamm is a founding member of the Northeast Chapter of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) and is an avid runner and cyclist, including participation in the 2015 and 2018 Pan Mass Challenge and 2019 Boston Marathon. Her husband currently works as a mariner in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.