Making Waves in Reykjavík!
Project Country: Iceland / IBD Client: Iceland Ocean Cluster
Abridged version of Iceland Ocean Cluster blog post – Spring 2026
Written By: Clarissa He, Nitin Unnava, Agrim Gupta, and Rahmat Clinton
Monday, May 18, 2026
Our first day in Reykjavík with our project client Iceland Ocean Cluster was filled with introductions- to the people, to the company, and to its culture. We had met in zoom for 4 months but finally had a chance to meet our main client contacts in person – Dr. Alexandra Leeper, CEO of IOC, and Dr. Clara Jegousse, IOC Project Manager.
We learned about the company’s history of opening in 2011 with about 10 companies to its current state of 70+companies in 2026. IOC is a privately run cluster that works with funding also raised through international competitive projects.
We also got to see the various products that could be derived from fish, from clothing to cod
liver oil to collagen drinks. IOC truly embraces its 100% fish mission. Seeing it firsthand opened our minds to several different possibilities we had not even considered when first embarking on the project.
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
At work, we met with Cecile Dargentolle, a scientist at Matis. Matis is a company that
specializes in composition analysis of the various fishes that we were studying. Their analysis was pivotal in helping clusters understand truly what products could be created from the varying sidestreams.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Throughout the day our focus was on our first presentation which was to the Scottish Ocean Cluster. We presented our findings to Tracy from the Scottish Ocean Cluster.While several of our findings were definitely received well, there was feedback regarding the regulatory frameworks we used to look at the viability of product value chains.
Thursday, May 21, 2026
Today was a great day of strengthening relationships in Iceland and validating many of our assumptions for the Oregon Ocean Cluster project. We started the day by presenting our findings to Erin Sawyer and Helga Magnúsdóttir, the Chargé d’Affaires and Public Engagement Officer at the U.S. Department of State in Iceland.
Erin was also impressed by our project and expressed interest in connecting with IBD faculty to explore how the U.S. Department of State could support future IBD projects in Iceland. It sounds like this could be the beginning of a long-term relationship between Iceland and IBD, which was exciting for all of us to hear.
Later in the day, we shared our findings with the Oregon Ocean Cluster, and it was reassuring to hear that many of our conclusions aligned closely with what they had independently observed through their own local research. It was a proud moment for our team. None of us came into this project with experience in the fishing industry, yet over the past few months we were able to get up to speed quickly and develop insights and recommendations that were both useful and validating for the client.
Friday, May 22, 2026
Today was a full day immersed in Iceland’s fish processing industry. We started the morning aboard a fishing vessel before visiting Brim, a vertically integrated seafood company that handles everything from fishing and processing to creating value-added products such as collagen. It was fascinating to see how automated and data-driven their processing lines are, with equipment capturing everything from the weight of each fish to detailed images of every fillet. Seeing that level of data collection made us think about how it could shape the future of the industry, especially in understanding how fish populations and quality may change over time due to global warming and other environmental pressures.
Tuesday, May 26, 2026 
Today we spent the day at work focused on preparing for several presentations tomorrow. This project really highlighted how important it is to customize presentations based on the stakeholder(s) in your audience. We made similar but different presentations for each stakeholder: IOC, SOC, OOC, Business Iceland, US embassy, UK embassy.
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Wednesday was the big one. In a lot of ways, the entire semester had been leading up to this day. After months of research, slide edits, and many versions of “final final,” we were finally ready to share our work with Iceland Ocean Cluster and Business Iceland.”
We presented to Alexandra and the Iceland Ocean Cluster team. This was the most detailed discussion of the day. We went deeper into the technical parts of our work, walked through our recommendations, and had a very constructive conversation about what would be most useful for the client going forward.
Just when we thought we were done presenting, the UK Ambassador to Iceland came in, and we had another conversation around the project. After a long day, we got the perfect ending. August from Business Iceland took us to a wonderful Icelandic gourmet restaurant for dinner, and it was easily the best meal of the trip.
Friday, May 29, 2026
Looking back, Iceland gave us much more than a project. It gave us a chance to work with a thoughtful client, understand a new industry, and experience a country that takes sustainability seriously in a very real way. We arrived focused on delivering good work, but left with stronger friendships, better perspective, and a lot of gratitude. It was the kind of IBD experience we had
hoped for, and one we will remember long after the final deck is submitted.
