Marilyn holds a Ph.D. from NYU and J.D. from New York Law School and had 20+ years in international business and finance, for which she was honored as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year featured in Bloomberg's Business Week.  She served 16 years in the U.S. State Department Foreign Service, Economic Affairs (SCI clearance) and then co-founded Aequor Inc. with Marine and Medical Microbiologist, Cynthia Burzell, who discovered novel natural antibiofilm/antifouling agents in the ocean. As CEO of Aequor, she has raised over $1.5M in pre-Seed funding and $4M in grants and contracts from DOE, DOD, NASA, and other agencies, scaled up and filed patents on Aequor’s formulated products, which are EPA-approval on them as non-toxic, “green,” GRAS and FDA approved for food contact. As head of a Woman-Owned Small Business, she is always looking for sales, contracting, sub-contracting and licensing opportunities to leverage Aequor’s novel technologies to their highest and best use.