This is Part 3 of a five-part series, Polar Futures, produced by Investable Universe in 2021. When discussing the emerging Arctic economy, the focus is often on extractable natural resources, and how those are protected, exploited, or sustainably harvested. But what might be the ultimate resource—what has elsewhere been called, not without good reason, “the new oil”—is data, the fuel of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Our guest this episode is a pioneering innovator of that powerful resource. Leslie  Cannavera is the CEO of PolArctic, which develops artificial intelligence and machine learning models for companies working in the Arctic region. Specifically, the company has developed a customizable neural network algorithm (called Ice Cubed) based on historical data and trends that can forecast up to a year the future ice breakup and ice freeze patterns in the Arctic. 

 Leslie Cannavera is a United States Air Force veteran who served as a Commissioned Officer. PolArctic is a member of the Arctic Economic Council (AEC), and Leslie currently leads the AEC Blue Economy Working Group (BEWG), and serves on the Maritime Working Group and the Infrastructure and Investments working group (IIWG).