Darryl OWENCEO and Owner of Freestyle Divers, and Founder of Project REEFrame

Darryl Owen is the CEO and Owner of Freestyle Divers, and Founder of Project REEFrame.

After a long career in software and management consulting, where he led high performance multinational teams at senior management level, Darryl has been focusing on his lifetime passion for the ocean over the recent years.

Freestyle Divers started for Darryl as a personal business in the UAE, which allowed him and his family to enjoy their love for all things aquatic, including exploration, advanced diving, underwater photography and protection of the marine environment.

In 2019, he launched the Freestyle Divers Academy to bring action oriented marine conservation within reach of citizen scientists and local conservationists and funded the development of a comprehensive marine conservation education system.

In 2021 he launched Project REEFrame, which is partnered with MOCCAE and FEA and includes a unique coral conservation project in Fujairah, UAE, as well as projects in other UAE emirates and internationally.  Project REEFrame is centered on coastal protection, marine conservation and the creation of a community trained to execute missions to save and proliferate corals, seagrass and mangroves, as well as augmenting fisheries stocks through the creation of new eco-friendly habitat.

Darryl is an Instructor Trainer and Examiner for RAID, a Technical Diving Instructor for UTD, a PADI Instructor, an EFR Instructor and an Instructor of Human Factors in Diving. He has accumulated 4,500+ dives on open circuit and CCR across the world while exploring ways to document and conserve our amazing marine environment.