The Board of Directors are all volunteers, and they come from a variety of backgrounds and bring a vast amount of skills to the table. Perhaps most importantly, they all have experience in the Maritime World.
Paul Bracken – President/Director
Paul was born and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island. Paul had an active childhood and spent most of his time outdoors. His family always had a boat, his father had him at the helm by three years old on fishing trips. After high school, Paul attended Maine Maritime Academy to continue his interest in sailing, pursuing a career devoted to Tall Ships. His dream was to learn to sail in Square rig. After graduation, Paul sailed as Chief Mate on the Topsail Schooner “Amistad” on a tour of Europe and Africa. From there, he signed aboard the Square Rigger “Picton Castle” as 2nd Mate and spent the next three years sailing around the Atlantic, Europe, West Africa, and finally completed a 14-month Circumnavigation. He then worked on the Norwegian Full Rigger “Sorlandet”. Paul has sailed many schooners, yachts and small vessels over the years. Recently, he spent 2 years in the Gulf of Mexico driving large supply vessels to service the oil rigs. Paul has a strong passion for seamanship, sail training for youth, and the ocean. In his spare time, he is an avid surfer and fisherman, loves carpentry and traditional wooden boats. He lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia with Katie, his first mate and young daughter Lexi. He has taken a new direction in life last September joining the Town of Lunenburg as their Facilities Superintendent. This job keeps him close to home and engaged in our local community.
John Steele – Vice-President/Director
Born in Ontario , John’s connection to the marine world began early whittling small model boats when he was a boy. His first build was at age 14, his latest projects include building the new Bluenose II, creating the rig for the new schooner Columbia and supervising construction of an ultra-efficient Nigel 
Irens motor launch.
After university in the early 70’s, John volunteered with CUSO ( Canadian University Service Overseas ) to teach in Tanzania, East Africa. He returned to Canada to enrol in UBC’s post-graduate architecture program. While working on British Columbia’s Gulf Islands, designing and building custom houses, John’s love of sailing and living aboard initiated his switch to building boats. In 1979 he and Michael Scott founded Covey Island Boatworks in Nova Scotia. Over the following 30 or so years John and the Covey crew built over 100 vessels, a wide range of power and sail, commercial and pleasure – most off-shore, cruising sail boats. He was a founding member of the Nova Scotia Boatbuilder’s Association, a director of Bluenose Pride, a director of the Lunenburg Shipyard Alliance ( builder of the new Bluenose II ) and served as a judge for the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta for several years.
Now semi-retired, John is an avid sailor with thousands of off-shore miles in his wake.
“ Being a part of a crew, living and working on the ocean teaches us all lessons that are of increasingly vital importance in today’s world. Helping to see others gain such experience is what motivates me to be a part of NSSES”, John Steele.
Allison Steele – Secretary/Director
Allison was born and raised in Ontario but hails from a long line of East Coast mariners. Her first experience on board the Picton Castle was in 2007 and many years later, several thousand nautical miles and so many friends to call family, she has reluctantly hung up her rig. She is happy to be involved with the NSSES in helping upcoming mariners explore their full potential and experience those same life changing opportunities. Allison has worked with charitable and community-based organizations for almost 30 years as both a volunteer and staff resource. In her spare time she enjoys a house full of animals and her ever growing flock of chickens!
Brock Junkin – Treasurer/Director
Brock Junkin’s interests during his working life have always centred around business and economic development. Brock spent twenty years in public accounting on the South Shore of Nova Scotia ministering to the business reporting needs of small and medium sized businesses. In 2000 Brock left public practice and joined the government of Nunavut to more directly pursue his interest in economic development. He spent four years in Rankin Inlet as the Regional Director for the then Department of Sustainable Development. Early in 2005 Brock left the civil service to join the economic development arm of the Kivalliq Inuit Association as the CEO/President of Sakku Investments Corporation. In this and his previous capacity he enjoyed direct involvement in monitoring, starting, mentoring and incubating business in the Kivalliq and in partnership with others, across Nunavut.
Brock brings to his work a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, an MBA in economic development, a CMA/CPA designation and a technical certification in aboriginal economic development. He is also a Chartered Director. He is the author of two peer reviewed papers on economic development in Canada’s north.
Adam Langley – Director
Adam is driven to work with like-minded and passionate people to create the conditions for Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada to leverage its natural geographic advantage, diverse cultures and skilled people to elevate the region’s profile as one of the world’s greatest marine destinations for exploration and service. With a professional background in property development, in particular marine infrastructure, Adam has experience in leading teams to attract marine visitation for recreation and service. Foundational to this emerging opportunity is continuous investment in developing a skilled marine service sector and supply chain. 
Adam’s attachment to the sea is rooted in an upbringing in, on and always around water. Fortunate to be brought up in a boating family, Adam has sailed extensively around Nova Scotia with most of his time spent on the Northumberland Strait, Bras d’Or Lakes and Halifax area. His professional career has been connected to the sea as well, having just completed (June 2021) a rewarding 12 year career with Develop Nova Scotia (formerly Waterfront Development Corporation) as Director of Operations and Marine Development. His role with Develop included overseeing multiple North American and International Tall Ship festivals giving him an appreciation for the value these platforms provide as an introduction to marine sector professions, particularly amongst youth. Previous to his role with Develop, Adam ran an educational outreach company, Ocean Wild Educational Entertainment, which travelled across Eastern Canada promoting ocean awareness, conservation and entrepreneurship through curriculum aligned school programs. A highlight of the school program was taking classes inside a 65ft fin whale model!
To say Adam is passionate about supporting ocean related opportunities would be a tremendous understatement. Having just founded a new initiative, A. Langley Developments, a business focused on marine network destination development, it is indeed his mission in life to help others see and embrace opportunity in, on or around the sea.
Elizabeth O’Brien – Director
Elizabeth (Liz) lives in Victoria, B.C. but has strong ties to Nova Scotia. In 2020, she graduated from the Picton Castle’s Bosun School in Lunenberg, N.S., and then joined the crew of the Bluenose II for the end of the season’s sail around coastal Nova Scotia and winter down-rig. Liz currently works as a communications professional for the newly-formed B.C. Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship in an innovation and technology division. In this role she supports a range of very interesting projects related to First Nations consultation and land negotiation, old growth forest tracking, and the network of emergency radio towers that stretch across the province. Liz is a graduate of the University of Ottawa, where she studied a Master’s in English Literature, and prior to working for the provincial government, she gained experience in fundraising and communications for local non-profit organizations. Outside of work, she is deeply passionate about all things marine-related and currently volunteers for the local Royal Canadian Marine Search & Rescue (RCM-SAR) station and is a racing crew member with the Canadian Forces Sailing Association. A highlight of her experience is being one of four crew to sail a 100-year old, engineless wooden boat home from Alaska offshore from Vancouver Island. On land, her favorite past-time is writing short stories for her growing number of wonderful nieces and nephews. She is very pleased to be joining the Board of the NSSES and to be involved in such a wonderful organization that encourages and supports young mariners.