IDEE BELAU

Inspired by her maternal grandfather, Idee began exploring Florida’s wild areas by boat and horseback at the young age of six. Through a nurtured love for the environment and history, she eventually learned to SCUBA dive, which expanded her interest in underwater archaeology and photography and cemented her passion for exploration.

As a Technical Business Analyst, Idee’s acumen for building data-related processes evolved into critical field data collection skills. Regularly called upon to exercise her field acumen, Idee undertakes expeditions with NASA’s Spaceward Bound program and the Combat Wounded Veterans Challenge (CWVC) Team. Through CWVC, she is among the first to photo-document prostheses use in an underwater occupational setting and during a 2013 summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro recorded first-ever testing of altitude impacts on residual limbs and traumatic brain injury patients.  In February 2015, Idee carried Explorers Club Flag #208 on its maiden expedition with Advanced Diver Magazine’s Exploration Foundation to document uncharted cenote formations deep within Mexico’s Yucatan State. Exactly three years later, Idee again carried Flag #208 this time into Brazil’s Amazonas regions to study plant resources used by the isolated indigenous Matis tribe and to search for bioluminescent fungi.  Her expedition video and photography work have been used by NBC’s 60 Minutes, the Key West Citizen, Tampa Bay Times, Florida Today, and several Florida-based ABC television affiliates.

After a decade of working with the Department of State and Department of Defense, Idee entered the private consultation arena, and more than four years ago co-founded Novel Engineering, Inc. For its early success, Novel earned a prestigious GrowFL “Florida Companies to Watch” award for 2015. Initially pursuing an education in Political Science, Idee now studies Corporate Sustainability at Harvard University and is a trained technical diver, Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society member, a primitive survival school graduate, a Dive Emergency Specialist, wilderness first aid provider, and a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. Idee is the founder of newly created EarthBorn Foundation. She holds an advisory role with the CWVC, serves on the Board of Directors for Advanced Diver Magazine Exploration Foundation, serves on the Board of Directors for the prestigious Explorers Club, and is Chairwoman of the Explorers Club Florida Chapter.