Protecting & Advancing Global Commerce

Join Erik Bethel and RADM Lorin Selby (Ret.) of Mare Liberum on dual-use investments to protect global commerce and NWA’s role in it. ​Every product that moves through Northwest Arkansas depends on open, secure sea lanes. ​Join STATION NWA for a morning Educational Workshop with Erik Bethel, Managing Partner at Mare Liberum and former World Bank Director, and Rear Admiral Lorin Selby (Ret.), General Partner at Mare Liberum, a venture fund making dual-use investments to protect global commerce. Erik helped deploy more than $100 billion in capital as the U.S. representative at the World Bank, after two decades in investment banking and private equity. Lorin spent nearly 37 years in the Navy, culminating as Chief of Naval Research, where he oversaw a $4 billion portfolio of advanced technology for the Navy and Marine Corps. ​NWA is home to some of the most sophisticated supply chains in the world, and the region is building a dual-use ecosystem where manufacturing, logistics, and frontier tech serve both commercial and national security missions. Erik and Lorin will share where capital is flowing in defense and maritime tech, and how founders, investors, and industry leaders here can help shape what comes next.