The Caladan Oceanic Expeditions are organized and led by extreme explorer Victor Vescovo who usually pilots the submersible on its dives.

Victor is an Operating Partner and Co-Founder Emeritus of Insight Equity based in Dallas, Texas. He specializes in the aerospace, defense, electronics, and pollution control industries and is Chairman of two of Insight Equity’s companies that operate in those areas. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top 5% of his class. He has also received a Master’s Degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a double major BA in economics and political science from Stanford University. Additionally, Victor served 20 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, retiring in 2013 as a Commander (O-5). His principal duties involved operational airstrike targeting and after 9/11 was deployed to support counter-terrorism efforts overseas.

In 2017, Victor became the 12th American to complete the “Explorer’s Grand Slam” which requires climbing the highest peak on all seven of the world’s continents including Mt. Everest and skiing at least 100 kilometers to the North and South Poles. In 2020, he piloted history’s deepest ever submarine dive in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench, was the first person to do it repeatedly – now fifteen times, and in August 2019 became the first person to visit “The Five Deeps,” the deepest point in all five of the world’s oceans. Victor is also the first person to dive the four deepest points on any ocean floor, has made three dives to the Titanic including the only solo dive ever made there, and completed the two deepest wreck dives in history at the sites of the USS Johnston in 2021 and the USS Samuel B. Roberts in 2022. He is also a commercially rated multi-engine jet, helicopter, and submersible test pilot. In June of 2022 he also ventured into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard-21 mission, making him the first person in history to climb Mt. Everest, dive to the bottom of the ocean, and go into space.