Our Team

Meet the founders of Open Oyster:

Pete Malinowski: Pete and his brother, Nick, grew up on Fishers Island where their parents own and operate an oyster farm out of their home.  Staying close to his oyster roots, Pete is now a teacher at New York Harbor School, a specialized public high school located on Governor’s Island that seeks to provide water based job skills and instill a sense of environmental stewardship in addition to teaching a normal high school curriculum.  Both through his job and through his independent efforts, Pete has become a respected figure in the NYC marine environmentalism movement and was awarded a large public grant to help clean up NYC’s local waterways by beginning to reseed the harbor with oysters (find out more in the New York Times). Whenever possible, Open Oyster contributes it’s oyster shells to Pete’s growing local oyster reef (but it will be a few years before we try those oysters).

 

Nick Malinowski: Like his brother, oysters are in Nick’s blood.  Nick worked on his family oyster farm up through college and understands the process as well as anyone of growing an oyster from something microscopic to something delicious on your plate.  In addition to his work with Open Oyster, Nick is currently pursuing a Masters degree in social work.

 

Charles Clinton: When Charles first met Pete freshman year in college I don’t think he’d ever tried an oyster.  The next summer he was out on Fishers Island working on the oyster farm and hooked.  Charles brings a legal and business backround to the table and practices law when he’s not shucking oysters.