Meet the NASF 2024 speakers:

North Atlantic Seafood Forum
Bergen – Norway, March 5th to 7th 2024
(More speakers to be added)

Sofina Foods has announced the appointment of Ash Amirahmadi as its new Chief Executive Officer, Sofina Foods Europe commencing 8th August 2023. Ash joins Sofina Foods Europe from Arla UK, the UK’s biggest dairy cooperative, where he has been Managing Director since 2018.

Helene Ziv-Douki is President and Group Leader for Cargill’s global Aqua Nutrition business within the Animal Nutrition & Health Enterprise (ANH). With 2,000 employees in more than 19 countries and 40 plants, Cargill Aqua Nutrition is one of the largest suppliers of aqua feed in the world.

Helene is a proven leader with a track record for building, growing and transforming businesses while delivering for customers and her team. She has a passion for customer-driven sustainability and is proud Cargill Aqua Nutrition is making a positive impact for the planet together with customers and suppliers. Helene has been promoting diversity and inclusion her entire career and is known for being a people-first leader with a strong focus on developing teams and talent.

Anne Hvistendahl has been heading DNB Seafood globally for than ten years, and has been working with seafood in DNB from different angles since 1995. DNB is the world’s largest seafood bank with an exposure north of USD 7 billion based on the strong position and success of their clients. DNB is involved along the entire salmon value chain – from feed raw materials to the dinner plate, and has a unique ability in combining debt and equity financing. The bank is also involved in advisory and financing related to the new frontiers of salmon farming. From their offices in Santiago, New York, London and along the Norwegian coast, DNB Seafood does business with 17 of the world’s 20 largest salmon farmers globally. DNB has arranged green and sustainability linked bonds and bank facilities around 7 bill usd to the Seafood industry the last two years. Thus we mirror the strong trend in the salmon farming value chain.
DNB is also a leading lender and arranger of capital to the shipping industry

Therese has honed her extensive knowledge and expertise across three different industries. This experience is used in her current role to develop and execute highly successful strategies across the value chain from feed and nutrition, to salmon farming, salmon sales, and seafood processing.

Before her current position, Therese previously worked in aquaculture where she held various leading positions across the value chain in salmon feed as global sales director for Skretting, in fish farming and fish processing in Pan Fish (Now MOWI). She started her career in the oil and gas industry where she spent 16 years in ConocoPhillips in a number of leadership roles.

She studied finance and business administration, and marketing and entrepreneurship at the University of Stavanger in Norway.

Mr. Vindheim was appointed CEO in 2019. Prior to this he held the position as CFO. Mr. Vindheim has experience from various executive positions in seafood and other industries. He was CFO of Mowi for seven years before taking on the position of CEO.

Mr. Vindheim holds an MSc in Business and an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics. He is also a State Authorized Public Accountant and Certified European Financial Analyst.

Steven Rafferty took up the position as CEO in March 2022. He joined Cermaq in2008 holding the position as CFO and later COO Farming in Cermaq until 2010.He re-joined Cermaq in 2019 as Managing Director in Chile. Rafferty has a broad experience from aquaculture since 1993 and has been executive in some global companies with positions as MD of Skretting, and CFO in Mowi, Steven Rafferty has been working in UK, Chile, USA, The Netherlands and Norway during his career.

Ragnar Nystøyl has been with Kontali for over two decades, serving as the Managing Director from 2007-2017 and as Head of Kontali’s analysis department and Chief Analyst since 2017. As a market analyst, Nystøyl’s focus is primarily on farmed salmonids, but has also held a “seafood generalist” role for the past decade. Nystøyl holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and export marketing from Trondheim Business School and the Madrid campus of Suffolk University, respectively.

Morten Hyldborg Jensen has worked a number of years in the whitefish industry, including as Head of Team Frozen Whitefish i Lerøy Seafood ASA (2017-2018), Sales and Marketing Director Primary Processing Norway Seafood AS (2010-2017), Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Aker Seafoods AS (2005-2010), Director Sales and Marketing Aker Seafoods AS (2002-2005) and Vice President Sales and Marketing Stolt Sea Farm AS (1998-2002). Morten is a board member of Norwegian Seafood Association (2021-). He has also held positions in board and committees at Norwegian Center of Expertice, Aquaculture 2008-2010), Marine Stewardship Council (20082017), Norwegian Seafood Council (2011-2017) and Norwegian Seafood Federation (2011-).

Christian Jomaas joined Pareto Securities in 1999, was Head of Investment Banking from 2014-2019 and has been CEO since 2019. He has led a large number of ECM, DCM, M&A and project finance transactions in a wide range of sectors. Christian holds an MSc in Business, Finance and Strategy from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH).

Atle Harald Sandtorv has extensive experience of mergers and acquisitions, with responsibility of pursuing growth and structural changes. He has previously served as CFO of Bennex and Tide.

Matt Lee is the Hilton Foods Chief Executive – UK and Ireland. Matt joined Hilton Foods in May 2020. He is an experienced Executive Board Member with a proven track record of delivery within the food industry, ranging from large corporate organisations to business “turn arounds” in Private Equity.

Frédérique is a sustainability manager at Albert Heijn, the biggest retailer in The Netherlands. Her focus is on environmental due diligence in the supply chain and the past 3,5 years she has been working on topics as the reduction of scope 3 emissions, deforestation free commodities and sustainable seafood.

Albert Heijn is launching a more sustainable shrimp, fed partially with insect meal and algae oil, on it shelves this April. A project Frederique is proud to be a part of!

Eggert has extensive strategic and operational experience as CEO at Festi hf for 7 years and CFO for 4 years at N1 hf. as well as over 15 years’ experience in banking, asset management and trading. Eggert is a business graduate, cand.oecon, from the University of Iceland 1995

Fulco joined Nutreco in August 2021 as Chief Executive Officer, after almost two decades in leadership positions at Nutreco’s parent company, SHV Holdings N.V. He served on the company’s Executive Board of Directors since 2018 and played an important role in supporting and defining a sustainable future for SHV.

Prior to that, Fulco was CEO of SHV Energy, leading global distributor of off-grid energy and active in sustainable fuels and renewable energy solutions.

Knut Nesse is Norwegian citizen, working as CEO of AKVA group ASA, a position he has held since November 2019. Prior to his current positions, Mr. Nesse has extensive experience as a CEO in international leading companies, including six years as CEO of Skretting Group (part of Nutreco) and six years as CEO of Nutreco. Mr. Nesse has vast experience from board positions in several companies.

Mr. Nesse holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (NHH).

Dave Robb is the Program Lead for SeaFurther™ Sustainability, the signature sustainability initiative of Cargill Aqua Nutrition. Having worked on sustainability issues in aqua feeds for 20 years, he has experience across a broad range of issues, from supply chains and feed production, to how feeds can enable more sustainable farming. Working on sustainable aquaculture can cover just about every aspect of the feed business, requiring a great degree of flexibility and collaboration within the business. In Cargill, this also means working across species as diverse as salmon, shrimp, tilapia and even alligators!

Maria Helsengreen is the Global Aquaculture Partner in Deloitte Consulting. She is passionate about sustainable transition in aquaculture and shared use of the ocean. Her expertise with the entire value chain combined with sustainable finance gives her perspectives on how different industry actors will drive the change towards a net positive future. Maria is engaged in multiple aquaculture projects across geographies and by this has great insight into global trends and key industry drivers.

Drew Cherry is an Editor with IntraFish Media. He joined the group in 2001, and has lived and worked in Norway, the UK and the US covering all aspects of the seafood industry.

Karl Øystein Øyehaug is the CFO of Atlantic Sapphire ASA. Mr. Øyehaug was hired as the Group’s Finance Director in 2018 and was the Managing Director of the Company from May 2020 to July 2023. Since 2020 he has acted as the CFO of the Company.

Prior to joining the Group, Mr. Øyehaug served as Equity Analyst at Carnegie Investment Bank in Oslo, Norway, covering the seafood sector. Mr. Øyehaug holds a degree in Economics & Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and Columbia University in the City of New York.

Mr. Øyehaug is a Norwegian citizen, currently residing in Miami, FL, USA.

Leonidas Papaharisis holds a BSc on Fisheries, an MPhil on Economics and MBA. He has a deep passion for sustainable development and a proven track record of implementing best practices and ensuring compliance with global sustainability standards. He has a strong background in business reporting, operations decarbonization, climate change mitigation, and the development and implementation of sustainability requirements. He lead efforts to integrate best practices in sustainability, ensuring compliance with current and future global sustainability standards.

Christian Meinich joined Chr. Holtermann AS, Oslo, Norway in 1987 and is today CEO for the company. Holtermann is an independent commodity brokerage house est. 1916, mainly brokering raw materials for the food- feed- and technical industries. Christian is also past president of FOSFA International, London, a contract issuing and arbitral body covering 85% of the global trade in oils and fats. Christian holds a BSBA degree in Finance from University of Denver, USA and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management, Los Angeles, USA.

Sander is an equity analyst at Pareto Securities covering ~20 companies within the seafood universe. Prior to joining Pareto in 2022, Sander worked as analyst at Nordea Markets. He holds an MSc in Business with Major in Finance from BI Norwegian Business School, where he graduated with Honors.

CEO since October 2022 after joining Salmon Evolution as CFO in January 2021.

More than 15 years of seafood, business and capital markets experience. Former positions include SVP at Hofseth International and investment banking at Swedbank/First Securities

Jon Hindar is a Thematic Partner at Summa Equity (“Summa”), a Nordic private equity fund founded in 2016, with c. EUR 5bn assets under management. Summa was the first PE firm to align its strategy with the UN SDGs and invest in companies supported by megatrends within three themes: Resource Efficiency, Changing Demographics, and Tech-Enabled Transformation. Investments across these three themes have the potential for long-term sustainable outperformance because they address some of the social, environmental, and business challenges we need to solve as a society.
Prior to joining Summa, Jon spent 25 years in senior management positions within the seafood sector. In addition, Jon serves as Chair of the Board of Directors in Summa’s portfolio companies, Milarex, Nofitech, Waterise, and Olink Proteomics.

Andreas is a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Ocean with a background in marine biology and aquaculture from NTNU. His research focusses on marine larviculture, low-trophic aquaculture, novel feed ingredients and circular bio-economy in blue and blue-green value chains.

Since joining Rabobank International in 2005, Gorjan Nikolik (45) has been an industry analyst focusing on the global seafood sector including aquaculture, wild-catch, seafood trade and processing. In his primary role, he works as a senior sector expert to Rabobank departments such as Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Finance, Venture Capital, Credit Risk Management and the Relationship Bankers. He is a regular speaker on global seafood and aquaculture conferences and has published research reports covering the seafood industry. He also has experience as a commodity analyst having covered the sugar industry. Gorjan holds a masters degree in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Maastricht and an MBA from Maastricht School of Management.

Ragna Heggebø is the Global R&D Manager in Grieg Seafood, where her main role is overseeing all aspects of the R&D activity, across the value chain, in the company. Ragna holds a PhD in veterinary pathology from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and has studied political science at the University of Oslo. Previous to her present position with Grieg Seafood, she has held several positions at institutes and companies related to research and management, like the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, University Hospital Zürich, EWOS Innovation and MOWI.

Working as a Senior Analyst at Kontali for almost three decades, Jan Erik Øksenvåg’s focus is primarily on farmed salmonids, operations and leading EUMOFA projects and efforts. A major role as being “market expert“ for EUMOFA, has been linked to surveying and analysing global fisheries and markets for farmed and wild-caught seafood. Øksenvåg holds a bachelor’s degree in economy from NTNU in Trondheim. Since 2012, Øksenvåg has also held a position as board member at Kontali, alongside other appointed board positions in various companies.

Carlos Mera heads Rabobank’s Agri Commodity Market Research team (ACMR) out of London. He joined Rabobank in 2015, having spent over seven years at a large physical commodity trading house. Carlos has visited over a thousand farms in several countries and is an experienced crop forecaster.

Carlos supervises Rabobank’s global S/D estimates of several agri commodities, forecasts prices and carries specific research projects like crop and stock surveys. Carlos’ research assists Rabobank’s extensive commodity client base, that extends from farmers and cooperatives to traders, food processors and supermarkets. He and his team support Rabobank rural, trade and large corporate lending, commodity sales and trading, M&A and stock finance, among other relevant services for the food & agri industry.

Hilmarsen has Engineering degree in Aquaculture Technology and a Master degree in Aquaculture Biology from UIT The Arctic University of Norway.

Hilmarsen has experience from landbased fishfarming, consultant in aquaculture, general manager of Centre for Remote Technology at UIT The Arctic University of Norway, Acting Mayor/Chief Commissioner of the City Council of Tromsø. The last year Hilmarsen has worked at SINTEF Ocean with Closed Containment Aquaculture Systems (CCS), both on land and at sea and the utilization of nutrients from fish farming including aquaponics, bacteria production, alga production etc. Hi is now Director Aquaculture at FHF

Tom began his career in consumer-packaged goods with Customer Marketing Group, where he directed trade planning and pricing analytics for many CPG manufacturers including Quaker Oats, Bayer Consumer Care, Stonyfield Farms, Gardenburger, Ruiz Foods, and others. Since 2002 has worked in the Alaska seafood industry as Vice President of Marketing for Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Director of Salmon Category Management for Trident Seafoods, and Chief Sales Officer for Silver Bay Seafoods.

Between 2004 and 2016 he worked on behalf of the entire Alaska industry with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), chairing both the ASMI Salmon Committee and the ASMI Domestic Retail Marketing Committee for over ten years each. He is currently working for the Global Seafood Alliance, focusing on wild-capture fisheries and the RFM program, and is Vice-Chair of the Certified Seafood Collaborative Board of Directors, which owns the RFM standard.

Mr. Rutten has spent most of his career in business management roles in sustainably produced ingredients. After an initial start in the global sourcing organization of DSM, he joined DSM – Sinochem pharmaceuticals where he held several business director positions in Europe, the United states and Asia. In 2021 he joined Corbion to lead the commercial organization of its Algae Ingredients business. He has a strong belief in the power of aligning business objectives with purpose and sustainability to create true value for companies, their stakeholders and society at large. In this light he has led international advocacy programs in connection to the United Nations and World Health Organization to combat antimicrobial resistance. Mr. Rutten holds a Bachelor and Master degree in business administration and supply chain management.

Born and raised in Neskaupstaður, a fishing community in east Iceland. Went to the University of Tromsö, where graduated with both Cand.nag and Cand.scient degree in Aquaculture, marine biochemy

Wide experience in the seafood industry, been fisherman, in processing site, in company management, and sales and marketing. Been with MSC since 2008 and current position is Program Director North Atlantic, which mean responsible for Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Island and Norway

“Environmental and sustainability engineer, with the opportunity to have been involved in sustainability issues within different organizations (NGOs, public bodies, private companies…), I’m today CSR Manager for the European agri-food company Labeyrie Fine Foods, in charge of the fish value chain and the Climate strategy of the Group”

– Christen has been working in the seafood industry since 1997, in different positions:
– 1997 – 1999: Consultant in Norwegian Seafood Council
– 1999-2001: Councilor of Fisheries, Norwegian embassy in Moscow
– 2001-2006: Managing Director, Norwegian Seafood Federation
– 2006 – to date: CA Mordal Consulting
– 2008 – to date: Special Adviser, Norwegian Seafood Council

Christen has spent most of his career working with exports of fish and seafood, but also aquaculture technology and services, in the former Soviet Union countries and also Eastern Europe.

Dr. Lene Kleppe is a researcher in the research group Reproduction and Developmental Biology, at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen. She has a PhD from the University of Bergen, and her research interests include reproductive biology of farmed fish species, with focus on genes that control the reproductive system. She is currently involved with projects applying biotechnological approaches like gene editing and germ cell transplantation to control reproduction in Atlantic salmon, with special focus on sterility (genetic containment).

Bertrand Charron, Market Research & Insights Director, joined the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in 2017. He has 25 years’ experience interacting with key ocean stakeholders particularly regarding the business, market and sustainability dimension of the global aquaculture and seafood industries. Bertrand has a keen interest in how the seafood industry can contribute to delivering accountably on the UN SDG 2030 targets and meet the societal expectations of its stakeholders… thus how to define, measure and assure ‘sustainability’-at large. Formerly Editor and co-founder of IntraFish in the late 1990s, Founder in 2004 of the economic & environmental intelligence portal “Seafood Intelligence”, he authored for several years (2010-2017) the yearly and voluminous ‘Seafood Intelligence Transparency benchmarks’, rating the Transparency performance of the world’s Top 30/100 global salmon farming, feed & seafood corporations.

Very interested in insight & strategic foresight & developing SDG-aligned methodologies/benchmarks for comparative quantitative & qualitative analysis of CSR/ESG, Sustainability. Strong advocate of a more holistic approach to the environmental, social and economic dimensions of Sustainability, Accounting (& Accountability) and Transparency in the realm of seafood & oceans governance. Currently sitting on the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)’s Seafood Stewardship Index (SSI)’s Expert Review Committee (ERC).

Bertrand has a background in biology, natural resources management and journalism. Formerly foreign correspondent (Eire/Northern Ireland peace process) & science journalist. He also worked in news agencies, translation, book/encyclopedia editing; with an eye for detail, methodology, trends and interlinkages.

Kristin Hurum came to Cermaq Goup in 2011 as Sustainability Manager for Cermaq group. Before she joined Cermaq she worked 10 years a s a consultant with EY, CapGemini and Futhurum. Kristin has recently participated in “Ekspertutvalget for sustainable feed”, a government initiated project accross green and blue sectors i Norway.

David Dietz currently serves as the Manager of Standards Oversight at the Global Seafood Alliance. He is responsible for guiding the development and revision of all Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) and Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification standards, along with supporting and advocating for GSA’s strategic focus on third-party assurances overall.
David holds a Masters of Environmental Management from Duke University, focusing on seafood economics and supply chain sustainability. Prior to GSA, David managed the Economics Program for the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

RESEARCH INTERESTS: Gene expression pattern and level reflects to a significant extent the ongoing anatomical, morphological and physiological activities in a tissue and/or organism. My field of interest is functional genomics in Atlantic salmon with focus on the reproductive mechanisms. We currently use CRISPR-Cas9 to knockout (KO) genes in Atlantic salmon (Edvardsen et al 2014), to be able to 1) explore molecular mechanisms related to the reproductive system, in particular germ cell specification and early sexual development, and we have recently produce germ cell free salmon by ablation of the primordial germ cells using CRISPR-Cas9 knockout of the dnd gene (PGCs, (Wargelius et al 2016). Both aims explore fields which can result in sterility models for aquaculture that could solve major bottlenecks related to un-wanted sexual maturation and genetic interactions with wild populations. Currently two of my projects are intensively exploring these fields, SALMOSTERILE 2013-2018) and POSTSMOLTMAR.

We have also in recent years explored the wild genome pool of Atlantic salmon with the main aim to identify genetic regions under selection for primarily reproductive traits, such as time at maturity (Ayllon et al 2015) However studies have also revealed genetic regions /sweeps that probably confer traits associated with disease resistance, behaviour, sea water adaption and feed metabolism (Kjærner-Semb et al 2016). SALMAT 2013-2017 (NFR-BIOTEK 2021-HAVBRUK project), MATGEN 2016-2020 (NFR _HAVBRUK) and DIGISAL (Biotek2021-digital life).

Enrico joined the organization in 2009 as Business Manager and Information and was then promoted to Market Research Director in 2017. He is responsible for the market intelligence produced by IFFO also representing the industry within the working group on agri-commodities of OECD-FAO. Enrico graduated from Cagliari University in Sardinia with a Political Science degree before obtaining an MSc in Financial Economics and a PhD in Industrial Economics from the University of Nottingham (UK).

Mia Guttorm Moseng holds the position as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Searas AS and its fully owned subsidiary, Optiras AS. With a rich background as a former General Manager in technology firms and hands-on involvement in aquaculture management, she is dedicated to leveraging her expertise to advance innovation in land-based aquaculture. Her primary objective is to propel OptiRAS forward through her commitment to fish health and welfare.

May 2015 – today, Seafood analyst, Nordea Nordea Bank Abp
2009 – 2015, Research Scientist, Nofima
2007 – 2009, Project Manager, Norwegian Seafood Federation

Marta Trodahl is oceanographer and a researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, in the department of Ocean and Ice. Her main role is to develop operational ocean models and forecast systems for the Norwegian coast and Arctic region. With a PhD in Oceanography, and nearly a decade of experience as an ocean modeler, her expertise covers a range of oceanic processes. She is passionate about data visualization and communicating ocean science.

Jeff began his fisheries career in 1984, as an employee with the State of Alaska’s Fisheries Management Agency. Over the years Jeff was promoted to increasingly complex and diverse positions. His range of experience includes managing the world’s largest wild capture salmon fishery in Bristol Bay to managing rationalized (quota) crab and groundfish fisheries statewide in both state and federal waters.

From 2011 to 2015, Jeff served as Director of the Commercial Fishery Division for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Division Director serves as the principal executive officer for the Division of Commercial Fisheries. The division manages commercial, subsistence, and personal use fisheries within the jurisdiction of the State of Alaska. Some commercial fisheries occurring in the Exclusive Economic Zone–those waters extending seaward from state waters to the U.S. 200 mile limit–and subject to federal jurisdiction, are also managed by the division under authority delegated to it by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. Values in the salmon fishery alone can exceed $600 million in a given year. In addition, this role involved state, federal and international fishery policy, quota and treaty work. Since 2015 Jeff has managed the Responsible Fishery Management certification program (RFM). The RFM program is a voluntary and internationally accredited third-party certification program for wild-capture fisheries and includes two standards, one for fisheries and one for chain of custody.

Mark is the U.K. MD for food and water testing as part of the global laboratory testing for life business Eurofins Scientific. He has been leading the business with his team for over 3 years over which time close links have been developed with the regional seafood cluster of businesses at Grimsby as well as the aquaculture and fish processing industry in Scotland. The future of microbiology testing and the power of data are key themes for Eurofins in the U.K. as it seeks to add further value to the industry. Mark’s background is actually in the food industry having led site and multi-site operations for a number of years including in the seafood sector.

Thomas Vogth-Eriksen is the Aquaculture Director at DNV, one of the world’s leading certification bodies, helping businesses assure the performance of their organizations, products, people, facilities, and supply chains. He is an accomplished Senior Executive, with more than 35 years of global experience and expertise from several C-level management positions, including as the CFO of DNV Group for 8 years. He has international experience of 15 years of working and living in New York, London, Shanghai, and Milan. Key management areas include strategy implementation, business acquisition, efficiency in operation, and improved value creation. Most recently Thomas has been instrumental in developing a strategy for the Aquaculture sector and is driving the implementation of this initiative in DNV.

Kira Salonius is the CEO (2015-) of a Norway-based biotechnology company (Previwo.com) bringing probiotic and other preventive biological solutions to improve fish health, welfare, and productivity. Stembiont^™ Vital is applied by bath in connection with vaccination in the hatchery phase and is currently available in Norway, Faroes and Iceland. In 2023, Previwo established a business in Chile, and has other expansion plans globally in 2024.

Árni M. Mathiesen is born in Iceland in 1958.BVM&S, Veterinary qualifications, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Scotland 1983.
M.Sc. Aquatic Veterinary Science/Aquatic Pathobiology, Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Scotland 1985.
General veterinary practice in various parts of Iceland 1983-1985.
Veterinary Officer for Fish Diseases in Iceland 1985-1991.
Managing Director Faxalax Fish Farm 1988-1989.
Member of the Icelandic Parliament, the Althingi, 1991-2009.
Minister of Fisheries in Iceland 1999-2005.Minister of Finance in Iceland 2005-2009.
Assistant Director General at FAO in Rome and Head of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department 2010-2019. Special advisor on Oceans at FAO, January to December 2020.
Chairman of the Board, Transport for the Capital Area Plc. 2020 to date.
Senior Advisor at Iceland Ocean Cluster 2020 to date.
Member of the Board of Directors GSA 2021 to date.
Independent Chair Global Round Table on Marine Ingredients 2021 to date.

Heather Jones has over thirty years’ experience working directly with Governments, industry and research institutions in a scientific capacity. In 2014, Heather established SAIC – the UK’s first industry-led aquaculture innovation body – with 350+ organisations now in membership. She is also the founding member of the WiSA (Women in Scottish Aquaculture) network. She also sits on the Scottish Aquaculture Council and the UK Government’s Seafood Innovation Fund Advisory Board.

Jonas R. Viðarsson is the Director of division of value creation at Matís ltd. (Icelandic food & biotech R&D) which is a governmentally owned non-profit limited company working on research and innovation in food value chains. Jonas has been involved in a large number of national and international research projects since he started working for Matís 15 years ago. His expertise cover studies related to the entire value chain of different food products, with focus on seafood. These include environmental impact of fisheries and seafood production, traceability, logistics and research on various yield- & quality factors, fisheries management, aquaculture, climate change impacts and adaptation and more.

Kent has 35 years of business experience whereof the last 5 years as CEO of Pure Salmon Technology. From heading acquisition processes to steering companies towards market leadership, his journey is of a business developer with a strategic and tactical approach to change management. He has a background from companies like Krüger Kaldnes, Veolia, Puregas Solutions (Wärtsilä), Soicété de Saint Gobain and Shell.

Konrad Geldenhuys started his career at Sea Harvest as Commercial Manager in 2009. From 2014 he managed the Sea Harvest Groups’ domestic and international sales channels and all aspects of brand management and marketing as Sales & Marketing Director. Konrad was appointed as Chief Operating Officer in 2022, overseeing all aspects of the value chain of Sea Harvest’s South African fishing operations, including fishing, processing and sales.

Marta Rojo Alonso has more than 25 years of international business experience, mainly in aquaculture in Europe, Asia, and South America. Previously, she has worked for companies such as Mowi and Skretting, and she joined Sterner from the position as CFO at the aquaculture company Salmones Camanchaca in Chile.

A graduate in finance and holder of a master’s degree from ESCP Europe, Mehdi Berrada worked for 7 years as deputy director and vice-president of the Rothschild investment bank. He joined the Poult Group (renamed Biscuits International) as financial director, general manager and then president. There, he undertook a paradigm shift for himself and for the company. The Poult group became the first industrial group to integrate shared governance into its management method. The 1,200 employees then moved from a pyramid system to a leadership model that gives employees more latitude to create and innovate. During these 10 years as a liberated company, the group gained 10 points of market share in France, going from €120 million to €300 million in turnover and becoming the European leader in the biscuit sector.

Today, Mehdi Berrada is president of Agronutris. For 5 years, he has been promoting the collaborative business model and driving a global approach in which people and the environment are at the heart of the strategy.

Mehdi is regularly called to speak about the Agronutris adventure. He has been invited by universities (Switzerland, Belgium, France), as well as by various boards of the CAC 40 industry (Carrefour, EDF). This year, he was a guest speaker at the French Tech, Mirova’s investors day and at the BIG (BPI Innovation generation which is the biggest gathering of entrepreneurs in Europe.

Patricia Sugui – ESG manager at CJ Selecta – Brazil, and has been working for CJ Selecta since 2014

Role: Promote dialogue with stakeholders in favor of sustainable soy. Implement zero deforestation commitment in CJ Selecta’s soy value chain. Management of Social and Environmental projects

Background:
15 years of experience in agribusiness
PhD in animal Science from University Federal of Viçosa – Brazil
Specialization in Sustainable business strategy – Harvard business school
Specialization in project Management from Fundação Getulio Vargas – Brazil

Ross Houston leads Benchmark Genetics’ global breeding programs for Atlantic salmon and whiteleg shrimp. He also leads R&D activities, with a particular focus on applications of current and emerging technologies, including SNP array development, reproductive technologies, and gene editing. Ross is Chair of Benchmark Innovation Board and has over 20 years of experience in applied genetics research in aquaculture breeding, with more than 115 scientific publications.

Jóhanna Lava Køtlum is the CEO of Firum – the Aquaculture Research Centre of the Faroe Islands – since 2016. Prior to Firum she was working at the Environment Agency of the Faroe Islands 2007-2012 as head of department and later as director. In 2013-2016 she was Head of Office at the Fisheries Department in Greenland.

Jóhanna holds a Cand. Scient degree in biology from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and a Master degree in Scientific Environmental Assessment from the University of Aalborg, Denmark.Throughout her career, Jóhanna has invested efforts in pursuing issues of sustainable development of the aquaculture sector in the Faroe Islands.

Firum (former Fiskaaling) is a research company owned by the Faroese government. Firum’s vision is: Knowledge for Sustainable Aquaculture. Research activities at Firum are designed to develop knowledge about aquaculture and issues that pertain to aquaculture, and the general framework for aquaculture operations. Particular attention is on knowledge that can further develop sustainable Faroese aquaculture.

Sveinung Johan Ohrem is the research manager for Aquaculture Robotics and Automation at SINTEF Ocean, Department of Aquaculture. He holds a PhD in adaptive control of subsea processes from NTNU. He has been working at SINTEF Ocean since 2019 where his main research has been towards applications of underwater robots in aquaculture, development of novel navigation methods for underwater robots, and robust control of underwater robots.

I am a senior researcher at the Department of Seafood Industry and works mainly with how catching and slaughtering affect the welfare and quality of fish. I have worked closely with the fishing industry as a fillet worker and cod tongue cutter and has a large network within the fishing industry in northern Norway. I have a degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and received my doctorate in 2007, where I focused on the quality of farmed cod and wild caught fed cod. I participate in and are the project manager responsible for several projects, including the interdisciplinary project EthiCatch which is funded by the Research Council of Norway. Here it will be investigated whether a more gentle catch of fish results in better quality, better price to the fishermen and better price in the market. Other projects that are being worked on are damage to large cod caught by seine net, drip loss during storage, etc.

Dr. Petter Frost has a master’s degree in biotechnology and a PhD in molecular biology within virology and vaccine development. He has worked with industrial vaccine development for 20 years, including many years as managing director of the R&D company MSD-Animal Health Innovation AS.
Frost also has research background in functional genomics on salmon lice and hereditary diseases in humans.
In 2014 (until 2019) the Norwegian government appointed Petter Frost member of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board (NBAB). NBAB is an independent government-appointed body with the functions of providing advice to Norwegian authorities and facilitate public debate on the use of modern biotechnology in humans, animals, plants and microorganisms.
Since 2020, Frost has been the managing director of the secretariat of NBAB.

Diego Robledo is a group leader at the Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and the University of Santiago de Compostela. His work aims to understand the interactions between aquatic animals and pathogens, focusing on the differences in disease resistance between individuals, populations and species. This knowledge is then applied to improve the resilience of aquaculture stocks to infectious diseases, improving food security and animal welfare. To do so, his research group employs a broad range of genetic and genomic approaches, including genomic selection, single-cell transcriptomics or CRISPR-Cas genome editing, pioneering their application in aquaculture species.

My master of science (1996-1999) was carried out at the Department of Molecular Biology at the University of Bergen under the guidance of Prof. Anders Fjose. Here I studied the DNA binding properties of PAX proteins in zebrafish.

From 2005 to 2010 I was Postdoctoral Fellow at IMR developing methodologies and resources in cod genomics. Since 2010 I have been a senior researcher in the research group Reproduction and Growth at IMR. From working mostly on cod the focus has shifted more over to salmon, but also halibut, haddock, calanus and salmon louse. The methodology is wide from bioinformatics studies (GWAS, epigentics, transcriptomics) to microinjections (CRISPR-cas9). The scientific questions are also differing much between the projects, but with an emphasis on using genomics to explore reproductive mechanisms in salmon

Valentina Tapia is a Marine Biologist from the University of Valparaíso with a Master’s Degree in Aquaculture from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences NMBU. She has more than 20 years of experience in the aquaculture industry, focusing on generating knowledge for the development of a sustainable industry through research and also by establishing and leading the joint venture for the Norwegian entities Nofima, VESO and SINTEF in Chile.

In recent years she has been focused on promoting the use of Krill-based ingredients from the company Aker Biomarine, developing its market in Latin America and has recently established in Norway assuming the responsibility of leading QRILL AQUA sales activities the relevant salmon markets of Chile and Norway.

Antony J. Prabhu Philip, senior scientist in nutrition and feed technology at NOFIMA, has a dual doctorate in aquaculture nutrition from Wageningen University, the Netherlands and AgroParisTech / INRA, France. His expertise are nutrition, physiology, and metabolism in salmonids in relation to micro-nutrient requirements, fish health, and the environment. Besides, new marine raw materials and RAS feeds are his other areas of strength. He is focused in generating fundamental knowledge to enable a better understanding of the challenges in aquaculture. His research was instrumental in challenging the upper limits for zinc and selenium in salmon feeds.

Geir is one of three founders of BioSort, a technology company most known for iFarm, a product that utilizes deep learning and biometrics to create individualized health records for farmed fish for the purpose of increased insights and fish welfare, while lowering production cost. Before BioSort, Geir worked most of his career with sensor technologies in Tomra Systems ASA. He has also served in the management group for Tomra Food and Recycling. Geir holds a MSc in Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics from University of Washington in Seattle.

Maja has a master’s degree in Aquamedicine (Fiskehelsebiolog) from Norwegian Arctic University. Through extensive field work in the aquaculture industry she has a good knowledge of all aspects within conventional fish farming.

Through her various jobs during the last two decades, she has worked closely with the aquaculture industry, trying to find good solutions for the customers – with products as beta glucans, krill or fish vaccines and sea lice therapeutics –towards both the Norwegian and the global fish farming industries. She has worked for companies like PHARMAQ, Biotec Animal Health and Nutrition (Immunocorp), Norwegian Research Fund and Aker BioMarine.

In addition to work closely with the industry, she has also worked with research organizations, authorities and trade unions within the industry. Maja has good technical knowledge and can transform complicated topics into easy messages.

Trond Severinsen is the CCO in OVUM AS, a technology supplier of the floating closed containment system “Egget®”. 40 years commercial experience in aquaculture technology and development, of which 25 years worldwide in AKVA group in various management roles.

Lisa holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Volda University College in Norway. Although she was born seasick, she loves a quiet afternoon, fishing with her husband and their three children.
Prior to starting in the family business Lisa worked for TV2, Norway’s largest commercial media company and P4, one of Norway’s leading radio stations.

Jens have been involved in the fishery and seafood sector in more than 30 years. Jens is partner at GEMBA and based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jens is NASF´s representative in Denmark, Greenland and Faroe Islands.

Dr. Bert Wecker has studied Fisheries Biology and Economics at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. During his career he has specialized in aquaculture with focus on marine recirculating aquaculture systems. After different research & development and management positions he is now Co-CEO of the Oceanloop group. As vice president he was also involved in the “Bundesverband Aquakultur e.v.”, an association of German aquaculture players, for more than 10 years.

Dr. Brett Glencross is the Technical Director of IFFO – The Marine Ingredients Organisation. Prior to this role he was the Professor of Nutrition at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling in Scotland. Over the past 25 years he has worked in various academic, institutional, and industrial roles across Australasia, the Middle East and Europe. Throughout his career he has worked closely with many aquaculture production (farming) and feed companies throughout each of these regions. His research achievements have delivered many industrial outcomes resulting in the development of new processes, products, and applications. For his achievements in this regard, he has received multiple awards and commendations from both Government and Industrial organisations. At an academic level, he was one of the former editors of the journal Aquaculture Nutrition from 2008 to 2016. He is also the current Chair of the International Scientific Committee of the International Symposium for Fish Nutrition and Feeding (ISFNF). He has also been a Director of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (2013 – 2016), as well as undertaking leadership roles at the CSIRO in Australia and the Institute of Aquaculture. He has Honours and Masters Degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Western Australia and a PhD in Animal Nutrition from the University of Queensland.

Lissy is CEO of Aqua-Spark, a global investment fund building a portfolio of solutions across the aquaculture value chain with the aim to transform the industry into one that is healthier, more sustainable, and more accessible. Specifically, Aqua-Spark invests in companies and technologies focused on developing alternative feed ingredients, promoting fish health, reducing microbial usage, improving farm practices, reducing feed waste, data-collection for production optimisation, and platforms that increase transparency in the supply chain.

Lissy has over two decades of banking experience, primarily in food and agribusiness finance. At Rabobank, she set up the leveraged finance team in Asia and significantly grew the business in North America by working closely with investors to finance companies in the food and agricultural sector. After eight years working in Hong Kong, New York and London, Lissy returned to the Netherlands to lead the bank’s global lending business. Lissy joined Aqua-Spark in 2022 as CEO because she sees the unparalleled potential of capital to scale-up opportunities offered by sustainable aquaculture as a way to simultaneously build a sustainable food system and protect our ocean.

Stian Johnsen is the Managing Director of Sterner Aquaculture- He holds an MSc. Process technology and BSc in Machine/Energy.
12 years of experience from international Oil and Gas industry, within separation and water treatment systems for produced water discharge.
2 years in waste to energy and circular economy by recycling of valuables in hazardous waste.
4 years in international Aquaculture business, focusing on sustainable land based fish farming with RAS-technology.

I believe there’s an enormous potential in future land based fishfarming provided acceptance and implementation of innovative technology.

Jens Þórðarson joined the aquaculture industry to become the CEO of GeoSalmo in 2021, at a time when the company was starting the development of its first fish farm. He is an engineer has a background in diverse management roles, primarily in the aviation industry with his last role being the COO of Icelandair Group since 2017. He has also done advisory and consulting work in the aviation and energy sectors.

Vegard Nesset Hjelvik, Sales Manager Fishing and Aquaculture, is a seasoned professional with 14 years of experience in the ship design industry. Since 2017, he has brought his expertise to the Fishing and Aquaculture sector worldwide in different roles in Skipsteknisk AS, currently as a Sales Manager. Vegard’s extensive background in ship design provides him with a unique perspective and deep understanding of the maritime industry, allowing him to excel in his current role.

Ragnar Rønning is an experienced sales professional and seafood enthusiast with a demonstrated history of working in several parts of the seafood industry. Ragnar started in Kontali in early 2021 and played a crucial role in Kontali’s transformation to the digital seafood platform Edge by Kontali. His long history in Salmon feed and sourcing of fish oils gives him a deep understanding of the full value chain within different segments of the seafood industry.

Thomas Fekete Rønningen leads the sales department at Aquabyte, the Bergen-based company that is the pioneer of biomass surveillance camera and the first to receive approval from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority for automatic lice counting in pens.
Thomas holds an Executive MBA from NHH and has been working in various positions in the aquaculture industry for more than 10 years.

Sven Kolstø founded OptoScale in 2016 and is the CEO of the company. Alongside his work in OptoScale, Kolstø is a partner in CoFounder, an investment firm investing in early stage technology companies.
Kolstø holds a MSc in industrial economics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Inge Bertil Straume, SVP Fishing & Aquaculture has an extensive and long experience in providing designs for the deep-sea fishing fleet worldwide.
During the last 22 years of his career, he has overseen and leading the fishing vessel designs business at Skipsteknisk AS. With an established client portfolio on 5 continents, he leads a dedicated team of engineers, developing new ship-design concepts for industry needs.

Daniel holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Volda University College in Norway. Before he fell in love with seafood, he worked for The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and VG, Norway’s most-read online newspaper.
Daniel loves to cook and can easily enjoy cod or haddock for dinner five days a week.