To keep up to date with the latest personnel changes across the seafood industry, SeafoodSource is compiling a regular round-up of hiring announcements and other personnel-related shifts worldwide. If you have an announcement, please send it to [email protected].
- Cooke Aquaculture Co-Founder Gifford Cooke passed away on 3 March, the company announced.
Gifford founded the company with his sons Glenn and Michael in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1985. Over the past 30 years, the company expanded from its original operation of a single marine cage containing 5,000 salmon to becoming a global player with operations around the globe, including eastern Canada, the eastern United States, Chile, Spain and Scotland.
“On behalf of the Cooke family and our employees, I would like to express our gratitude for the immense contributions Gifford has made to rural coastal communities in Eastern Charlotte, New Brunswick, and throughout Atlantic Canada and the globe,” Cooke Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson said in a release. "Over the decades, Gifford and his children – Glenn, Michael, and Debbie – built a local family company into a global seafood leader with fully integrated facilities, product lines, and distribution networks. Cooke provides careers to nearly 13,000 employees in 15 countries and is passionate about supporting community and conservation projects.”
National Fisheries Institute President and CEO Lisa Wallenda Picard said Cooke's death was a blow to the global seafood industry.
"With the loss of Gifford Cooke, co-founder of Cooke Aquaculture Inc. with his sons Glenn and Michael, the seafood community recognizes the passing of a pioneer," Wallenda Picard said. "The evolution of this family company from a local entity, to a community stalwart, to a regional powerhouse, and ultimately to a global seafood leader, is due in no small part to the work ethic he exemplified and modeled for his family and colleagues.
- AquaChile Founder Victor Hugo Puchi died on 4 March. Puchi led the company through its merger with Acuinova and its absorption by Agrosuper.
"It is difficult to understand the evolution of this industry without the figure of Victor Hugo – a simple, astute, brave man who had an enormous affection for Chile and its regions,” AquaChile General Manager Sady Delgado wrote on LinkedIn. “An entrepreneur from the south and deeply committed to the development of Patagonia, he was an example and inspiration for many of those who today lead this industry.”
- Sigmund Bjørgo will return to the Norweigan Seafood Council (NSC) after receiving an appointment as the council's country director for China. Bjorgo previously worked for the Norwegian Seafood Council in the same capacity until 2018. He then left the company to work at food and beverage manufacturing company Tine, managing its international growth.
“Sigmund Bjørgo is strategically strong and has in-depth knowledge of both the seafood industry and the Chinese market. He has previously served in the same position in China and has done a remarkable job for us for many years, so we are extremely pleased to have him back,” Norwegian Seafood Council Director of Global Operations Børge Grønbech said in a release.
Bjørgo will begin the role on 1 July.
“I had 10 great years at the Norwegian Seafood Council, and I am proud and humble to be given this opportunity. Now, I am looking forward to returning to Shanghai and further developing the Chinese market together with the Norwegian seafood industry,” Bjørgo said.
- Connie Pattillo has been appointed as the new head of farming operations for Wester Ross Fisheries, which is based in Ross-shire, Scotland. Pattillo previously worked in the Western Isles for Mowi as the company's regional manager.
According to her LinkedIn, Pattillo began the new role in February 2024.
- New Bedford, Massachusets, U.S.A.-based seafood wholesaler Northern Wind appointed Andrea Zurkan as its senior director of foodservice sales. According to her LinkedIn, Zurkan began the role in January 2024. Previously, she worked at Eastern Fisheries as a director of national accounts, as well as at Chicken of the Sea as a sales manager.
