Former head of Cargill Aqua Nutrition and, subsequently, seafood lead at Cargill Animal Nutrition, Einar Wathne, is to leave the company for good as of February 1, 2019.
Since stepping down as leader for Cargill Aqua Nutrition six months ago, Wathne has spent the last six months focusing on Cargill’s efforts to explore additional opportunities in the seafood value chain.
“Although I am leaving Cargill, I intend to stay connected to the seafood industry, and have ideas within innovation and entrepreneurship that I hope to bring to life,” said Wathne.
Einar joined Cargill through the EWOS acquisition in late 2015.
Joe Stone, CAN enterprise leader, said: “I know after years of travel and evening phone calls, Einar is very much looking forward to this next exciting chapter and having more time with his family. I would like to thank Einar for his leadership and his contagious passion for aquaculture.”
Niels Alsted, executive vice president, business relations, BioMar, is retiring.
“Niels has been one of the most important people forming not only in BioMar but also in the [aquaculture] industry. His dedication to developing a sustainable and professional aquaculture [sector] has led to [the development of] industry standards and the high-end feed ranges we see in the market," said Carlos Diaz, CEO BioMar Group.
There are not many in the aquaculture industry who can claim 45 years of service, said BioMar.
Alsted’s career started in 1974 on a small trout farm in Denmark before he began his studies in aquaculture research at the University of Tromsoe, Institute of Fisheries in 1977 in Norway. He stayed in academic research for several years and was an associate professor at Aalborg University when he accepted to undertake his commercial PhD with BioMar in 1987.
Over the last 32 years, he has held various positions in BioMar from R&D, sourcing, food safety to business relations. He was part of the executive management team in the BioMar Group where he contributed to opening new markets like Chile and China.
While at BioMar, he published several papers on nutrition and sustainability.
"He was instrumental in the creation of the first ever environmentally friendly aquaculture feed product, Ecoline, and is known for his scholarly approach to feed product development," added the company, in a release.
Alsted has also represented the aquaculture industry and BioMar at numerous NGO events and has been a member of various industry committees.
Look out for FeedNavigator's interview with Niels Alsted next week.
The BioMar Group has announced changes to the executive management team in its salmon division.
The fish feed company said two employees have been promoted internally; they have delivered remarkable business results in other executive management positions.
The new VP of the salmon division, Patrick Campbell, comes from the role of MD of the Scottish business unit. Prior to that MD position, he headed up the global R&D function within the BioMar Group. He has also been one of the main drivers establishing a solid BioMar business footprint in Australia, said the company.
Campbell [in picture] has been working for BioMar since 1998, where he started as product developer.
BioMar said its MD in Norway is Håvard Jørgensen, who was previously global R&D director.
Jørgensen had been heading the global R&D organization since 2015 and has a very solid insight into the Norwegian industry through his R&D work within the salmon division as well as through his efforts heading up the Norwegian industry organization, Sjømatbedriftene, said BioMar.
He is based in Trondheim.
The current VP of the salmon division, Jan Sverre Røsstad, is leaving the BioMar Group after 12 years leading the Norwegian business unit as well as the salmon division.
A spokesperson for the BioMar Group told us the reason for his departure is that he has “decided to focus his efforts on his private businesses.”
Røsstad, continued the company, will support the new management during a transition period to ensure smooth handover.
Taiwanese fish feed company, Grobest, which secured a partnership deal with global private equity fund, Permira, back in November 2018, has put a new management team in place.
Samson Li [pictured] is the new CEO.
Patricia Chou, who has worked in a range of listed companies in the US and Asia, has been named Grobest's chief financial officer (CFO), while Edward Gao is the feed company's new chief operations officer (COO), according to a report on Undercurrent News.
Li comes to Grobest with a strong background in animal nutrition.
In February 2018, he was appointed president of animal nutrition at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). He previously served as managing director of Nutreco's Asian business unit and as a member of the Executive Committee of that Dutch group. He led Nutreco's expansion in the Asian animal and fish feed markets. Before that, he worked at Novus International as vice president, sales and marketing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in economics and an MBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Taiwan, Grobest has operations in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia.
In addition to a broad presence across Asia, Grobest produces functional feed products, focused on preventing and combating diseases as well as increasing yields.
The company also provides services and technical assistance to farmers throughout Asia, such as pond maintenance, water treatment, and soil and disease testing.
With the Permira funds behind it, the company wants to shift gear, it now has global growth ambitions.
This month sees US trace mineral supplier, Zinpro Corporation, reporting key changes to its executive leadership.
William Scrimgeour [pictured] is moving from his role as both Zinpro Corporation president and chief executive officer to the sole responsibility of CEO.
Rob Sheffer, who previously served as chief operating officer (COO), becomes company president.
Patrick Brunner, who previously served as chief financial officer, becomes COO.
The company said the changes went into effect on January 1 this year.
Meanwhile, Zinpro also announced that it has named Cibele Araujo Torres as poultry research nutritionist for Europe, Russia, South Africa, as well as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
“In this role, Dr Torres provides customers in these key poultry production regions with research support and helps to direct and coordinate the company’s poultry research and development activities for the European, Russian, South African and MENA sales territories.”