January 25, 2021

 

Industry veteran joins Global Aquaculture Alliance as new COO

Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has welcomed seafood industry veteran Brian Perkins as the organisation's new chief operating officer, GAA announced on January 18.

 

Perkins comes to GAA with more than 40 years of seafood-related experience in the certification segment as well as in events and media.

 

For the past six years, he has acted as regional director of Americas for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the world's leading wild fisheries certification programme.

 

At MSC, Perkins built a strong team that energised the programme in the Americas region, increasing consumer awareness, the number of MSC-labeled products and the number of participants engaged with the MSC programme. He also established strong working relationships with other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and industry.

 

According to GAA, Perkins comes at a critical time for the organisation as it expands from aquaculture to wild fisheries with the addition of the Seafood Processing Plant Standard Issue 5.0 and the Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard, which is owned by GAA's sister organisation, Global Seafood Assurances.

 

Over the course of 2021, operations and outputs of GAA and Global Seafood Assurances will merged under an initiative called the Global Seafood Alliance.

 

In addition to developing and implementing strategies to integrate and transition to the Global Seafood Alliance, Perkins will be responsible for managing Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification programme, including the oversight of the BAP market development team, programme integrity team and certification team.

 

"The seafood community thrives on trusted personal relationships cultivated and tested over time. It benefits not only when individuals do well by their company, but equally when those individuals contribute to the greater good through their involvement in pre-competitive activities. Brian Perkins' career is an example of the attributes we look for in all our associates, and I am personally delighted that he will be joining us as our COO," said GAA CEO Wally Stevens.

 

"We're fortunate in that we've had a fruitful working relationship with Brian since his days at Diversified Communications, where he oversaw the company's seafood expositions and publications. He comes with a wealth of knowledge in events and media that will be applied to GAA's activities."

 

"I am very excited to be joining GAA and to help transition the organisation to the Global Seafood Alliance. This is a unique opportunity to work across both wild and farmed seafood, helping to ensure it is responsibly produced and handled throughout the supply chain. Seafood is critical to the world's food portfolio," said Perkins.

 

"The concept of filling in the gaps of assurances to include, for example, social responsibility in wild seafood harvesting and processing is the right idea at the right time. I look forward to leveraging my experience and knowledge to help contribute to the development of the sustainable seafood industry."

 

The COO will be based out of GAA's Portsmouth, New Hampshire, US headquarters, reporting to GAA CEO Wally Stevens.

 

The new role was added to the organisation with the intent that the COO would transition to CEO in due time.

 

- GAA