For those interested, here’s a summary of my path in this fascinating industry.

My first job was in the glamourous role of salmon slimer in my native state of Alaska to pay for college. I learned a lot from successive promotions at various plants. Fast-paced, chaotic, and multicultural, it energized me. I haven’t looked back since. Following my degree in economics (minor in business), I worked in remote shore plants as production and case up lead, operations supervisor, and QA & Regulatory manager.

At 27 I moved to Washington State and became the Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs for a company operating a fleet of large at-sea catcher processors in Alaska and the Russian Bering Sea. During that 4.5-year stint, I rotated between the corporate office and the three vessels. Once the company was sold, I was appointed GM and then President of Surefish Seafood Quality Specialists (now part of NSF). The Surefish Group operated 7 locations globally offering independent 3rd party product quality inspection, auditing, certification, and consulting services.

While there I was invited by the precursor to the BAP – the Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) – to develop procedures, audit farms, hatcheries, plants and feed mills, train auditors and speak about their standards internationally. Back then many Alaskans were against fish farming. Growing up there meant I was too. Traveling the world with the ACC opened my eyes. They focused on best practices and doing good – mitigating mangrove deforestation, contributing to communities, and more. From that experience, I realized that aquaculture, done correctly, is imperative to feed the planet and create economic opportunities. Fully embracing the impacts I witnessed on the ground, I expanded Surefish’s business model, adding the aquaculture sector to our traditional wild fisheries customer base. That was also the start of my increasing involvement for over 20 years in international ESG work, including combating human trafficking, IUU fishing, and other social and environmental issues.

After 14 years at Surefish I accepted a VP role at the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices program. Among my responsibilities were business development, marketing, policy and standard improvement, auditor training, finance and program integrity. A few years later I was offered VP at Grobest Seafood Global. GSG is the US sales and marketing arm of the farmed seafood division of Asian feed giant Grobest (which is headquartered in Taiwan). While there I was responsible for sales, procurement, business development, supply chain compliance, plant technical support and managing ESG policies and initiatives for the seafood and feed departments. Due to staff cuts, I left there after 6 years and started my firm. While setting it up I was contacted by the GSSI (where I had been a steering board member for 6 years) and asked to take the Executive Director/CEO role. Being unable to re-locate to the Netherlands, I was pleased to accept on an interim basis. After 1.5 years, I transitioned my replacement, bringing us to the present day.” (Please see my LinkedIn profile for the details regarding my roles and organizational impact www.linkedin.com/in/lisagoche)