Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based aquaculture and fisheries technology supplier Innovasea has unveiled a refreshed brand identity and has formalized an expanded leadership structure.
The changes, according to CEO Mark Jollymore, aim to package together the firm’s services in a more cohesive manner, providing greater clarity on how Innovasea’s expansive product portfolio can help meet a wide range of client needs.
“Through the last decade or so of Innovasea’s existence, as is normal, the strategy always goes through evolutions and gets some fine-tuning, and we have gone through that over the past few months. It’s always good to have more clarity. The evolution of our brand and our focus is really what gets me excited. It provides a lot of energy internally but also within our customer base,” Jollymore told SeafoodSource, adding that it also provides more clarity into Innovasea’s fit with the mission of Cuna del Mar – the investment fund that owns the firm.
Within its aquaculture portfolio, Jollymore emphasized that the refresh does not mean the firm is shifting its focus away from the open-ocean net pens for which his firm is well-known, but rather, it aims to better highlight how all of the tools Innovasea provides allow an aquaculture farmer to effectively build a modernized operation. This especially includes the company’s submersible net pen technology but also comprises other offerings like autonomous feeding systems, water quality monitoring services, software databases, and more, all of which are seeing strong interest from customers, according to Jollymore.
“We are very much still focused on providing an open-ocean, warmwater aquaculture solution that really drives value for potential farmers looking to enter the open-ocean aquaculture realm. But, what is part of that is these component pieces also have a significant [role] in the existing market,” he said.
Additionally, the refreshed brand identity better reflects Innovasea’s land-based strategy, in which it has now switched from a product-centric focus to a more “comprehensive offering of design services and consulting,” according to the firm.
“It’s a challenge for prospective farmers looking to get into the market to know about what the land-based side of the equation is so that they can get their permits and their funding all lined up, so we saw that as a critical enabler,” Jollymore said. “We certainly remain committed to the future of the land-based part of the equation.”
The strategic shift comes after a year that featured personnel changes across the globe for the firm. The company made changes in Norway, Greece, and Chile and removed Jollymore’s interim tag on his CEO position in November of last year. Then, early this year, the firm named Amy Brookman its new general manager of fish tracking.
With those changes in place, Innovasea’s formalized senior leadership team now includes Jollymore and Brookman, as well as Jean Turpin as CFO, Marc Turano as the general manager of aquaculture systems, Tim Stone as the vice president of aquaculture technology, and George Nardi as the vice president of aquaculture services. Regional department heads also include Jorge Bravo in Chile, Sigve Naustdal in Norway, and Andreas Mintsios in the Mediterranean.
According to Jollymore, the new leadership structure allowed the firm to release the updated brand identity with confidence that Innovasea can continue being a leader in the rapidly evolving global aquaculture sector.
“Being committed as the permanent CEO and recognizing that the aquaculture market space in general, and perhaps open ocean in particular, is moving rapidly, it seemed like a really good time to take a fresh look at things,” he said.
Jollymore has been with Innovasea since 2017, when the company acquired Amirix Systems, where he formerly served as president and CEO.
Over the past nine years, he said that Innovasea’s growth path, achieved both through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, has prioritized customer-centric input on how to develop and implement products and solutions and that the updated brand identity and leadership structure perfectly align with that trajectory.
“It’s been very exciting to have gone through the learning curve, get to know the people, and understand the level of commitment not only from Innovasea but others in the industry in moving [this sector] forward,” Jollymore said.
