The Chilean Salmon Council – formed in May between AquaChile and Salmones Aysén, as well as the local units of Cermaq and Mowi – has appointed the economist Salvador Valdés Prieto as group director.
Valdés is a civil engineer with a PhD in economics from MIT and has experience in the financial, dairy, steel, and energy industries. Through the World Bank, he has provided consultancy services to the governments of China, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia regarding pension policies. Valdés was also director of the investment firm Larraín Vial AGF for 11 years and director of Chile’s state-run bank, BancoEstado, for four years. From 2014 to 2020, he was a researcher at Universidad Católica’s Latin American Center of Economic and Social Policy, CLAPES-UC, focusing on tax, labor, and pension policy research.
In a release announcing his Chilean Salmon Council hire, the newly appointed executive called for quality employment, free competition, and protection of the environment in Chilean salmon farming.
The Chilean Salmon Council’s move is the second naming of senior management in just one month. Effective 1 July, the economist Joanna Davidovich – who has extensive experience in economic analysis and public policy design, having developed several programs designed to improve Chile's productivity – was appointed executive director of the organization.
During a recent meeting with Chilean Minister of Economy Lucas Palacios and Undersecretary of Fisheries Román Zelaya, the salmon farmers said their companies are committed to being “a benchmark for innovation, with absolute adherence to current regulations, free competition rules, and of course, respect for our employees and the communities where we are inserted."
The Salmon Council directors include Fernando Villarroel, CEO of Mowi Chile; Pablo Baraona, president of Salmones Aysén; Sady Delgado, CEO of AquaChile; and Steven Rafferty, CEO of Cermaq. They previously expressed that the reason for bringing the four firms together was to strengthen salmon farming in the country, initiating a new phase that promotes a global, long-term perspective in protecting environmental health and promoting competitiveness.
Photo courtesy of Chilean Salmon Marketing Council
