Guy Dean is leaving his position as president and general manager of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada-based Organic Ocean to become the vice president of partnerships and acquisitions at Coastal Nations Fisheries, a fishing company collaboratively owned by eight First Nations.
Dean is an outspoken advocate for a “triple impact” approach for seafood industry businesses, which calls for equal focus on people, planet, and profit.
“I’ve been happy what we've done at Organic Ocean, but this opportunity came up that I just didn't think I could turn down,” Dean told SeafoodSource.
Coastal Nations Fisheries is dedicated to preserving First Nations fishing history and traditions, with a focus on ensuring a healthy marine environment through the use of fisheries research and traditional knowledge to sustainable catching practices for salmon, halibut, seaweed, and shellfish. The company hopes to revitalize fishing areas along the central and north coast of British Columbia, in part through acquiring existing fisheries licenses, according to Dean.
“The company has funds accessible to go out and acquire fishing vessels and licenses and quota. This is not separate from the commercial sector,” Dean said. “It intends to create this very sustainable, sustainably managed, and responsible fishing company.”
Dean will remain a vested shareholder in Organic Oceans and will remain so into the future, he said.
“I'm super proud of what our team has done in the last four years. We weathered Covid, and in fact grew our business and hired more people. I won't say that it was hasn't been stressful having to go through all of that, but I'm really proud of where we are and all the positive changes we've made within the organization,” Dean said. “We implemented an electronic traceability platform. We became a federally approved facility. We got our Marine Stewardship Council chain of custody certification. And a ton of other really, really positive things within the organization. I see only positive things for Organic Ocean in the future, but this was an opportunity that, from a personal perspective, I just couldn't turn down.”
Dean, who previously worked as vice president of imports and exports and chief sustainability officer at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Albion Farms and Fisheries, said he’s long been a proponent of creating proactive change within the seafood industry.
“And yet a lot of what I've done has been outside of Canada. Certainly, I have continued to stay involved with Ocean Wise and other conservation organizations in the Pacific Northwest. But I've been active all over the world. This job brings it full circle back to Canada. It’s a job where I can make investment back into Canada and maybe hopefully become a part of making real, positive change in my own country,” he said.
Dean begins his new job on 29 May and will be based in Vancouver.
“Hopefully, I've got another 10 years left in the industry and that this can be my swan song,” he said. “I'm most excited about the social component, and hopefully reinvigorating some of these coastal communities that have been decimated because of lack of access to resource. I think a lot of the environmental challenges we have and the reasons we have illegal fishing and unreported fishing and everything goes with that is because of social inequity, and that’s everywhere in the world. So if we can solve some of the social issues and some of the social challenges out there, I think at the same time we solve some of our environmental challenges. So that's what excites me most.”
Photo courtesy of Guy Dean/LinkedIn
