Bergen, Norway-based Marine Harvest ASA has appointed Per-Roar Gjerde as its new COO Farming for all of the company’s aquaculture operations after Marit Solberg announced her decision to retire effective 1 November, 2018.
Solberg, who is currently holds the position of COO Farming for Canada, Scotland, Ireland, and the Faroes, has had several key roles in Marine Harvest for more than three decades. Following her announcement, the company decided to return to its original management team structure of having one COO farming position with a global responsibility.
Gjerde has been COO farming for Norway and Chile since 1 January, 2017. In 2002, he joined Fjord Seafood Norway, which became part of Marine Harvest in 2006. In 2007, Gjerde was appointed the regional director of one of the four business units of Marine Harvest Norway at that time. In January 2016, he was appointed managing director of Marine Harvest Chile and led Marine Harvest's restructuring process in the South American country. He is a graduate of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.
Marine Harvest's management team, effective 1 November, will be: CEO, Alf-Helge Aarskog; CFO, Ivan Vindheim; COO Farming, Per-Roar Gjerde; COO Sales and Marketing, Ola Brattvoll; COO Fish Feed, Ben Hadfield; Global Director R&D, Øyvind Oaland; Chief Strategy Officer, Glenn Flanders; Global Director HR, Anne Lorgen Riise; and Communication Director, Kristine Gramstad Wedler.
In other news, the company announced on 8 October it will convert EUR 71.6 million (USD 72.4 million) of an outstanding loan of a EUR 340 million (USD 391.4 million) convertible bond into shares at the conversion rate of EUR 13.23 (USD 15.23). The company will do so by issuing 5,411,090 new shares, each with a value of NOK 7.50 (USD 0.91, EUR 0.79). The move brings the company's share capital to NOK 3,719,448,713 (USD 453 million, EUR 393.5 million), divided into 4965,926,495 shares.
