Bergen, Norway-headquartered Mowi has announced that its COO Farming Americas and the Faroes, Per-Roar Gjerde, has resigned.
Fifty-three-year-old Gjerde informed the salmon farming company of his decision on 30 June. The company did not give a reason for the resignation in its press release. Mowi said the process to find a replacement for Gjerde has begun and that Gjerde will continue until his position is filled, or until 31 December, 2020, at the latest.
Gjerde served as COO Farming globally from November 2018, after working as COO Farming Norway and Chile from January 2017 to October 2018. He joined Mowi in 2007 after it bought Fjord Seafood Norway, where he had worked as controller from 2002 to 2007. After the acquisition, he was named regional director of Mowi Norway Region West, before being promoted in 2016 to managing director of Mowi Chile.
Last month, Gjerde was one of the primary insiders to exercise a total of nearly USD 20 million (EUR ) in share options as part of Mowi’s senior executive share option scheme, exercising 61,887 options at a strike price of NOK 119.84 (USD 12.53, EUR 11.17) per share. After exercising the options, Gjerde held 911 shares and 334,908 unexercised options.
Meanwhile, on the Isle of Skye off northwest Scotland, Mowi and the Isle of Skye Smokehouse have partnered to donate smoked salmon to local health and care workers.
The Isle of Skye Smokehouse is smoking salmon donated by Mowi and delivering it to Broadford and Portree for NHS staff and two care homes free of charge.
In a four-month pilot, residents at An Acarsaid care home in Broadford and Budhmor House Care Home in Portree are receiving deliveries of fresh, hot smoked salmon fortnightly, while staff working at the hospitals in Portree and Broadford are also receiving smoked salmon for their staff lunches, with additional product made available to take home after their work shift.
“I am both grateful to Mowi for this project and extremely proud to be involved. This initiative is not only supporting me as a small business when most of my market has disappeared overnight due to the COVID-19 lockdown, but it is also providing healthy local food to frontline staff and vulnerable people in Skye during a very worrying time,” Isle of Skye Smokehouse Founder John Corfield said.
As previously reported, Mowi harvested 83,119 metric tons (MT) of gutted weight salmon in the first quarter of this year, with Norway contributing 50,492 MT, Scotland 9,036 MT, Canada 8,066 MT, Chile 13,669 MT, and the Faroe Islands 1,851 MT. No salmon were harvested in Ireland in the quarter. The company’s harvest guidance for the full-year 2020 is 450,000 MT.
Photo courtesy of Mowi
