The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has appointed Willem de Bruijn as its senior director of markets and communications.
The non-profit organization, which operates a farmed seafood certification program and eco-label, said De Bruijn will provide leadership and direction for its newly restructured marketing and communications, market development and market research, and insight departments. He will also support the organization at the executive level, working directly with ASC CEO Chris Ninnes on the organization’s business model, branding, and expanding the group’s global presence.
De Brujin has spent his entire 23-year career in marketing, including working with Milka, Oreos, Bahlsen, and Toblerone on product development, innovation, and roll-out. Additionally, de Brujin has worked with UTZ and Rainforest Alliance and the Mondelez self-certification programs, led the Mondelez coffee sustainability program, and played a key role in Bahlsen’s development of its sustainability strategy.
“Now I am looking forward to putting my marketing experience and passion for sustainability into further enhancing the ASC’s work to provide millions of people with the assurance of cleaner, healthier, and safer farm-raised seafood,” he said in a press release.
The appointment of de Bruijn follows the ASC board of directors’ implementation of a strategy review in 2020 encourage “strengthen[ing] the ASC as a marketing organization.”
De Bruijn has an “impressive history of international market, product, and consumer success,” according to Ninnes.
“His appointment is a clear signal of ASC’s strategic focus to innovate in – and invest in – the delivery of more value to all our partners,” Ninnes said. “Not only will Willem help us realize our ambitious strategies for brand management, market development, and marketing and communications, he will also play a pivotal role in the alignment of ASC’s standards and science and program assurance teams with the new strategy to ensure the continued development of the ASC as a leader in its field and a trusted organisation across all audiences.”
Photo courtesy of Willem de Brujin/LinkedIn
