Seafood industry veteran Greg Brown has been named as the new integrity manager for the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices third-party certification program, taking over for Jeff Peterson, effective on 28 August.
Brown comes to the role with experience in auditing and certification, quality control, food safety, supply-chain management, seafood procurement and foodservice management.
Over the course of his career, Brown has served as the global managing director-seafood and managing director for NSF China, based in Shanghai, since 2014; he also spent 10 years as director of seafood purchasing for Darden Restaurants and as managing director of the company’s overseas seafood-procurement arm, GMRI Inc. During his time with GMRI Inc., Brown witnessed the sevenfold growth in volume sourced for the company’s fledgling Singapore sourcing office as it kept pace with the firm’s overarching transition from direct-sourcing for only headless, shell-on shrimp to a full range of value-added products featuring dozens of species.
In his most recent endeavors, Brown has served as corporate strategic sourcing-seafood for Caesars Entertainment Corp., vice president of corporate procurement for Flying Food Group/Fresh Food Solutions and director of category management-seafood for U.S. Foodservice/Monarch Foods. He also runs his own consultancy.
His experience, paired with his longtime support of GAA stemming back to the organization’s infancy, make Brown an ideal fit for the BAP appointment, according to GAA. Brown’s history with the organization can be traced back to the 1990s, when he spearheaded the international planning and fundraising for GAA’s annual GSOL (Global Shrimp Outlook for Leadership) conference, the predecessor of GOAL (Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership).
“As many industry folks know, I was involved with GAA and emceed its annual conferences during the early years of its formation and international expansion. I was also managing the seafood category at U.S. Foodservice when we became the first broadline foodservice distributor to mandate BAP certification for all of our private-label shrimp,” Brown said. “Joining GAA/BAP now is an opportunity for me to practice my commitment to seafood sustainability on a full-time basis.”
As the BAP program integrity manager, Brown is in charge of ensuring “that independent, third-party certification bodies (CBs) and auditors, as well as BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills are in compliance with program requirements,” explained GAA.
“In many ways Greg is coming home. His responsibilities with Red Lobster, the world’s largest seafood restaurant chain, Caesars and U.S. Foodservice demonstrated his accomplishments in dealing with the global seafood industry from a commercial perspective. His most recent assignment with NSF in China has provided the real-world knowledge of the critical role that BAP third-party certification as conducted by certification bodies and auditors play with credible assurance of responsible and sustainable seafood supplies. He is uniquely prepared to manage the BAP program integrity function,” GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens said.
Brown take over the job previous held by Jeff Peterson, who has been with the BAP program since its infancy in the early 2000s. Peterson, one of the first auditors qualified to certify against the BAP standards, joined the program full-time in 2008 and moved into the program integrity manager position in 2016. Although Peterson will step away from his full-time role in October following GAA’s GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland, he will remain onboard with the organization as aconsultant moving forward.
Brown will be based out of GAA’s Portsmouth, New Hampshire headquarters.
