Chilean Salmon Council Executive Director Joanna Davidovich will step down from her position and join the council's board as an independent member as of 1 December, the organization announced on 4 November, 2022.
In its statement, the council said Davidovich's replacement will be announced at the end of November.
Davidovich was named the council's executive director in 2020, upon the creation of the council, which represents AquaChile, Australis, Cermaq, Mowi, and Salmones Aysén, which together account for over half of total Chilean salmon production.
“We thank Joanna Davidovich for having led the launch of the Salmon Council, which has contributed to promoting the sustainable development of salmon farming while also demonstrating sector realities through transparency and the delivery of rigorous and permanent information,” the board said in a statement.
Davidovich said she will continue contributing to the salmon-farming sector's development in Chile throughher new position on the board.
“Chilean salmon farming is a dynamic and innovative sector, which has positioned our country as the second-largest producer in the world, standing out with a product of the highest quality and world-class standards,” she said. “The world will demand increasingly more food, and our country has a great opportunity as a supplier of a food with broad nutritional and sustainability benefits such as [those offered by] Chilean salmon.”
Davidovich’s relinquishment of leadership is part of an organizational change in which the council also announced board member Salvador Valdés, an industrial civil engineer with a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will step down from the board but remain in an advisory capacity.
Further, Juan Luis Amenábar, an industrial civil engineer with 20 years of work experience in both the private and public sectors, has been appointed as Salmon Council leader of the Aysén region, strengthening the council’s presence in that region and complementing the work of Gonzalo Silva, the council regional leader of Los Lagos. Between 2018 and 2022, Amenábar was the energy ministry’s regional representative in Aysén.
“We will work intensely in strengthening the link with the communities and in the articulation with the different actors in Aysén where the operations of the Salmon Council member companies are located,” he said. “It is possible to advance in promoting the region’s sustainable development through Chilean salmon farming, where Aysén plays a key role as it concentrates about half of salmon production.”
Photo courtesy of the Chilean Salmon Council
