Roy Reite has been appointed CEO of new offshore aquaculture company SalMar Aker Ocean AS.
SalMar Aker Ocean AS was formalized in mid-November 2021 by Norwegian joint-owners – Frøya, Norway-headquartered SalMar ASA and Oslo, Norway-based Aker ASA – with a goal of sustainably producing 150,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon per year at fish farms located in the open ocean.
The company is initially focused on establishing offshore fish farming in Norwegian waters.
Announcing the appointment, SalMar Aker Ocean Chair Atle Eide highlighted that Reite has valuable experience within international industrial entrepreneurship and the Norwegian finance sector, and also has in-depth knowledge of country’s the coastal culture.
“This provides the insight that is important and necessary to realize SalMar Aker Ocean's ambitions. For decades, Reite has worked on major construction projects in the maritime and offshore sectors, and for the past three years he has led the seafood company Fjordlaks," Eide said.
Reite said that he’s motivated by the newly-formed company’s “considerable growth potentional.”
“The company has determined and knowledgeable owners with considerable financial resources behind them, as well as a highly skilled workforce and concrete plans to create a new Norwegian industrial success story with international ambitions,” Reite said. “And underpinning it all is the belief in – and need for – sustainable production of healthy seafood.”
SalMar Aker Ocean has completed two successful production cycles at its Ocean Farm 1 facility, which is located in an exposed area of sea off the Trøndelag coast. This experience is being incorporated into the bigger Ocean Farm 2, currently under development.
The company has also applied to authorities for permission to site its fully offshore Smart Fish Farm off central Norway, approximately 50 nautical miles west of Frøya.
The company previously announced that Trine Sæther Romuld, currently CFO at SalMar ASA, will become SalMar Aker Ocean's CEO. Also, in November last year, it was advised that Kristine Hartmann had been appointed as Development Director. She took up her position on 1 January 2022.
Photo courtesy of SalMar
