Land-based aquaculture business The Kingfish Company has confirmed its founder, Ohad Maiman, will transition from his role as CEO into an advisory position in which he will continue to support the company as an active founder.
In a filing with the Euronext Growth Oslo exchange, The Kingfish Company said in his new role, Maiman will continue to support the company’s U.S. development and provide counsel to management and the board while remaining committed to the company’s ongoing success.
In a letter to staff, Maiman said that building the company over the last seven years from a PowerPoint presentation to a sector leader as founder and CEO had been “an honor and a privilege,” and that he was “immensely proud” of how far the company had come in proving the business case for land-based yellowtail kingfish.
“As the company developed through the start-up and scale-up phases and has reached a mature significant operational scale with proven sector leading KPIs, and with a strong leadership team in place across our vertically integrated departments; I have decided that now would be a good time to hand off the CEO role, and have worked closely with the board to ensure a smooth transition. I will continue to closely advise management and the board and support The Kingfish Company as it continues to build on its first mover position and deliver on its immense expansion potential, and will personally look to develop and support other disruptive technologies and species in the sector.”
The Kingfish Company Executive Chairman Hans den Bieman is to serve as interim CEO while the search takes place for a long-term replacement. Den Bieman has worked closely with Maiman since the start of the company.
“Over the last seven years I have worked closely with Ohad and was thoroughly impressed with his vision, relentless hard work, and his ability as founder and CEO to build and grow the company from an idea into an industry leading full-scale international operation” den Bieman said. “This is a natural evolution for a founder that has brought the company to a strong and healthy position, and as interim CEO I will work closely with Ohad through this transition period, while supporting the company’s solid operation until a permanent replacement has been identified.”
The Kingfish Company recently announced strong volume growth while increasing sales prices in Q3 2022, as well as its receipt of final approval of permits needed to begin building its recirculating aquaculture system facility in the U.S. state of Maine.
Photo courtesy of Cliff White/SeafoodSource
