Portland, Maine, U.S.A.-based seafood and caviar merchant Browne Trading Company has announced a reorganization of its business with the addition of three new investment partners.
The company, founded in 1991, sells seafood out of amarket in Portland’s historic Old Port district and operates direct-to-consumer and restaurant supply businesses.
The business will transition to being led by a board of directors, consisting of Rod Browne Mitchell, Browne Trading Company founder and CEO, and new investors Ed Chiles, Paul A. Brooke, and Jeff Sedacca, all of whom are fellows at the Culinary Institute of America. Browne Mitchell will run the company day-to-day, and Brooke will serve as chairman of the board.
The partnership draws on the four mens’ long careers in seafood and business and is intended to strategically grow Browne Trading Company’s distribution networks and advance its long-term sustainability goals.
New partner Jeff Sedacca said that he was thrilled to be joining the company “to help scale up this wonderful business,” noting that he and founder Rod Brown Mitchell had been friends and colleagues for many years.
Browne Mitchell is recognized as a national expert on caviar sourcing and has been an influential player in the U.S. fine dining industry since the 1980s, when he became the preferred fishmonger for some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs after a chance encounters with Jean-Louis Palladin, the French chef who is credited with bringing French haute cuisine to American tables at his wine and cheese shop in Camden, Maine. Browne Trading Company was an early adopter of the overnight shipping of seafood and caviar, which trasnformed sourcing in the nation’s restaurant industry. The company said it has since supplied some of the nation’s most celebrated chefs, including Daniel Boulud, Eric Ripert, Thomas Keller, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Ed Chiles is an expert in both the restaurant industry and sustainable food systems, having opened three sustainably-sourced seafood restaurants in Florida. He sold his restaurants in 2024 to focus on advocating for environmental sustainability through industry creativity. He is involved in Shogun Farm, a project meant to address ecological damage caused by invasive wild boars through the production of artisanal pork products. He is also a partner in Lola Wines and Tanasi Nutraceuticals as well as a cofounder of the Gulf Shellfish Insitute, which funds research into bivalve aquaculture best practices.
Paul A. Brooke, Browne Trading’s new chairman, brings expertise in investment and corporate strategy. His career highlights include founding and serving as managing partner at venBio LLC, serving as the Chairman of the Alsius Corporation and of Caelum Biosciences, and serving in senior positions at Morgan Stanley and Tiger Management.
Jeff Sedacca, a longtime friend and industry colleague of Browne Mitchell’s, launched his family’s seafood business in 1972 and later became co-president of National Fish. He went on to serve as American division leader of Buo Lian, a Chinese aquaculture company, which was one of the first Walmart food vendors in 1991. Sedacca is a founder of the Global Aquaculture Alliance (which would grow to become the Global Seafood Alliance) and is a member of Mote Marine Laboratories’ Research Committee. He also serves, with Chiles, as a director of the Gulf Shellfish Institute.
