Jan Bakker
Jan started working for Seafood Connection 10 years ago after finishing a marketing degree in the Netherlands. Over the years, he has enjoyed different positions in sales and purchases. Nowadays, he is a Strategic Industry Manager, meaning he manages the processes of Industry purchases, sales and logistics.

Dillon Cecchi
Dillon has been with Gorton’s for five years, joining the company in 2017 after graduating from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. He spent his first 2 years in the Distribution department, working for a year as a transportation/inventory planner and a year as a production planner. In 2019, he joined the Seafood Procurement team as a buyer. He is responsible for Gorton’s aquaculture procurement and wild-caught salmon and is also the Ocean and Fishery Health pillar lead on Gorton’s CSR team. Gorton’s is a subsidiary of Nissui, the leading frozen prepared seafood brand in the U.S.

Jennifer Creaser
Jennifer Creaser became the Senior Manager of Wild Procurement at High Liner Foods in 2022.  Jennifer joined High Liner in 2009 after graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from St. Mary’s University in Halifax.  High Liner Foods is a processor & marketer of value-added frozen seafood in North America.  Originally starting in logistics, Jennifer moved into procurement in 2016 and has since had the opportunity to manage multiple wild and aquaculture species for the company. 

Sigurður Steinn Einarsson
Sigurður Steinn Einarsson is the COO at Alda Seafood in the Netherlands and has been since 2020. Before joining Alda, he worked in the Icelandic fishing industry. Alda is a vertically integrated company that operates a fleet of fishing vessels, processing facilities, and sales offices in Europe and North America. The most significant amount of all fish caught by Alda‘s vessels is frozen at sea. The vessels mainly fish cod, haddock, saithe, redfish, Greenland halibut, and shrimp. Sigurdur is responsible for Alda‘s European fishing operations, and he holds a BS degree in Fisheries Science from the University of Akureyri in Iceland.

Martin Flåten
Martin Flåten is the Acting General Manager for Leroy Seafood Italy. He joined Leroy Seafood Group in 2013 as a part-time employee while studying Business Administration at BI Norwegian Business School. Upon finishing his Bachelor’s Degree, he started full-time in Lerøy Seafood as a trainee in the NCE Seafood Innovation trainee program, launched in 2016. From 2017 until 2023, he was a team manager for Processing White Fish and was a part of the management team at Lerøy Norway Seafoods. Lerøy Norway Seafoods is LSG’s white fish land industry and the biggest producer of groundfish in Norway.

Fabian Hesse
Fabian Hesse joined Pickenpack Seafoods in October 2019. Previously, he was a project manager for about seven years at a medium-sized service provider in the automotive and logistics industry, working on various projects and jobs. Some of the logistic projects took place in the food industries. He holds a diploma in Business Administration.   He is responsible for statistics about Yield and the actions out of them. He trains people on their job to get to know their job (better), be more effective and reliable and take responsibility for their work. Fabian also takes part in projects and communicates with suppliers. In his daily job, he works directly with plant management and as an interface between the different departments.

Andrew Jenssen
Andrew Jenssen has been with Pacific Seafood since 2016, currently serving as their Director of Sourcing. Pacific’s activities include the harvesting, processing, and distributing of fish products in the USA, Canada, and China. Andrew started in the industry in the mid-2000s, fishing for pollock in the Bering Sea. Since then, he has managed Pacific’s Canadian crab fleet, exported groundfish and wild salmon, and several outside reprocessing operations. Andrew lives in Portland with his wife, Janice, and their 2-year-old daughter, Lillian.

Sebastian Korsnes
Sebastian Korsnes has worked for Nordic Group, Inc. Since 2011. The three primary species Nordic Group, Inc. Imports are Atlantic Cod, Norwegian Salmon and Lakefish. He is responsible for importation, quality assurance, food safety and third-party audits. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the University of Massachusetts. He is sixth generation in the seafood business.

Andrew (A.J.) Noll
A.J. is the Director of Financial Analytics for Cooke Seafood U.S. A.J. has been with Cooke since their 2016 acquisition of Icicle Seafoods. A.J. has been involved in wild fisheries for 12 years in various financial roles.

Hiroyuki Onitsuka
Hiroyuki Onitsuka was born and raised in Washington and started in the Seafood Industry as a freight forwarder right out of college for seven years. Hiroyuki took a year off and started to work at UniSea in 2019. He started off as the Pollock Surimi and Pollock Roe sales manager.  Now Hirouki is in charge of Logistics, Pollock Fillet, Crab and Cod sales at UniSea. It has been a wild three years, and he looks forward to the future of Seafood.

Siraj Rajie
Siraj Rajie is a dedicated professional with a decade-long tenure at Sea Harvest, one of the largest fishing and Hake producing companies in Southern Africa. His journey at Sea Harvest has encompassed vital roles in Retail, Marketing, and Exports, ultimately leading him to his current position as International Sales Manager, where he assists & manages clients and markets worldwide.
With a strong educational foundation, Siraj earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a Post post-grad diploma in Marketing Management from the University of Cape Town. He further expanded his knowledge through the Management Programmes at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Thea Løvik Roaldsnes
Thea has been working with Espersen since 2018. Espersen‘s activities include processing fish products in Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, England and Vietnam. She started as a Procurement Analyst before moving to the Marketing & Innovation Department, mainly supporting the UK Business Unit. During the last year, she has worked as Key Account Manager for McDonald´s, supplying, among other products, Filet-O-Fish to the European markets. As of October 1st, she moved to a new position as a Business Unit Manager for the Nordics. Thea has a Master’s in Fishery- and Aquaculture Science from UiT, Norway’s Arctic University.

Dinis Tarré
Dinis Tarré has recently joined Gelpeixe’s management team as part of the firm’s long-term succession plan. Founded in 1977, Gelpeixe has become one of the largest processors and distributors of frozen seafood in the Iberian Peninsula, comprising annual sales volumes of more than 10,000 metric tons. Whitefish, particularly Hake, is the company’s core product.
After acquiring work experience in strategy consulting, Dinis established the Business Development department at Gelpeixe, which primarily focuses on strategic analyses and business intelligence. He holds an MSc in Management from the NOVA School of Business and Economics and a CEMS MSc in International Management, having developed his Master’s Thesis with McKinsey & Company.

Lily Wu
Lily Wu is a Seafood Procurement Manager at Sofina Foods-Young’s Seafood Ltd.   With a Master’s degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Lily Wu joined Young’s Seafood in 2018 as a Purchasing Graduate and has worked through many different areas in her growth to her current role as Procurement Manager at Frozen Seafood.  With a great understanding of supply chain management, new product development, quality assurance and procurement, Lily Wu is now looking to widen her network and further develop within the exciting world of Seafood.  Lily currently has responsibilities for purchasing Cod, Haddock, Pollock, Pacific Salmon and some flatfish species from China, Europe and the USA.