Standard Steering Committee

Alex is the Senior Coordinator of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s Feed Standard. The ASC Feed Standard uses an improvement model for marine ingredients which requires feed mills to source from more sustainable fisheries over time. MarinTrust plays a crucial role in this mechanism and forms some of the key steppingstones for improvement.

Alex brings experience in standard development, project management, strategic planning, business development, stakeholder engagement and research. She previously worked for the Soil Association as their standards manager, leading the governance, maintenance and development of their organic standards schemes, with a focus on aquaculture and feed. She has technical knowledge in due diligence assessments, value chain analysis, certification, access to markets and finance. Her roles have included work in Europe, South Asia, South East Asia and Eastern Africa

Geraldine Fox PhD is Quality Director for Pelagia (UK & Ireland division), one of the main producers of marine ingredients (fishmeal, fish oil and hydrolysed fish protein) in Europe supplying the aquafeed, AgriFeed and pet food sectors. During her long association with the company she has developed an in depth knowledge of the industry, from responsible sourcing of raw materials, safety assured and responsible production and product development and testing, to the implementation and maintenance of the company’s quality and environmental management systems and community and industry liaison.

Her current work focuses on compliance and regulatory affairs and driving product improvement and sustainability initiatives to meet the ever-changing requirements of third-party standards, marine ingredient stakeholders and regulatory bodies. She has built strong relationships within the industry and with various regulatory and certification bodies and has an excellent understanding of the complexities of marine ingredient traceability and the importance of developing robust sustainability programmes for the protection of our valuable marine resources.

Greg Brown is a food industry executive with thirty years of global experience. A graduate of Occidental College, Greg started his first executive role in Food & Beverage operations living and working in Singapore (1990-2005) and transitioned quickly into seafood purchasing as Director of Seafood Procurement for Darden Restaurants, Inc. for ten years. Greg was brought back to the U.S. to become Director of Category Management, Seafood at US Foodservice (now US Foods) for four years, after which he started his own independent seafood consultancy, then became Vice President of Corporate Procurement for Flying Food Group, and eventually Corporate Strategic Sourcing, Seafood for Caesars Entertainment. Greg moved into standards certification in a dual role at NSF International (stationed in Shanghai for three years), as Global Managing Director, Seafood and Region Managing Director, NSF China. Greg took his latest step into seafood sustainability standards, returning to the U.S. in 2017 for the Global Aquaculture Alliance (now Global Seafood Alliance), where he is now Senior Vice President, Operations & Strategic Development.

Mike has over 30 years’ experience working with standards and improvement strategies for the Seafood industry within the UK and across the globe. He is currently a partner in RS Standards and prior to this has held numerous management positions within Seafish, Sainsbury’s, SAI Global (Global Trust) and more recently as a director in MSC, which is an internationally based sustainability program where he oversaw the programme integrity through the implementation of Chain of Custody standards for all sectors of the seafood supply chain.

During his time with RS Standards Mike has played a key role in the development of MarinTrust’s new Chain of Custody Standard Version 2. He is the lead consultant for Global Seafood Assurance (GSA) for the redevelopment of the Responsible Fishing Standard into a new globally accessible Responsible Fishing Vessel Standard based on social criteria for the wild capture fishing fleets.

In addition, Mike is also an experienced seafood lead auditor and training instructor for several programs which include Chain of Custody, Risk Assessment, Quality Management systems, Seafood Safety and HACCP.

Vidar Gundersen is the Global Sustainability Director at BioMar Group. He joined BioMar in 2002 with responsibilities spanning from product management to feed concept and strategy developments. He has specialized in sustainability in the aquaculture sector and has built up BioMar’s sustainability concept. Vidar holds an MSc in Marine Biotechnology as well as an MBA in Marketing Management and Sustainability Communication. He is on the Steering Committee for the ASC Feed Standard development.

Francisco has been with MarinTrust, the leading Certification Program for Marine Ingredients, from its early development within IFFO (the marine ingredients organisation), to becoming the CEO of MarinTrust in 2020. With over 15 years of experience in the food sector, specialising in marine ingredients, Francisco has unique expertise in responsible sourcing, sustainable production practices, and digital traceability in the marine ingredient supply chain. This expertise in traceability led him to join the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST) Supervisory Board, while also contributing to the Technical Committee shaping the GSA Seafood Processing Standard. Since 2014, Francisco has also been focused on fisheries for reduction in South East Asia and Latin America through the MarinTrust Improver Programme, resulting in positive changes at the legislative level of previously struggling fisheries. All of this is part of his overall mission of cementing the future of marine ingredients as vital and sustainable sources of nutrition for the world.

Francisco holds a MSc in Fisheries Engineering from UNALM (Peru) and a MSc in Marine Ecology and Environmental Management from Queen Mary University (London).