Joanne Friedrick

David Carter, CEO of Austral Fisheries in Australia, started his career in the seafood industry as a deckhand on a prawn trawler in 1978, after completing his science degree at Melbourne University. Austral has been in business for more than 40 years, beginning with its shrimp operation and then adding Patagonian toothfish and mackerel icefish to its offerings, all of which are now certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. The

Chris Mahony is vice president of sales and marketing for Omega Azul Seafood, which produces Baja kanpachi (also known as Almaco jack or kahala) at its aquaculture operation in Mexico.

SeafoodSource: What are the core or key tenets of your company’s business strategy and how do you feel this foundation guides your business moving forward?

Mahony: Customers and employees are Omega Azul’s greatest asset and (the positive)

John Hathaway is the owner of Shucks Maine Lobster in Richmond, Maine. The company produces value-added lobster products. 

SeafoodSource: What are the core or key tenets of your company’s business strategy and how do you feel this foundation guides your business moving forward?

Hathaway: Our goal is not to be the biggest, but to be the best at what we do. We're passionate about Maine lobster. It is the best

Fiona de Koning is the co-owner, business manager and head of sales for family-run Hollander & de Koning Mussel Farms, a bottom cultivation operation in Trenton, Maine. Theo de Koning, Fiona’s husband, is a fifth-generation mussel farmer from the Netherlands, who also serves as co-owner, boat captain and farm manager. Sons Alex and Max represent the sixth generation. Alex serves as the company’s processing manager, development

Doug Nucatola is one of the founders and CEO at Great Eastern Seafood, a Boston, Massachusetts-based seafood processor and distributor known for its production of North Atlantic groundfish and flatfish.

SeafoodSource: As one of the founders of Great Eastern Seafood, how have you seen the company evolve in its 35-year history?

Nucatola: We started as a quality and service company and we’ve always stayed with our founding principles. Over the

Kristen Baumer is the president of Paul Piazza and Son Inc., a New Orleans, Louisiana-based processor of wild shrimp caught in the Gulf of Mexico. He is the fourth generation of his family to run the company.

SeafoodSource: What’s the history of Paul Piazza & Son?

Baumer: The company was

Megan Grinstead is director of marketing at SeaPak Shrimp & Seafood, based in Saint Simon's Island, Georgia. SeaPak has  been offering shrimp and seafood for nearly 70 years and the company currently produces the top-selling retail frozen shrimp brand within the specialty seafood category.

SeafoodSource: What are the core business strategies or principles that have been the foundation of SeaPak?

Grinstead: Thanks to our

Chris Rosenberger is president of Atlanta-based Inland Seafood, which was started in 1977 and has grown to be the largest seafood distributor in the southeast United States, a leading packer of Maine lobster and a supplier of non-seafood specialty products for thousands of restaurants and retailers.

SeafoodSource: What is Inland’s history and how has the company has evolved since it was started. What are the core business strategies or

Bill Taylor is part of the executive management team at Taylor Shellfish Farms, a fifth-generation business based in Shelton, Washington. The company, which was founded in 1890, has grown over the decades to encompass shellfish farming operations for clams, geoduck, oysters and mussels.

SeafoodSource: What are the core business strategies or principles that have been the foundation of the company since its inception?

Taylor: We’re devoted to

Joshua Scherz is the U.S.-based general manager for Bela Seafood, a line of canned sardines, mackerel and skipjack tuna from Portugal. Bela is a fourth-generation Portuguese brand celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017. Scherz, who based in Massachusetts, travels to Bela’s factory four or five times a year.

SeafoodSource: What is Bela’s current penetration in the United States and internationally and what are the plans to build the brand?