Maritech appoints new managing director for Canadian subsidiary, confirms North American expansion plans

Molde, Norway-based traceability and business software developer Maritech has appointed Kjell Jørgensen as its new managing director for Maritech Dynamics Ltd, the enterprise’s Canadian subsidiary.

The company said it has big plans for scaling in the Canadian and U.S. markets, which Jørgensen will have a hand in leading.

“Maritech now is heading for new milestones in the North American market,” the firm said in a press release.

Jørgensen began his new role on 31 March, bringing with him extensive international experience in the IT industry, Maritech said. Previously, he served as Maritech’s director of global services and was responsible for its business solutions.

Prior to joining Maritech, Jørgensen worked with Star Information Systems in various capacities ranging from COO to managing director. He also spent five years with Switzerland’s Merit, and two years with Logica, commuting to India.

“We have great opportunities ahead of us, and the best employees on board,” Jørgensen said. “I am eager to get out in the field and connect with our existing and potential customers again. We are the global leader within process support to the seafood industry, with broad competence in all areas of the value chain. There is an enormous, untapped potential in the North American seafood industry related to new technology and digitalization. The seafood industry has always been innovative, and we experience a strong pull in the market related to our field of competence. Companies of all sizes, in all segments, express curiosity and openness related to new, digital tools and the possibilities they represent.”

Maritech, which has been developing technological innovations for the seafood industry for over 45 years, has had a North American presence since 1998 through the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based Maritech Dynamics Ltd, as well as its satellite U.S. division, Maritech Dynamics U.S., which operates out of Seattle, Washington. 

In recent years, the company said it has “invested heavily in forging a strong international team and in developing [its] best-of-breed cloud portfolio, DigitalSeafood; built in Microsoft Azure, and tailored for global seafood trade and production.” The Microsoft platform is cutting-edge and offers ease-of-use that will aide Maritech in its future endeavors within North American markets, according to Jørgensen. 

“We always choose to use the latest technology and will always be at the forefront,” he said. “Both in terms of functionality and user-friendliness, Microsoft Azure gives us the opportunities, flexibility and security we need to be at the top of the world and means that customers get the maximum benefit from choosing a cloud solution from us. We can use advanced Microsoft tools in the development of our own software, and Microsoft’s infrastructure and expertise to operate and deliver our solutions to customers worldwide. It is easy to scale the number of users and capacity up [or] down as needed, we can guarantee the uptime – and most importantly, the security.”

Maritech has helped many seafood companies in Norway and North America evolve with technology, Jørgensen said. 

“We have been an integral part of the evolution of seafood companies, both in Norway and in North America, organically developing our software solutions for and with them as they themselves have developed. We have long-lasting partnerships with our customers, and we have gained a reputation of trust within the seafood sector. We are grateful to have these close relationships with innovative and demanding customers in our home markets. Through close dialogue with our customers, we believe we are capturing the requirements of our industry and will be instrumental in delivering the next steps in digitalization of the North American seafood industry,” Jørgensen said.

In light of the challenges that have arisen over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of technology has become even more crucial to the industry, according to Jørgensen.

“The challenges of the last year have shown, more than ever before, the vital role that technology plays,” he said. “Our cloud-enabled digital suite provides new models and best practices that empower collaboration and efficiency in new ways, not only by streamlining processes and making workflows more efficient, but presenting tremendous new revenue and value producing opportunities for our customers. Ranging from seafood-tailored big data analytics to help spot emerging market trends and pricing opportunities, to revolutionary new quality control mechanisms, Maritech is laser-focused on delivering the technology tools seafood companies need to make quicker, smarter, data-based decisions, streamline their processes, solve problems, and remove collaborative barriers.”

Jørgensen will be moving to Canada and working out of the Halifax headquarters of Maritech Dynamics.

Photo courtesy of Maritech