Seafood industry veteran Ronald Rogness will join the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP) as its Director, Industry Relations, Partnerships and Fishery Analysis. In this position, Rogness will have oversight of the GAPP Partnership Program as well as critical membership services including the Association’s various fishery and trade reports. Rogness, who previously served as a consultant to the organization on economic and fishery matters, will also now devote attention to representing GAPP in broader seafood collaborations and committees and securing additional funding to advance GAPP’s mission to build awareness and demand for wild Alaska pollock, through grants and other opportunities.
“When I first joined GAPP I was advised that Ron could become an invaluable member of the GAPP team and I made priority number one bringing him in as a consultant to GAPP to provide critical insight, based on his years of experience in the industry, in building out some of what have become the most sought-after member services GAPP provides, including our industry’s life cycle assessment, GAPP return on investment studies, GAPP fishery and trade reports, and other projects,” said Craig Morris, GAPP CEO. “With him now joining GAPP on a fulltime basis his near encyclopedic knowledge of the industry, his long list of seafood executive contacts, and his ingenuity will help to advance our key programs—like the GAPP Partnership Program—to even greater heights.”
GAPP created this critical role based on vision from the GAPP Board to greater emphasize its continued investment in both the wildly successful GAPP Partnership Program and its membership services. In this new role, Rogness will oversee the GAPP Partnership Program, drawing on his years of experience both as a seafood buyer and seafood executive to bring new partners into the program and elicit new, cutting-edge proposals that seek to use Wild Alaska Pollock in new and exciting ways. Rogness will also play a pivotal role in membership services including providing educational webinars, newsletters and data analysis often requested by the members and the industry.
“Ron was instrumental in the work GAPP did to complete the industry’s first-ever life cycle assessment that confirmed Wild Alaska Pollock to be not only good for you, but good for the planet too. He’s also frequently served as a trusted speaker, representing GAPP on a variety of cross-functional industry committees and forums, and is a ‘must see’ speaker at our own Annual Meeting every year,” said Bob Desautel, GAPP Chairman of the Board and Global Seas President and CEO. “A fisherman at heart, Ron is passionate about all things Wild Alaska Pollock and wants the best for this industry. In this new role he’ll be laser-focused on building new demand for Wild Alaska Pollock by being a true resource to our industry and our members.”
“I am extremely excited to join the GAPP staff full-time to further its mission to build demand and awareness of Wild Alaska Pollock,” said Rogness of his new position. “I have had the privilege of working with the amazing people in this industry for almost 40 years and I look forward to continuing that work in the years to come.”
Rogness started his career nearly 30 years ago as a commercial fisherman in Washington and later in Alaska. Thereafter, Rogness served as staff economist for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, in purchasing roles at Long John Silver’s and the Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op, LLC, and as the Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Relations at GAPP member company American Seafoods. Rogness assumes his new role on February 27.
