Johan Andreassen, CEO of Atlantic Sapphire ASA, informed the company's board of directors that he would like to step down as CEO, the company said Sunday. In a statement to the Oslo stock exchange, the CEO and co-founder of the land-based producer based near Miami, Florida, in the U.S., said that, now that the company is entering a more mature industrial phase, it is time to step aside. However, the change will not be immediate. Andreassen will remain as interim CEO during the transition phase until a permanent successor is appointed.
"The Company is going from a long entrepreneurial phase to a more mature industrial phase, and now it feels right for me to let someone else take over the CEO position that can spearhead that transition, and I will help to find and onboard my successor," said Johan Andreassen. "The time is right to start the process of moving on and devoting more of my time to other personal priorities that I’ve sacrificed over the last years, including other companies that I am involved in."
"Being the founder of the Company, having held the Chairman role from inception in 2010 until last year and the CEO position since 2016, Atlantic Sapphire is and will still be my 'baby'. I will continue to contribute to the best of my ability to ensure the Company achieves its goals. I am extremely proud of our team that has been working hard over a long period of time, and I am convinced that the Company will turn farming the most sustainable, healthy, fresh and delicious salmon in America into a profitable business," the outgoing CEO added.
With this decision to leave the position, but not the company, Johan Andreassen follows the recent example of other chief executive officers who, like him, were the founders of the companies and who, once they reached the point where the company had to scale, decided that it was better for someone with a less entrepreneurial and more managerial profile to take over. This is the case of Ohad Maiman, co-founder and former CEO of The Kingfish Company, giving way to Vicent Erenst, or, more recently, Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda, founder of Urchinomics, with Perry Bevin.
Andreassen's journey from the company's beginnings is precisely what Kenneth J. Andersen, Chairman of Atlantic Sapphire, pointed out in his assessment of the current CEO's intention to leave his position. "On behalf of the Board of Directors, we want to express our gratitude to Johan for his leading role in developing the Company into what it is today," he said. "We understand Johan’s priorities and appreciate his continued support of the Company in a different role going forward. Johan has built up a strong team that we’re confident will be instrumental in the Company’s further development and growth."
As mentioned above, Johan Andreassen not only intends to continue to contribute to the achievement of the company's goals but will also help to find and onboard his successor. The person who replaces him will undoubtedly find a challenging job ahead as the company acknowledged talking about a difficult but under-control scenario after publishing its results for the first half of 2023.
Last year has been a period of financial and biological setbacks for Atlantic Sapphire that seemed to culminate with the announcement in early September that one of its major shareholders - Clipper AS, a company associated with Norwegian shipping magnate Inge Steensland and his family - was selling its shares and exiting the project. However, a few days later the land-based salmon producer in Florida once again showed its resilience by announcing that it had raised USD 65 million (NOK 702 million / EUR 60.8 million) in a bid to get "back on track." Putting new blood at the helm of the company seems to be its next step.
Atlantic Sapphire ASA is a Norway-based aquaculture company. The company breeds Bluehouse® (land-raised) salmon farming locally with the aim of transforming protein production globally. Atlantic Sapphire has a focus on Research and Development (R&D) and innovation to equip the company with the technology and procedures that enable the company to commercially scale up production in end markets close to the consumer.
In the USA, the Company operates just south of Miami, in Homestead, Florida. It has the capacity to harvest approximately 10,000 tons (HOG) of salmon annually. In its Phase 2 expansion, Atlantic Sapphire aims to bring total annual production capacity to 25,000 tons and has a targeted harvest volume in 2031 of 220,000 tons.