Major moves among Cooke Aquaculture's senior management team are afoot, with two prominent figures leaving and one former Cooke executive coming back on board, Cooke confirmed to WeAreAquaculture today.
Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Matthew Kilfoil, is moving on to a new, as yet undisclosed, position outside the company. Taking his place as interim SVP is former Cooke executive Bret Scholtes.
"Matthew Kilfoil joined True North Seafood Company in 2019 and has been a valuable member of our leadership team as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing during his tenure at Cooke," Joel Richardson, Cooke Aquaculture's Vice President for Public Relations, told WeAreAquaculture.
"We thank Matt for contributing to our strong performance through a commitment to business alignment and wish him all the best as he moves on to a new external opportunity effective July 2023," he added.
For now, Cooke will replace Kilfoil with Bret Scholtes, former CEO of Cooke Inc.-owned Omega Protein Corporation, and more recently, President/CEO at Guardion Health Sciences Inc., a clinical nutrition and diagnostics company.
"Bret Scholtes has recently rejoined Cooke and effective July 2023, he will be interim Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Bret is a seasoned executive having previously spent nearly a decade as the CEO of Omega Protein Corporation, a division of Cooke Inc. focused on nutritional products. We are pleased to welcome Bret back to Cooke as we continue to grow our sales and distribution networks," Richardson said.
Meanwhile, Cooke's Managing Director for Atlantic Canada, Philip Wiese, will leave during the summer to return to his native Australia, after less than a year at the company.
"Philip Wiese has worked with Cooke Aquaculture for nearly a year as Managing Director Atlantic Canada and he will be departing Cooke in late July to return home to be closer to family in Australia. We greatly appreciate the leadership contributions Phil made to support Cooke Aquaculture's operations and our growth. We wish him all the best in the future," Richardson said.
Cooke Aquaculture is a family of businesses that have operated a sustainable aquaculture business in Atlantic Canada for over 35 years. The company includes international divisions for aquaculture, such as its wholly-owned subsidiary Cooke Aquaculture Inc. and Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd.
