AquaCloud appoints aquaculture industry expert as its new business developer

Aquaculture "big data" specialist AquaCloud has announced it has hired a new team member, as Björgólfur Hávarðsson becomes the venture's new business developer.

A fisheries biologist by training, Hávarðsson brings 30 years of experience in the aquaculture industry, having most recently worked for eight years within the Norwegian seafood cluster, NCE Seafood Innovation, as Innovation Manager. In addition to this role, he has also served as an industry expert on fish health and as a senior industry mentor with aquaculture accelerator Hatch Blue.

"'Bøggi' knows AquaCloud better than most, having been involved from the early days when AquaCloud was just a project within the cluster," the company said in a LinkedIn post announcing the appointment.

"As we accelerate our efforts, it is great to have a person of Björgólfur’s caliber, with his passion, knowledge, and extensive network, helping us to take the next step forward."

AquaCloud says its new business developer's main focus will be on sales and customer development, recruiting participants for AquaCloud, and project development in collaboration with fish farmers, the supplier industry, and research institutions.

"Björgólfur will also make important contributions to steering our products in the right direction to support making the aquaculture industry and its stakeholders better through shared data," the company said.

For his part, Hávarðsson stated that he was "incredibly excited to dive into these exciting tasks and engage in great discussions and collaborations with fish farmers, researchers, and innovative minds."

"Sharing and utilizing industry data is an effective way to analyze and solve industry challenges, creating collective learning, especially regarding fish health and welfare-related issues. We've seen the progress we've made so far in AquaCloud, but now as we ramp up, we can work with entirely new solutions and opportunities. At AquaCloud, we operate by the principle "By farmers, for farmers," and that will always remain the core focus of what we do," Hávarðsson added.

Established in 2017, AquaCloud describes itself as "a big data project anchored in the aquaculture industry’s need to solve common challenges in order to create sustainable growth". The project forms part of the NCE Seafood Innovation cluster, whose other members include Lerøy Seafood Group ASA, Grieg Seafood ASA, Mowi ASA, Bremnes Seashore AS, Lingalaks AS, Eide Fjordbruk, and Bolaks AS.

Initially focused on using advanced data analytics to forecast sea lice outbreaks, AquaCloud has since developed to address wider data issues within the industry, focusing on the three major themes of sensor data, fish health, and environmental data, according to the AquaCloud website.