Renate Larsen during her time as CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Council.
Photo: Norwegian Seafood Council.
The former director of Lerøy Aurora and the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC), Renate Larsen, has been appointed as a new member of the Board at Icelandic salmon producer Kaldvík. Her election follows the resignation of Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson announced in a stock exchange release on January 7, 2025, and the decision was not unanimous.
In that stock exchange release, Kaldvík thanked Ingólfsson for his service and contributions over the past years, but did not clarify the reason for his resignation, for which he issued a statement shortly afterwards. The former Board member explained that his departure was due to his discord with the way in which the agreement for the acquisition of several assets in the fish farming value chain in Iceland announced by the company at the end of December had been carried out.
The transaction included the full acquisition of the companies Djúpskel ehf. - a producer of fish boxes - and Mossi ehf. - the property and building hosting it -, as well as a part of Búlandstindur ehf., a fish processing facility, which would be acquired from Osnes ehf. controlled by Elis Gretarsson, the CEO of Búlandstindur, and his family, and Heimstø AS, a company controlled by the Måsøval family and which, indirectly through Austur Holding AS, controls 55.29% of Kaldvík's shares.
The total estimated purchase price of this transaction was set at NOK 190 million (EUR 16 million / USD 16.7 million), a valuation with which Aðalsteinn Ingólfsson - and, according to his statement, some other Board members as well - did not agree.
These disagreements became apparent at the Extraordinary General Meeting that Kaldvík - formerly Ice Fish Farm - held yesterday to appoint a replacement. Prior to the meeting, the majority shareholder, Austur Holding AS, proposed Renate Larsen. However, a group of shareholders simultaneously submitted an alternative proposal for Ingveldur Ásta Björnsdóttir to be elected as the new Board member.
Following the vote between the two candidates, Renate Larsen was elected as the new member of Kaldvík's Board of Directors with 66.93% of the votes in favor and 33.08% against, with the majority shareholder's option, i.e. the one supported by the Måsøval family, prevailing.
Following yesterday's meeting, the company's Board of Directors consists of Asle Rønning as Chairman and, together with Renate Larsen, Martin Lein Staveli, Hege Dahl, and Einar Sigurdsson as Board members, and Lars Måsøval as deputy Board member.
The new addition to Kaldvík's Board, Renate Larsen, who, as mentioned above, was CFO and later CEO of salmon producer Lerøy Aurora AS and CEO of the Norwegian Seafood Council, has both in-depth knowledge of the seafood industry and experience on boards of state-owned and private companies.
Since announcing her resignation as CEO of the NSC in March 2022, a position she held for six years, Larsen has served on the Board of Directors of several Norwegian companies, many of them related to the seafood industry.
That same year, in June 2022, she joined the Board of salmon giant Mowi, where she remained until May 2024, as well as calanus nutrition specialist Zooca, where she stayed until June 2024. Prior to joining these two companies, in May 2022, she had also been appointed to the Board of cod producer Norcod, a role she held until June 2024, when she became Chair, a position she still holds.
Likewise, Renate Larsen is also President and CEO of Ocean Food, a company that cultivates and processes sugar kelp in the Arctic for human consumption, industrial use, fertilizer and biostimulant, and as a raw material for animal feed for both livestock and aquaculture.
Within the marine industry, since April 2024, the executive also participates as a Board member of KinSea Lead Discovery AS, a new biotech start-up that develops marine bioactive compounds into pharmaceutically active products, and of Frøy AS, Norway's largest competence center for aquatic services.
Prior to the announcement of her joining Kaldvík, her last industry appointment came last September, when it was announced that she was joining the Board of VAQ, a Norwegian supplier of fish farms with RAS with a prominent position in Norway's market.
