The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) has hired industry veteran Greg Brown to take on the role of program integrity manager for its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program.
Brown comes to GAA with a wealth of knowledge in a variety of fields, including auditing and certification, quality control, food safety, supply-chain management, seafood procurement and foodservice management. Since 2014, he acted as global managing director-seafood and managing director for NSF China, based in Shanghai. For 10 years, he served as director of purchasing-seafood for Darden Restaurants and managing director of its overseas seafood procurement arm, GMRI Inc. There, he oversaw the company’s fledgling Singapore sourcing office, which grew more than sevenfold in terms of volume sourced, as the company transitioned from direct-sourcing only for headless, shell-on shrimp to a full range of value-added products across dozens of seafood species.
More recently, Brown served as corporate strategic sourcing-seafood for Caesars Entertainment Corp., vice president of corporate procurement for Flying Food Group/Fresh Food Solutions, and director of category management-seafood for US Foodservice/Monarch Foods. He has also run his own consultancy.
Brown was an early supporter of GAA when the organization was in its infancy in the late 1990s, spearheading the international planning and fundraising for the annual GSOL (Global Shrimp Outlook for Leadership) conference, the predecessor of GOAL (Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership).
“As many industry folks know, I was involved with GAA and emceed its annual conferences during the early years of its formation and international expansion. I was also managing the seafood category at US Foodservice when we became the first broadline foodservice distributor to mandate BAP certification for all of our private label shrimp,” said Brown. “Joining GAA/BAP now is an opportunity for me to practice my commitment to seafood sustainability on a full-time basis.”
As BAP’s program integrity manager, Brown will lead a team dedicated to ensuring that independent, third-party certification bodies (CBs) and auditors, as well as BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills are in compliance with program requirements. Program integrity is the foundation of the BAP program.
“In many ways Greg is coming home. His responsibilities with Red Lobster, the world’s largest seafood restaurant chain, Caesars and US Foodservice demonstrated his accomplishments in dealing with the global seafood industry from a commercial perspective. His most recent assignment with NSF in China has provided the real-world knowledge of the critical role that BAP third-party certification as conducted by certification bodies and auditors play with credible assurance of responsible and sustainable seafood supplies. He is uniquely prepared to manage the BAP program integrity function,” said GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens.
Brown takes over for Jeff Peterson, who has been with the BAP program since its infancy in the early 2000s. Peterson was among the first auditors qualified to certify against the BAP standards, and his role with BAP has only increased since then, joining BAP on a full-time basis in 2008 and as program integrity manager in 2016.
Peterson will step away from his full-time role with BAP as program integrity manager in October after GAA’s GOAL 2017 conference in Dublin, Ireland, but will stay on with BAP as a consultant.
Brown’s first day with GAA is August 28. He will work out of the Association’s headquarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA.
About GAA
The Global Aquaculture Alliance is an international, non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, it has become the leading standards-setting organization for aquaculture seafood.
