GSA CEO Wally Stevens bows out
Aquaculture industry veteran, Wally Stevens, who over the past 14 years, has held various leadership roles with the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), formerly the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), and is currently its CEO, is retiring at the end of December.
Brian Perkins, who joined GSA as chief operating officer in March, will assume the role of CEO, effective January 1, said the non-profit organization.
While stepping away from his day-to-day responsibilities, Stevens is to remain a member of the GSA board of directors and GSA executive committee.
His retirement comes at the end of a transitional year for GSA, which underwent a rebranding initiative and name change from the GAA with the introduction of the Best Seafood Practices (BSP) certification program.
“It has been an honor to work with such professional, passionate, devoted, smart women and men here at the Global Seafood Alliance and throughout the industry. We have done good for society globally through our education and advocacy work as well as by providing third-party assurances through certification for farm-raised seafood and more recently for wild-caught seafood. The challenges that lie ahead will be best addressed by our associates at GSA, working collectively and collaboratively with others to find solutions,” said Stevens.
He joined GAA as executive director in 2007. The organization said he played a critical role in the its growth, particularly the development of the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program. The number of BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills has ballooned from just over 100 in 2007 to well over 3,000 today.
Stevens was also instrumental in the establishment of the multi-stakeholder Standards Oversight Committee (SOC), which oversees the BAP standards development process, said GSA.
