Speakers

Kjersti Gravningen,  microbiologist, graduated from Oslo University in 1985. She worked as a scientist at the Agricultural University in Oslo from 1986 to 1988. Since 1988 she has been dedicated to aquaculture and fish health management. From 1988 to 1991 she worked as a R&D manager at Tinfos Aqua, developing raring-methods and fish health management tools for turbot. She realized early the importance of fish health and disease prevention and transferred to the pharmaceutical company Alpharma in Norway in 1991, Alpharma became PHARMAQ in 2004.  PHARMAQ is the global leader in fish vaccines, and has been honored by internationalization and export prices in Norway. Gravningen has since 1991 held several positions within fish vaccine Research and Business Development, headed several international projects, working with a variety of species and research groups globally. Among important achievements, she has contributed to the first implementation of oilbased vaccines in fish, the introduction of multivalent vaccines for samlon, as well as vaccines for sea bass, cod and pangasius. Currently Gravningen is General Director of PHARMAQ Vietnam Ltd, in Ho Chi Minh City, developing and implementing fish vaccines for pangasius in Vietnam, and carries the responsibility to develop PHARMAQ in Asia.

Árni M. Mathiesen is the Assistant Director General at FAO. Mathiesen was first elected to the Althing (Iceland's parliament) in 1991. From September 2005 through 31 January 2009, he was Minister of Finance in Iceland. In the period 1999–2005 he was Minister of Fisheries. Mathiesen studied veterinary medicine at the University of Edinburgh, qualifying as veterinarian in 1983. Later he studied fish pathology at the University of Stirling and in 1985 was awarded the MSc in Aquatic Veterinary Science.

After completing his studies, Mathiesen worked as veterinarian in various areas of Iceland, and served as veterinary officer for fish diseases 1985–1995. Mathiesen was also the managing director of the aquaculture firm Faxalax hf. 1988–1989.

Árni M Mathiesen was an Icelandic representative on the Nordic Council 1991–95. Mathiesen was also a member of the EFTA/EEA parliamentarians' committee from 1995–99.

Nina Santi is a veterinarian educated from the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH), earning a Ph.D. in molecular virology in 2005. She held a position as Associate Professor in aquatic medicine at NVH before joining the breeding company Aqua Gen in 2007. The company has a key role in the value chain as a global provider of improved starting material for Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout aquaculture. In her first years in Aqua Gen, Santi was closely involved in brood fish and egg production, focusing on fish health and product quality.  With a deeper understanding of the possibilities and challenges of the business, Nina Santi entered the position as R&D Director in 2010, continuing a 40 year long tradition of R&D in Aqua Gen. The company focuses on genetic traits related to disease resistance, animal welfare, growth and quality, and as the salmon industry is entering the post-genomic era, new and more effective tools for breeding are starting to give results that will have a huge impact for Atlantic salmon farming in the future.

Alex Obach holds the position of Managing Director at Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre since 1st May 2007. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, he is a veterinarian with a Master in Aquaculture from the University of Girona (Spain) and a PhD in fish pathology and immunology from the University of West Brittany (France). He started working at Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre in 1993 as a researcher, initially within fish health then as a nutritionist. He has most recently held the position as Manager of ARC’s Fish Health department. Between 1993 -1995, he was also engaged as lecturer at the University of Barcelona, and worked for two years as the Managing Director of the Marine Harvest Technical Centre.

Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC) is the central R&D unit for Nutreco’s global fish feed company Skretting. Skretting ARC's main objective is to provide research and technical support regarding feed for both fish and shrimp. The research centre is based in Stavanger, Norway, and has further research units in Italy, Spain, China and Japan. Skretting ARC employs an international team of highly skilled specialists, with in total 70 employees from 20 nationalities, including 30 researchers. Skretting ARC collaborates with several institutes and private companies across the globe. Our core competencies are within fish and shrimp nutrition and health, feed raw materials, feed safety and quality, analysis and modelling technology and feed production processes.

Terje E. Martinussen graduated from the Norwegian School of Fisheries/University of Tromsø in 1983, holding a Master in Fisheries Science.

Martinussen is managing director of the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) since 2006. Before that he was director overseas offices (2001-2003) and country representative for NSC in Germany (2003-2006).

Martinussen has previously been working 10 years as a researcher at Nofima (the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research) , six years as general manager and managing director FNL (the Norwegian Federation of Seafood Industry), and been working three years with foreign aid in India and Sri Lanka (NORAD) as well as serving one year as fisherman on a Norwegian coastal fishing vessel.

Dr. Shunsuke Koshio obtained his PhD from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada in 1985. The title of his PhD thesis was "The effects of eyestalk ablation, diets, and environmental factors on growth, survival and energy utilization of juvenile Homarus americanus, as applied to aquaculture", while that of his MSc thesis at the Tokyo University of Fisheries, Japan was "The seedling production of Macrobrachium spp., with an emphasis on larval response to salinity". After completing the post-doctoral work at Dalhousie University in 1986, Dr. Koshio was appointed as an assistant professor in 1986 at the Faculty of Fisheries in Kagoshima University, Japan. He was promoted to an associate professor in 1993, and then to a full professor in 2002 at the same affiliation. He has been selected as one of President Assistants (2003 to 2005, 2007 to 2008) for supporting general business in Kagoshima University. He is now a Vice Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University since 2009.

He was a visiting scientist at the Department of Food Science, Technical University of Nova Scotia, Canada in 1991 and Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis from 1999 to 2000. Current research interests are aquatic animal nutrition general, nutrition and stress, bioenergetics, and nutrition and health. He has published over 100 scientific papers in the field of aquatic animal nutrition. Dr. Koshio is a member of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Sciences, World Aquaculture Society (WAS), the Crustacean Society, Asian Fisheries Society, and the Japan Aquaculture Society. He served as a President of the Japan Chapter (1998 to 2002), a Board of Director (1999 to 2002), a member of the Affiliations, Elections, and Promotion and Membership Committees, a Vice President (2005 to 2006) of WAS. He is now serving as a chairman of Symposium Committee of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Sciences from 2010 to 2012.

Graeme Codrington is an expert on the changing world of work. He is a researcher, author, futurist, presenter and strategy consultant working across multiple industries and sectors. He has a particular interest in trends affecting how people live, work, interact and connect with each other.

Speaking internationally to over 100,000 people in more than 25 different countries every year, his client list includes some of the world’s top companies, and CEOs invite him back time after time to share his latest insights and help them and their teams gain a clear understanding of how to successfully prepare for the future. Graeme is the co-founder and international director of TomorrowToday, a global firm of futurists and business strategists. He is also a guest lecturer at four top business schools, including the London Business School, Duke Corporate Education and the Gordon Institute of Business Science. Graeme has five degrees, including a Doctorate in Administration, a Masters in Sociology, and other professional degrees in Accounting, Arts and Theology, and Youth Work.

He has three best-selling books published by Penguin, including the award winning, “Mind the Gap” and “Future-Proof Your Child”. Graeme writes regularly for the NewWorldofWork.co.uk blog, for numerous magazines and journals, and is regularly called upon for comment by the media.

He did Chartered Accountancy articles at KPMG, was involved in an IT startup, has been a professional musician, a strategy consultant and is now a full-time speaker, facilitator and author.