An Interview With Martita Mestey
Persistent: It’s sometimes good to be impatient and to get things done quickly. However, the industries we are in are not moving very quickly. Innovation and decision processes take a long time and it’s easy to lose focus before we reach our goals. Therefore, persistence is key to finding success.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Sigve Nordrum, EVP Animal Health and Nutrition, Aker BioMarine.
Sigve Nordrum, EVP Animal Health and Nutrition, Aker BioMarine.
Sigve has been with Aker BioMarine since 2007. He is responsible for the sales, marketing and R&D for krill products for the animal and aquaculture markets globally. Prior to joining the company, Sigve worked at BioMar and the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries. Sigve has a master’s degree from the Norwegian School of Life Sciences and a PhD from the Norwegian Veterinary College.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in Oslo city and no one in my network had an interest in farming or food production so my career path leading me here was mostly personal. My father died shortly after I was born, but my mother wanted me to have a connection to where he came. Every summer, she sent me to the countryside to the farm my father came from to be looked after and eventually to work when I was old enough. It was from this experience that I chose to study agriculture and farm animals. Although the Norwegian salmon farming was small, there was great potential in aquaculture. My interest was captured at that moment and aquaculture has been my occupation and passion ever since.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My first job entailed working very closely with salmon farmers — with projects to improve fish health and fish growth. In the early 1990’s, the Norwegian farming industry wasn’t ideal and many of the farms had problems. Soon after, various measures were introduced such as vaccines that worked, better fish feed and fish management and new regulations. Quickly salmon farming became profitable and much more sustainable. and the industry has continued growing since then. If fact, I have seen the industry in Norway from different perspectives and it has been fantastic to follow the development. I believe that research and competence have been a major part of the success. While the Norwegian industry is in front of these major developments, it’s equally important for the industry and its major players to be behind the positive change. At Aker BioMarine, I have a global responsibility and I can see the “blue revolution” is materializing and the global aquaculture industry is taking positive steps forward.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
Very early in my career, we were a small group, but we had a big responsibility. After time, the team grew and that gave me an opportunity to become a key person — the one everyone would go to — and I felt very important and irreplaceable. Then as new people came on board, I found it hard to transfer some of that knowledge and tasks to others, and I thought it could make me less important and more replaceable. Surprisingly for me, when I taught others what I did and was able to share tasks and responsibilities with them, I ended up getting more interesting tasks, more recognition, and more opportunities. This has followed me throughout my career and has given me the best opportunities to grow and develop. By introducing new people to my “world,” I can focus on the next challenge.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
For me, work sometimes feels like bicycling as it’s hard to go by yourself, especially in headwinds. If I am in a group, it gives me extra energy and the others can take wind for me, so I can be ready to take my turn. Another part of achieving success is looking to those who help lead and inspire you.
My former supervisor and professor, Åshild Krogdahl, was very important to me and my journey. We have very different personalities, but she showed genuine interest in my work. She also challenged and believed in me, and I managed to finish my thesis even though I was too impatient to sit and write alone for days and weeks. As Åshild helped create and develop my scientific persona, Matts Johansen, the CEO of Aker BioMarine, took that scientist in me and told me I could and should be a businessman as well. At Aker BioMarine, I have been able to combine both of these worlds.
We manage a lot of fun projects together where we explore the needs and opportunities to conduct business by thinking outside the ordinary. We are developing customer relationships in unconventional ways and we have even started “crazy” projects like our Dog Mushing activity that has given us product and industry insights that we could not have gotten otherwise.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
My interest in people: I think it’s very important to have an interest in people (colleagues, customers or other stakeholders). All decisions and trends are somewhat driven by people’s mindsets. When working with sales or leadership, or any other position, it comes down to the positive influence you can leave on someone, as well as the influence they can leave on you.
Persistent: It’s sometimes good to be impatient and to get things done quickly. However, the industries we are in are not moving very quickly. Innovation and decision processes take a long time and it’s easy to lose focus before we reach our goals. Therefore, persistence is key to finding success.
Influence: As mentioned earlier, it’s important to have influence on others. When you have a good idea or a goal that you want to accomplish, you may need to influence others to help get it done. In the aquaculture industry, it’s important to be a leader and a changemaker and that comes down to the positive impact and influence you can have on others.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
When I was working on my PhD, we worked with Intestinal physiology (fish guts / fish intestines) so our slogan was “No Guts, No Glory”. I think this applies to everything in work and in life. You need to take risks to get rewards.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you describe to our readers how your work is helping to address the challenge of food insecurity?
Aker BioMarine is a biotech innovator and Antarctic krill-harvesting company, dedicated to improving human and planetary health. Every day, I aim to help bring our mission to life.
By 2050 there will be 10 billion people on this planet, which means we need to significantly increase our food production. In 2020, Aker BioMarine’s krill products contributed to the production of an estimated 410 million extra servings of fish annually. Krill’s high nutritional value, its positive growth and health effects and the active influence it can have on the health of fish and shrimp will prove invaluable as the demands on food production continue to increase.
The aqua feed sector is constantly searching and doing research for ingredients that fit sustainable criteria for feeding the increased population. We need to use the oceans more and in a sustainable way, Krill is on the bottom of the food chain, plenty of it and it has unique traits. Part of the solution. Doing more with less and we are constantly working to find where krill does its best — contribute to better growth, better survival, better fish welfare and better omega-3 content in the fish fillets.
Krill meal is commonly used and scientifically proven to be beneficial for the fish and the environment. Aker BioMarine has during its 15 years as ingredient supplier overcome many of the challenges new raw material suppliers face today, including traceability, scalability, and setting up a strong supply chain. Krill is known today as a well-documented, natural, highly sustainable and a superior alternative ingredient to the traditional marine ingredients. We are pooling our scientific and practical understanding of fish species and marine ingredients in order to develop feed products that address key aquaculture challenges each and every day.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
Aker BioMarine is a fishing company and a biotech company. We have some fantastic science for new products, with aim to improve animal and human health. Sometimes we look at fishing and high sea operations as less complicated than biotech, commercial operations and science, however, it is not. In fact, Aker BioMarine’s fishing operations are like nothing else. The fishermen and women harvest and process the products on board the vessel in Antarctica. It’s hard to imagine running a complicated operation like this that includes laboratories, a factory and product handling, in a nonstop capacity for months and months during year. The crew operating the vessel are the people pushing and motivating us to elevate our sustainability ambitions up to the highest levels. They are truly the heartbeat of the company and I am proud of the work they do.
In your opinion, what should other business and civic leaders do to further address these problems? Can you please share a few things that can be done to further address the problem of food insecurity?
Food security is a serious matter. In Europe, we have experienced historical high energy prices this winter. We suddenly found that the low energy prices we have taken for granted actually can be a limiting resource. We also see the problems coming with it such as the less fortunate are facing more challenges leading to social instability. Food is even more acute and important than energy.
Throughout many places on the planet, the population takes safe and affordable food for granted. But with the climate crisis, the change in energy systems and the overuse of land and loss of biodiversity, is challenging us to quickly find ways to increase production in a highly and real sustainable way. The oceans are an important place to look, but we still face some challenges. One challenge for ocean food production is the public perception that fishing and aquaculture are not sustainable, but that is not the case. Since history has its examples of unsustainable practices, we must move in a positive way forward. Governments need to invest in basic science, applied science and good resource management of the oceans to be able to innovate and produce more food from then oceans and seas.
Aker BioMarine has pioneered and developed a fishing operation in a stainable direction. We have learned that sustainability starts with good insights into the ecosystem and continues with very good fishery management as well as a responsible and competent operations. We, in Aker BioMarine, work closely with scientists, fishery managers and environmental NGOs. I have a clear opinion that the cooperation between all of these important stakeholders is very important for food production. We believe that our efforts since day one is part of the reason why our krill fishery is rated as the world’s most sustainable fishery by Sustainable Fishery Partnership, an independent, non-profit organization responsible for the most up-to-date assessment of stocks and fisheries in the Pacific and Atlantic.
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Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address the challenge of food scarcity? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work? Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.
As I mentioned earlier, I stayed at my family’s farm when I was younger. My uncle was a traditional farmer. He worked day in and day out, starting 5 am, to produce milk, meat and wool. He had a constant focus on operating as sustainably as he possible could. That farm showed me how production, sustainability and profit were linked together by hard work and dedication. Today, everything is much more complicated and it’s not as easy to understand where all the different decisions and actions will bring us to. I am very impressed by the Norwegian government’s effort to manage the oceans. They invest significantly into marine science and they have put a fishery management system in place with a strong focus to balance all stakeholder interests. This effort has brought the seafood sector to become Norway’s second biggest industry after oil and gas. If all coastal states had the same focus on the life in the ocean the globe could have a bigger and sustainable food production.
If you had the power to influence legislation, are there laws that you would like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
In the past years, there has been a clear focus on stopping illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries (IUU). For responsible companies, this has been an extremely important exercise. The IUU operators take marine resources from the legal ones, on top of damaging the market from both a reputation and price perspective. I would like regulators to keep pushing to ensure sustainability practices are in place for everyone. High standards for everyone will actually protect the oceans, which in return will help produce more food for us. Lower standards will enable operators to avoid costs, taking margins from the credible ones who are taking early steps to invest in increasing their operational standards.
Aker BioMarine has created a sustainability strategy that will cut CO2 emission by 50% within 2030. You can imagine we are eager that other fishing and freight vessels will implement the same goals. In Aker BioMarine we operate at the edge of Antarctica, so climate change is one of our main focus areas.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
When I started in Aker BioMarine, we were only 5 people in the office. Despite the small team, they had a lot of knowledge and in hindsight, I am impressed with all the information they already had. We had a very good cantina in the office, so I wish they warned me about the weigh increase I got from the hot lunches 😊
I also wish someone told me how long it takes to develop a new business. I had a 3-year horizon on the job when I started, but after 15 years, we are still plugging along to learn and grow.
The importance of having the right people on the team is crucial. This is something that I learned throughout the years. Aker BioMarine has the best employees in the industry. We cannot hire or ask someone outside the company about the krill industry since most of the knowledge has been developed in our company. Therefore, it’s extremely important we recruit people that are the right fit for Aker BioMarine and vice versa.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I recently read a book Atomic Habits. It’s about how taking small steps in the right direction will help create great end results. To that end, If I could create a movement, it would be to encourage everyone to start with small steps to eat healthy, consume less and create less emissions and garbage. Then gradually step up the game so in the end, we can have a planet that manages to produce more than enough of all the resources we use.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I am curious about how people think differently than me, so it should be with the previous president in the US or one of his followers at Capitol Hill.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://no.linkedin.com/in/sigve-nordrum-384889a
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aker-biomarine-antarctic/
https://www.facebook.com/akerbiomarine/
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
How Sigve Nordrum Of Aker BioMarine Is Helping To Address The Growing Challenge Of Food Insecurity was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.