Libby Woodhatch

Executive Chair

Libby Woodhatch MSc, has worked for more than 20 years in the seafood supply chain and on standards development. Prior to becoming Executive Chair of MarinTrust, she was Head of Advocacy at Seafish, where her remit included the development of the Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) standard and a wider programme in seafood ethics. Libby was CEO of industry body Seafood Scotland for ten years, where she helped improve the value of return to the Scottish seafood industry. During this time, she also sat on the MSC’s Stakeholder Council. Libby is a Trustee of the Fishermen’s Mission, which provides welfare and support to fishermen and their families.

Francisco Aldon

CEO

Francisco Aldon has been CEO of MarinTrust since 2020. He is an active member of the various governing committees for the MarinTrust program, leading the development of the standards relevant to the production and further transformation of marine ingredients. Francisco is based in London, United Kingdom and has more than 15 years of professional experience in the food sector specifically in the production of marine ingredients such as fishmeal and fish oil. Graduated in Fisheries Engineering from UNALM, Peru with a Master of Science – Marine Ecology and Environmental Management from Queen Mary University of London. Frequent speaker at different international conferences on certification for responsible sourcing and production practices of marine ingredients as well as traceability in the aquaculture supply chain.

Francisco is also a member of the GDST Supervisory Board and a member of the Technical Committee for the development of the GSA Seafood Processing Standard.

Nicola Clark

Impacts Manager

Dr Nicola Clark graduated from the University of Leicester in 2010 with a Masters in Geology and then went on to graduate with a PhD in Geology in 2014. She joined MarinTrust (then IFFO RS) in 2017 as the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Coordinator and became the Impacts Manager in 2019. She currently manages the MarinTrust Improver Programme and is in charge of maintaining and developing the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning system for the company.
 

Laura Courage

Assurance and Risk Manager

Laura graduated from Nottingham with a BA Honours in Spanish and Italian and joined MarinTrust (then IFFO RS) in 2016 as the Standards Administrator before advancing through various roles, becoming the Assurance and Risk Manager in November 2021. She currently responsible for the oversight and management of the assurance, risk, and data governance systems to meet with strategic objectives as well as the maintenance of the credibility and relevancy of the MarinTrust programme. 

Dr Emily McGregor

Dr Emily McGregor

Fisheries Manager

Dr Emily McGregor is an environmental scientist with expertise in fisheries science and seafood certification.

Emily has a PhD from the University of Cape Town where she applied her research to support the implementation of ecosystem based fisheries management in South Africa's sardine fishery. Emily worked at the Marine Stewardship Council focussing on the implementation and revision of the MSC's fisheries standard. More recently Emily held the role of sustainability manager for a global aquaculture company where she developed an interest in improving aquaculture feed systems.

Emily takes a people-centered approach to solving complex problems, like fisheries management. She believes certification is an essential tool to help everyone to contribute to making a positive difference in our oceans.

Robin Allender

Data Officer

Robin Allender has a BA in English Language and Literature from St Anne’s College, Oxford and joined MarinTrust in 2020. As Data Officer, he is currently implementing a CRM system and developing a new online application platform for MarinTrust.

Astrid Velandia

Operations Manager

Astrid Velandia graduated from La Salle University, Colombia with a BA in Animal Science. She then graduated from Glasgow University in Veterinary Public Health. Her working experience includes farm assurance scheme certification in the UK and animal production and international trade in Latin America. She is currently undertaking an MBA in International Business at the London School of Business and Finance. As the new Operations Manager, Astrid manages the company operations and certification process. She hopes to improve MarinTrust's operations and contribute to the development of the MarinTrust certification programme.

Jocelyn

Jocelyn Amponsa-Atta

Assurance Officer

Jocelyn graduated from University of Cape Coast, Ghana with BSc honours in Biochemistry before obtaining MBA in Total Quality Management from University of Professional Studies Accra. She holds practitioner membership grade at Chartered Quality Institute. She has 8 years’ experience in practising quality assurance in pharmaceutical industry.  As a new Assurance Officer, she is responsible for robust implementation, maintenance and monitoring of MarinTrust assurance system.

Javier Samy

Certification Programme Officer

Javier graduated from University of East London with a BA in International Business. He joined MarinTrust in 2023 in order to support the day-to-day operations of all activities relating to the MarinTrust programme.

Javier is keen to promote environmental sustainability issues and is proud to contribute to best practice in the sourcing and production of marine ingredients.