Setting the course with leadership and experience

Bob Desautel

Chairman

Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer Global Seas

Bob Desautel is co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Global Seas and Nina Fisheries, Inc. In 1994, he co-founded Nina Fisheries, which rapidly expanded globally to Chile and Argentina four years later. In 2001, Desautel co-founded Global Seas, a subsidiary of Nina Fisheries, which quickly became one of the West Coast’s premier vessel management companies. Under Desautel’s direction, Global Seas expanded its business operations on the East Coast as co-owner of the seafood processing company Norpel and into the maritime research field as owner and operator of the R/V Mt. Mitchell.

In 1978, while studying business at the University of Nevada, Desautel began his career as a deckhand fishing in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Taking quickly to the industry and advancing to Captain in 1980, he went on to serve as Captain of various fishing vessels until 2002, when he retired from the ocean to focus solely on the expansion of Global Seas.

Since making the transition from the wheelhouse, Desautel has worked tirelessly at promoting Wild Alaska Pollock and educating the public about the benefits and attributes of the fish. Desautel was instrumental in the re-formation of the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP 2.0) and now serves on the Board of Directors and Chairs the organization’s sustainability committee. As Chair, Desautel championed the industry’s first-ever Life Cycle Assessment to measure the fishery’s carbon footprint – bringing third-party scientific credibility to the notion that Wild Alaska Pollock has a lower environmental impact than practically any other protein source on the planet. Desautel is such an evangelist for the species that he has coined the phrase “Wild Alaska Pollock is good for you and good for the planet” and has served as a spokesperson for the fish and fishery—and its incredibly low carbon footprint—alongside GAPP CEO, appearing on Fox News, ABC News, and in multiple print publications including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Good News Network.

Desautel has served as President and Member of the Board of the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association, advocating safety education for the commercial fishing industry by providing information about USCG requirements, OSHA compliance standards, MARPOL, hands-on training programs, and safety seminars and workshops. In 1993, Desautel co-founded United Catcher Boats, served as a Member of the Board, and later as Vice President, all the while promoting the organization’s importance to the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and West Coast fisheries. His efforts serving on these Boards, as well as his involvement in other organizations, have improved safety and created efficiencies in the commercial fishing and maritime industries.

Bob resides in Seattle, WA with his wife Hallie, and children. Despite his dedication to growing Global Seas and his latest venture, Norpel, Bob continues to keep his United States Coast Guard (issue no.7) Masters 3000 ITC License current.

Doug Christensen

Treasurer

Arctic Storm Holding Company

Doug Christensen joined Arctic Storm Holding Company LLC in October of 1986 and was promoted to president in 1992. Today, Doug holds the additional title of CEO. Doug attended the University of Washington and earned two degrees: a Bachelor of Science in Fisheries and a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting. In addition to his GAPP board membership, Doug serves as chairman of the United States Surimi Commission, as president of the Pollock Conservation Cooperative, and as director of the At-Sea Processors Association.

Hunter Berns

Director

Hunter Berns is the General Manager of Bering North LLC,  which owns and operates 9 catcher vessels that operate in the Bering Sea pollock and cod fisheries and the Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries. Hunter was born and raised in Kodiak, Alaska where he grew up fishing for salmon seining and gillnetting for his parents around Kodiak Island. He holds a M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University. He is also honored to serve as President of United Catcher Boats, a trade group that represents and advocates for trawl catcher vessels in Alaska and the West Coast.

He is father to three amazing young children and husband to his beautiful wife, Sarah. He enjoys cooking and making woodfired pizza with his family, and enjoying the beautiful areas around Washington.

Joe Bundrant

Director

Trident Seafoods

Joseph L. Bundrant, son of company founder Chuck Bundrant, is the chief executive officer of Trident Seafoods Corporation headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Starting with a single vessel in 1973, Trident now operates a fleet of modern offshore vessels, shore-based primary processing operations, and critical independent fleet support services located in coastal communities throughout Alaska. Trident also owns facilities in Seattle, Anacortes, Bellingham, and Everett. With secondary processing facilities and sales offices located around the globe, Trident has grown to become the largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company in North America.

Born on the remote island of Kodiak, Alaska, Joe has continued the tradition of growing the family-owned business from the inside out; nurturing loyal employees and fishermen while extending Trident’s brand and trusted reputation around the globe. Married to his high school sweetheart for more than 30 years, Joe and Mary live in Richmond Beach, Washington and take great pride in their two married daughters, three sons, and two grandchildren.

Eric Deakin

Director

Coastal Villages Region Fund

Eric Deakin is the Chief Executive Officer at Coastal Villages Region Fund. Before serving as CEO, Eric was the Chief Operating Officer from 2018-2020. He began at Coastal Villages as an IT Manager in July of 2008 and has been with the company since. 

Before starting his career, Eric attended University of Phoenix. In 1998, Eric started working at Xerox as a Senior Systems Analyst and used his technical expertise there for more than 7 years. After working at Xerox, Eric transitioned to TKC Communications where he diligently served as the Director of Alaska/Pacific Operations. 

Eric represents the at-sea processors sector of the Wild Alaska Pollock industry on the GAPP Board of Directors and offers highly valuable insights to help further the mission of GAPP.

John Henderschedt

Director

Mark JoHahnson

Director

Westward Seafoods

Mark JoHahnson serves as president of Westward Seafoods and Alyeska Seafoods, the U.S. subsidiaries of Maruha-Nichiro Group. Mark was appointed to this role in 2015 and has worked with the company since 1994. Mark has served on the GAPP board of directors since 2015.

Jim Johnson

Director

Glacier Fish Company

Jim Johnson is President, Chief Executive Officer and a partner in Glacier Fish Company (Glacier), which owns and operates two American Fisheries Act catcher processors and Glacier is the largest owner and manager of North Star Fishing Company which owns two multi-species ground fish catcher processors including a brand-new state of the art vessel commissioned in 2021.  Jim is a board member of Glacier Fish Company and North Star Fishing Company, is a board member of the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers, is board President of the At-Sea Processors Association (APA) and is a board member of the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative. Prior to his current Role at Glacier, Jim served as President of Glacier since 2011 and was Glacier’s Vice President of Corporate Finance and Development starting in 2009.  Prior to that Jim was Managing Director and divisional head at KeyBanc Capital markets with a focus on maritime industries.  Jim has degrees from the University of Rochester and the University of Pittsburgh.

Grant Mirick

Director

Chief Operating Officer, Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association

Grant Mirick is the chief operating officer and oversees APICDA’s subsidiaries. Grant has been involved in the Alaska fishing and processing industries for more than 30 years with positions and activities in corporate management, production management, quality control, domestic and international seafood sales and commercial fishing. After working his way through college with fishing industry jobs in Unalaska and Kodiak, Grant moved to Kodiak full-time in the early 1980s to work for Ocean Beauty Seafoods. In 1993 he accepted a job managing the Kodiak Salmon Packers facility in Larsen Bay and worked between Seattle and the village of Larsen Bay for the next 13 years. Community outreach and joint projects with the community of Larsen Bay were some of the most memorable and rewarding parts of his job. He went to work for Snopac Products in 2007 as the director of sales and in 2010 was promoted to chief operating officer, which included overseeing operations in Dillingham and the M/V Snopac Innovator. After the sale of Snopac Products in 2013, Grant went to work for Welmar Pacific as their vice president of operations where he led the team for Alaska salmon sales.

James Mize

Director

James is the President of Golden Alaska Seafoods, an at-sea mothership processor active in the Bering Sea pollock fishery with a fleet of eight associated harvesting vessels.  The MV Golden Alaska is unique in that it is directly owned by the fishermen that own the boats that deliver pollock to it in proportion to their catch and thus is the closest thing to an agricultural cooperative in the Bering Sea where instead of farmers joining together to build the grain elevator to distribute grain to a hungry world, here it is fishermen joining to support the processing and distribution to feed high-quality, nutritious, abundant and sustainable pollock protein products to the same hungry world.

James brings a lifetime of fishing experience to his role, having fished in groundfish and crab fisheries throughout Alaska and the west coast.  James is the proverbial officer that “crawled up the hawsepipe,” having worked his way up from processor to deckhand, engineer, first mate and finally captain, having achieving his USCG captain’s license in 1994 before eventually coming ashore to management.  After a long education at sea, James eventually got his education at University of Washington and UCLA, where he received a JD/MBA, as well as Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) where he earned a Masters in Development Studies under a Fulbright Scholarship.  James briefly practiced law at a big firm and as NOAA General Counsel before returning in 2012 to fisheries management in the mothership sector of the pollock fishery.

James lives in South Snohomish County with his wonderful wife Gail and two college-aged children.  When not focused on day-to-day operations running Golden Alaska Seafoods, you will likely find James on a beach digging clams, a boat in Puget Sound chasing salmon, or hiking in the mountains looking for wild mushrooms.