Hatch hires Hoel as it moves closer to salmon industry
Aquaculture accelerator and early-stage venture capital firm Hatch has appointed Tanja Hoel, a founder and former director of the Seafood Innovation Cluster in Bergen, Norway, as its innovation manager.
Her recruitment dovetails with Hatch’s goal to expand its innovation services towards aquaculture corporates and governments.
“We want to focus on tying closer bonds with the aquaculture industry. Given the importance of the salmon industry, we believe Tanja has the right expertise and network to facilitate Hatch’s global industry connections,” said Hatch managing partner and co-founder Georg Baunach.
Salmon network
In a press release, Hatch said Hoel was chosen due to her expertise and network in the salmon industry in Norway as well as experience setting up new innovation programs with governments.
The next step for Hatch is to grow and strengthen its leadership position in aquaculture innovation, said the company. This will include building an advisory and consulting business on top of existing innovation offerings, where Hoel will play a major role.
“I am so excited to be a part of Hatch,” said Hoel.
“The key to sustainable growth is innovation. Hatch has built an impressive portfolio of cutting-edge entrepreneurs and has set a high ambition to be a global player in innovation towards the global aquaculture industry.”
Corporate engagement
Hoel´s key responsibilities will be to lead all corporate and government engagement, including management of all existing corporates partners, and bring in new clients for the innovation service offering.
Over the past two years Hatch has grown from three co-founders to a team of eight full-time employees and offices in Bergen, Singapore and Hawaii. It is currently recruiting start-ups to take part in its fourth aquaculture accelerator programme.
Previous programmes have been run from Bergen, Cork in Ireland and most recently Hawaii.
