Seafish appoints civil servant as new CEO

The new boss is Colin Faulkner, the successor to Marcus Coleman, who is leaving at the end of the year after a decade in the post to take up a new role as Chief Executive of the Water Management Alliance and its member boards.

Faulkner has been head of International Fisheries and Seafood Trade Policy at Defra, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, since 2018. He takes up his new role in early January.

Between 2015 and 2018, he was Director of Government Affairs for, first the UK Green Investment Bank and then Macquarie in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Before that stint in the private sector, he worked across a wide variety of constitutional, environment and fisheries policy roles in the UK and Scottish Governments. 

Seafish Chairman Mike Sheldon said: “I am very pleased that we have been able to attract someone of such high calibre and industry knowledge as Colin Faulkner to join us as Seafish Chief Executive.

“We have known and worked successfully with Colin for many years and we look forward to continuing that to great effect in his new role.”

He added: “Colin has big shoes to fill as Marcus leaves us but the Board and I have every confidence in him. We thank Marcus for his 10 years of service at Seafish and wish him every success in his new role.”

Faulkner said: “Joining Seafish feels like the start of an exciting new chapter, both for me and for the organisation. I can’t wait to get started on working with all parts of the seafood industry across the UK, and the whole team at Seafish, to take the organisation to new heights.”

Seafish is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) set up by the Fisheries Act 1981. Its sponsors are the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolved administrations.

It says: “Using our unique, non-competitive position, we work in partnership with businesses, Government and organisations to overcome challenges and seize opportunities.”

Seafish is funded by a levy on the first sale of seafood in the UK. Its remit does not include farmed salmon, but it does cover farmed shellfish.