Media spokespeople

Mike Montgomerie, Gear Technologist
Mike's first fishing job was as a crew member on a 75 foot trawler targeting prawns, whitefish and pelagic fish on a seasonal basis all around the Scottish coastline.
He was very quickly 'promoted' to engineer on this vessel. After about three years he moved on to a 55 foot trawler and within two years became part owner of this boat. In 1992 this boat was replaced with a 3 year old 19.2 metre trawler.
Mike worked on and maintained both these vessels as part owner/ engineer and skipper in along with his co-owner for several years until 1997 when he took up a job as a Gear Technologist with Seafish.
Over the years, Mike has had an input into most of the Seafish projects involving trawl gear as well as assisting in research projects into many other types of fishing gear. More recently, as well as running training courses, Mike has taken an active part in the EU Recovery project (cod) to develop a method of excluding cod from trawls.

Philip MacMullen, Head of Environmental Responsibility
Philip MacMullen has worked in the fishing and seafood industries for over 30 years. He has 25 years' experience in the management of very diverse research and development programmes focusing on fish harvesting technology and the interactions between fisheries, the broader natural environment, management regimes and the market. He also has extensive knowledge of the seafood industry in the UK, continental Europe and elsewhere plus consultancy experience in the Middle East and the Americas.  All of his work has reflected a keen interest in issues relating to sustainable and integrated development and has benefited from his strong record in initiating and co-ordinating research and development projects.
Much of Philip's current work involves encouraging dialogue between the disparate stakeholders that have an interest in the marine environment, looking for the factors that are driving their policy decisions and exploring supply chain solutions where there are problems in sustainable or responsible sourcing. This involves working with the major players in the multiple retail and foodservice sectors, with regulators and conservationists and with fishermen and their representatives.

Paul Williams, Chief Executive
After gaining a PhD at the University of Manchester, Paul's career began as a research fellow at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. Paul now has more than 25 years of experience in managing research and development teams, with much of that time spent working in the salmon farming industry in Scotland and Norway.
Paul Williams joined Seafish as Research Director in January 2004 and became Chief Executive in 2010. Paul is a council member for the Shellfish Association of Great Britain and is on the Boards of Whitby Fishermen's Training School, the Scottish Aquaculture Research Association and the British Fin Fish Association.

Hazel Curtis, Chief Economist
Hazel has extensive experience in seafood industry analysis and in particular, fleet and processing sector economics.  She has delivered an extensive range of key research and consulting projects to private and public sector clients, including SGMD, Defra and DGFish / DGMare.  Hazel has specific experience in fleet profit analysis and forecasting and in value chain analysis, considering the linkages through businesses in all stages of the seafood value chain.  In 2007, Hazel's expertise was recognised when she was appointed as a member of the plenary committee of the EU Commission's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF).  Hazel is Vice President of the European Association of Fisheries Economists.

Karen Galloway, Manager, Market Planning and Strategy
Karen Galloway has worked in the UK seafood industry at Seafish since 2005 in a variety of marketing and promotional roles. She is an established food marketer having worked in a variety of FMCG businesses in commercially focused Category, Brand and Consumer roles.
As Market Planning Manager, Karen focuses on understanding the complex demand structure for seafood in the UK. She has a close understanding of a range of consumer research techniques and with her team continually tracks the subtle changes in the demands of UK consumers for seafood and seafood products. In addition to this, Karen has a clear understanding of collaborative supply chains and the business benefits these can deliver in commercial businesses.

Fiona Wright, Food Standards Officer
Fiona gives advice on legal requirements relating to labelling, waste, animal by-products, food safety, advertising and marketing. She is involved in the development of the new animal by-products regulation and food information regulation. She is also working on amendments to the code of practice on fish declarations.
Fiona produces guidance on interpretation of legislation and also writes regular articles in the media.
Fiona's responsibilities have included negotiations during the development of the general food law regulation, food hygiene regulations, animal by-products regulation and allergen labelling, working closely with relevant government departments to ensure the best working and interpretation of new legislation.

Mick Bacon, Responsible Fishing Scheme coodinator
Mick runs the Responsible Fishing Scheme on behalf of Seafish. This role includes the management and organisation of approximately 15 regionally based coaches, coordination of vessel certification audits, together with promotion, review and development of scheme specification and requirements.
Prior to joining Seafish in 2004 employed for 9 years as a Local Authority Environmental Health Inspector having responsibility for daily inspections of Newlyn fish market in Cornwall and the many associated fish processors and wholesalers in the surrounding area.
Mick has a BSc (Hons) in Fisheries Science and has also co-owned and run an under 10m commercial fishing vessel.