Meetings of the Board of AwF and the Trustees of AwF (UK) were held on May 21 2008 in Busan, Korea, hosted by the World Aquaculture Society. Board meetings are normally held during WAS conferences since they provide opportunities to hold them at no cost to AwF. On this occasion, several good friends of AwF also attended the meeting, contributed many ideas for its future, and pledged further support.

During the board meeting of AwF the Founder, Michael New, announced that he was stepping down as a Director. He said that he was very pleased indeed with the way that AwF had developed since he introduced the concept in 2003 and launched AwF in 2004. He also thanked the many people who had worked hard (and still are) to achieve its current success, especially those on the board, those in the technical advisory group, those working in its field projects, and those who raise funds for its project work (without whom there would be no AwF).

Recording his pleasure that Kevin Fitzsimmons had joined the AwF board two years ago and that he had accepted to become its Chairman in 2007, Michael expects AwF to develop significantly further and to expand its activities under his leadership. The planned expansion in the composition of the board will assist in this goal. 

Michael New explained that he was withdrawing as a Director of AwF because he had overseen its development for its first five years and was now confident that it was fulfilling its goals. Now that AwF is firmly on its feet, with a wide body of enthusiastic support around the world and many successful completed and on-going projects to assist the poor through aquaculture, he felt that he should step back and allow it to move on without his daily involvement.

Michael stated that his decision did not in any way imply that he was not interested in AwF any more! Indeed, the opposite is true. He said that he will continue to watch its development as a successful NGO with keen personal interest, hopes that AwF will find that using his name as its Founder will prove useful in the future, and pledges to give his continued support when required.

Michael New noted that he will also remain active as the Chairman of AwF (UK).