Board and Administration

Board Members

Antonio Garza de Yta (President)

Antonio Garza de Yta

Dr Antonio Garza de Yta received his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey (1997), and an M.Sc. (2001) and Ph.D. in Aquaculture (2009) from Auburn University. He is current Past President of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS), and the President for Aquaculture without Frontiers Latin America.

During the last couple of decades Dr. Garza worked hands-on with farmers and was actively involved in turn-key projects and training in aquaculture in Mexico and Latin America. He has given lectures on Crustacean Aquaculture, Water Quality Management and Aquaculture Development and performed training around the world. Dr. Garza has worked as a private consultant for aquaculture projects in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Chile, Argentina, Ghana, Lebanon, and Australia. He has been involved in several diagnoses and strategic planning programs and has cooperated actively with FAO since 2007. As well, he has participated as speaker in most of the important events of aquaculture worldwide (WAS, FAO, UNIDO among others). Dr. Garza has published and served as reviewer of articles in several scientific journals and magazines worldwide.

Dr. Garza, in collaboration with Auburn University’s Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, developed the Certification for Aquaculture Professionals (CAP) Program. He actively promoted the Certification in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. He firmly believes that education and professionalization of aquaculture are the key components most needed worldwide to develop individual and commercial enterprise. He served as Director General for Planning, Programming and Evaluation of the National Commission for Aquaculture and Fisheries in Mexico (CONAPESCA), and as Rector of the Universidad Tecnologica del Mar de Tamaulipas Bicentenario, until he recently was appointed as Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture for the State of Tamaulipas, México.

He is currently Vice President of CIDEEA and Senior Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisor to AWJ Innovation currently residing in Oman.

Angela Caporelli

Angela Caporelli

In her role as Aquaculture Coordinator and Marketing Specialist in Kentucky, Angela works with farmers and industry to promote and educate re aquaculture practices to promote and increase awareness of the value of aquaculture. Angela is a specialist in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans and assists processors to ensure safe food products.

With such strong skills in aquaculture extension for extensive culture and semi-intensive production systems, food safety issues and concerns in aquaculture, and rural aquaculture/agriculture integration for increased production, Angela has a proven record of delivery.

Angela is currently Vice President of the World Aquaculture Society and will become President next year.

Having had first-hand knowledge and experience of being an Aquaculture without Frontiers volunteer (http://vegaalliance.org/success-stories/angela-caporelli-awf-through-farmer-to-farmer/), and having worked with other groups in Africa, Angela is keen to bring all her expertise to the board table.

Dave Conley (Treasurer/Secretary)

Dave Conley

Dave Conley is Senior Consultant and Founding Partner of the Aquaculture Communications Group (ACG). His career in aquaculture grew out of his interests and training in agriculture, renewable resources development, and parasitology. He has over 50 years of diverse practical experience in food and fibre production, research, journalism, public policy development, public education, and communications. From 1999 to 2004 Dave served as Communications and Policy Advisor to Canada’s first and only Commissioner for Aquaculture Development at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and was part of the team that produced two strategic policy documents for the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans – Achieving the Vision, 2003, and Recommendations for Change, 2003. He holds an M.Sc. in Parasitology from the Institute of Parasitology, McGill University, and a B.Sc. (Agr.), Renewable Resources Development, from the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University. He also holds a Diploma in Agriculture, Farm Business Management, from Kemptville College, University of Guelph.

Gorjan Nikolik

Gorjan Nikolik

Gorjan Nikolik

Since joining Rabobank International in 2005, Gorjan Nikolik (36) has been an industry analyst focusing on the global seafood sector including aquaculture, wild-catch, seafood trade and processing. In his primary role, he works as a sector expert to Rabobank departments such as Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Finance, Venture Capital, Credit Risk Management and the Relationship Bankers. He is a regular speaker on global seafood and aquaculture conferences and has published research reports covering the seafood industry. He also has experience as a commodity analyst having covered the sugar industry. Gorjan holds a masters degree in Finance and Business Administration from the University of Maastricht and an MBA from Maastricht School of Management.

Michael Lee

Michael Lee

Michael Lee

Michael Lee has been a professor at the California State University East Bay since 1996, specializing in the sustainability of natural resources management. He received his Bachelors degree in Geography with minors in Economics and Soil Mechanics from the University of Nottingham (1982) and his Ph.D. in Geography/Hydrology from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1990). He previously taught natural resources planning and management at the Pan-American School of Agriculture (Zamorano), Honduras (1993-96) and has worked as a consultant for various resource-related agencies both in California and internationally over the last three decades. He was appointed the Director of Education and Policy for the newly established Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) Aquaculture Center in 2015, and is the MLML Visiting Scientist for 2016-17 where he will work on developing aquaculture curriculum and on aquaculture life cycle cost assessment.

Marty Riche

Marty Riche

International in scope, Dr. Riche’s aquaculture experience in the private, public, and academic sectors spans 30 years, and he is recognized as an expert in freshwater and marine fish culture, larval culture, feed formulation, fish nutrition, and design and operation of recirculating aquaculture systems.

He served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He received an M.S. from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University, both in Aquatic Animal Nutrition, and earned the Global Young Scholars’ Award.

In 1997, Dr. Riche was selected for the National Academies of Science Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program. He served a one-year appointment to the National Indian Center for Marine and Environmental Research & Education to develop research facilities and curricula in aquaculture.

In 2001, Dr. Riche joined USDA’s Agricultural Research Service as the Lead Scientist for the Sustainable Marine Aquaculture Systems project located at FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and later received the Agricultural Research Service’s Southern Plains Area Early Career Research Scientist of the Year award.

He serves as an AwF volunteer in African nations, sharing his knowledge with governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as with small- and medium-scale farmers (http://vegaalliance.org/success-stories/marty-riche-farmer-to-farmer-aquaculture-in-tanzania-and-kenya/).

He has served on multiple F2F projects. In 2015, he completed the VEGA sponsored workshop A Successful Transition to 2 CFR 200/700.

Polly Legendre (CFO/Secretary)

Polly Legendre

Polly Legendre

Polly is a founding partner of Polished Brands, a San Francisco Bay Area strategy and marketing firm focused on food and beverage with a particular interest in seafood. As the first American to graduate from the Ecole Superieure de Cuisine Francaise, she spent close to a decade cooking in some of the most famous restaurants in Paris, thereby securing her spot in the inner sanctum of the culinary world. Now, back in her native California, Polly continues to work developing marketing strategies that help bring recognition and value to seafood businesses.

Passionate about seafood Polly looks forward to bringing value to AwF to develop marketing, branding assets, training and education tools to help alleviate poverty and malnutrition.

Polly also serves as a mentor for Local Food Lab, a Palo Alto-based business incubator for early stage sustainable food and farm startups.

Roy Palmer 

Roy Palmer

Roy has been engaged in the seafood industry since 1972. He became involved in ‘industry issues’ in the early 1980’s when he was elected inaugural President of the Victorian Importers Association.

Since then he has engaged in many industry activities at various levels during which time he served as Deputy Chairman of Seafood Services Australia Ltd, and on the Boards of Seafood Training Australia and Victoria’s Fisheries Co-Management Council.

Roy is currently  involved in many seafood activities, mainly with global organisations, which he sees as being important in respect of food security/safety, alleviating hunger/poverty, increasing seafood consumption, certification, marketing and training/education. See LinkedIn

Technical Committee

John Forster

John Forster

John Forster

John Forster worked on shrimp aquaculture for the UK government from 1965 to 1973 and then joined The British Oxygen Co. for whom he established and ran a commercial trout farm and an international technical services business. In 1984, he moved to the U.S. and set up Stolt Sea Farm’s West Coast salmon and sturgeon farming operations before starting his own consulting practice in 1994. In that year also John founded Columbia River Fish Farms LLC, the largest U.S. producer of steelhead trout. As a consultant he responds to the needs of public and private sector clients, serves on the boards of some aquaculture companies and is a recently retired member of NOAA’s Marine Fishery Advisory Committee.

Michael (Mike) Deal                                                                                                      

Mike is a highly credible international development leader with extensive experience delivering results in the non-profit, business, and government sectors.  Mike has served in a number of executive management positions over his career, most recently as the President and CEO of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA), which incorporated 30 member NGOs (including AwF) with a combined network of over 100,000 skilled volunteers, and managed over $350 million in USAID grants in 56 countries.  Previously, Mike was President and CEO of Crown Agents USA, Inc., where he directed the rapid ramp-up of U.S. operations for this global international development company.

Mike began his career in international development with the U.S. Agency for International Development.  He was USAID Mission Director in Colombia, culminating a 28-year Foreign Service career which included serving as Acting Assistant Administrator for Latin America and assignments in six developing countries. He achieved the rank of Minister Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service and received the Administrator’s Outstanding Career Achievement Award.

Richard (Rick) C. Karney

Rick Karney

Rick has B.S., Biological Sciences, (Rutgers University) and has been the Shellfish Biologist and Director of the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, Inc., and worked with TerrAqua since 1998. Before that, he worked for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

For the past 30 years Rick has carried out a successful community-based resource development program for the commercially important shellfish species on Martha’s Vineyard. Management efforts have concentrated on the development of hatchery and field aquaculture methods for shellfish and the operation of the Nation’s first public solar shellfish hatchery. In the mid 1990’s, with a $500,000 National Marine Fisheries Service grant, he conducted a shellfish aquaculture retraining program for fishermen displaced by fishing closures on Georges Bank. He has continued helping these fishermen to market their cultured oysters. In 2001, Rick was awarded the Gulf of Maine Visionary Award by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment in part for demonstrating “that shellfish aquaculture can be an environmentally and economically sustainable activity for coastal communities”.  He is a past Vice President of the National Shellfisheries Association. He has been co-chair of the Southeast Massachusetts Aquaculture Center since 2001.