SSPO looks for new chair to guide it through ‘period of change’
THE Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation is recruiting for a new chairman to ‘help drive the SSPO agenda forward and to bring rigour and focus to the board’.
The successful candidate will replace Gilpin Bradley, managing director of Wester Ross Fisheries, who stepped into the post two and a half years ago.
The organisation, which currently represents all Scotland’s seven salmon farming companies, is undergoing what it calls an organisational restructure to support a three-year strategy and operational plan.
In a recruitment brochure, the SSPO’s chief executive, Julie HeskethLaird, said: ‘The incoming chair will lead the board and executive to take forward a detailed review of the governance of the board and organisation, and support the bedding in of the ongoing structural changes.
‘The board wishes to see further change implemented to put in place a world class salmon producer organisation operating with the highest levels of effectiveness.’
The specifications for the chair’s role, outlined by executive recruitment agency FWB Park Brown, include: A passion for the cause of the
SSPO; Outstanding leadership skills with the experience, abilities and diplomacy to guide the SSPO through a continuing period of change and renewal; Experience of broadening an organisation’s audience and engagement. Key responsibilities of the position include representing the SSPO in an ambassadorial role; presenting the strategy and policies of the SSPO and actively promoting its interests to the outside world, including the media and senior business, administrative and political figures; and liaising with other organisations.
The expected time commitment of the post is approximately 30 days per year.
Bradley replaced Anne MacColl as chairman in February 2017, and has overseen the transition of the SSPO under its long serving chief executive Scott Landsburgh, who retired last year, to Hesketh-Laird.
A spokesperson for the SSPO said: ‘The SSPO has been undergoing a process of change – including the recruitment of a new chief executive – during which time Gilpin Bradley has very ably undertaken the temporary role of chairman to help steer us through the transition.
‘The SSPO is now reverting to having an independent chair. We look forward to recruiting someone who will relish the role of representing one of Scotland’s most successful and dynamic food sectors.’
The SSPO, which has recently moved its head office from Perth to Edinburgh, outlines its priorities in the recruitment brochure under three separate categories: engagement, sustainability and governance.
In the first, it highlights building the industry’s broader reputation as ‘a responsible and positive force in Scotland’; and demonstrating what Scottish salmon ‘puts back’ through its Community Charter, and community benefits, such as house building, broadband, and sponsorship.
Other priorities include accelerating and implementing the transparency agenda; and engagement with the supply chain.
Sustainability priorities include continued data collection and analysis; working with governments and regulators to ensure policies/models and regulations are fit for purpose and evidence based; supporting delivery of the 2030 ambition, and the Farmed Fish Health Framework; and the funding (via a separate levy on members) of an R&D project agreed by the board.
And under governance strategy, the priority is to ‘build the SSPO as a professional organisation, complementary to/not duplicating SSPO businesses’.