GAA Lifetime Achievement Award

Mr Herzig will be presented with the award during GAA’s GOAL 2015 conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday 29 October.

“From the very beginning, Bill Herzig has passionately and unselfishly devoted himself to GAA. The organisation would not exist today were it not for him,” said George Chamberlain, GAA president.

A champion of seafood sustainability, Mr Herzig’s career in seafood spans more than four decades. After graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology, he took a job with Rich-SeaPak, working his way up to senior vice president of operations, procurement, quality assurance and commodity sales over his 23 year career at the St Simons, Georgia seafood company.

Mr Herzig joined Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants, the world’s largest casual dining company, as director of seafood purchasing in 1997, graduating to VP of seafood purchasing two years later.

He worked his way up to senior VP of purchasing and supply chain innovation, responsible for all purchasing across the 2,000-restaurant chain, before transitioning over to president of Darden Aquafarms, an integrated lobster aquaculture facility in Malaysia.

Along with GAA President George Chamberlain, he was instrumental in the formation of GAA in 1997.

Currently, Mr Herzig is president of Sustainable Strategies and Initiatives. In addition to GAA, he has been involved with the National Fisheries Institute.