MSD Animal Health has appointed Sophie Smith as its UK aquaculture business manager.
Ms Smith will be responsible for product strategy and planning, key account management, market intelligence, pricing and projects coordination and leadership of the aqua team.
Albert Urbanek, integrated livestock business unit director at MSD Animal Health (known as Merck & Co Inc. Kenilworth NJ, in the United States and Canada), said: “We are delighted to welcome Sophie to our team and look forward to utilising her widespread knowledge of the animal health industry and aquaculture industry.”
Salmon focus
Ms Smith will complete the UK leadership team, which works with the top five farmed salmon producers on their fish health programmes by providing products including SLICE and the Aquavac range of vaccines.
She joins MSD Animal Health from Agrihealth where she led the UK sales operation. She was CEO at Downland Marketing Ltd for nine years and prior to that with Pfizer Animal Health and at Grampian Pharmaceuticals developing a sea lice treatment for salmon.
Ms Smith commented: “Scottish salmon’s reputation is built on high standards of fish health and welfare and the industry clearly has some significant challenges ahead over the next few years working towards its goal of increasing production to 210,000 tonnes by 2020, and doubling the annual contribution of the Aquaculture Industry to Scotland’s economy to £3.6bn by 2030.
“Careful management of fish health, whilst minimizing our environmental footprint is absolutely fundamental to achievement of the above production goals, and this is where I intend to focus our efforts.”
Ms Smith replaces Dafydd Morris, who now heads up MSD Animal Health’s operations as general manager for Nordics Aqua.
