Fortune International Appoints Top Executives
Fortune International, LLC, the country’s leading processor, distributor and importer of quality seafood, meats and gourmet products, has appointed six senior executives to further strengthen and expand the company’s financial, operational and marketing capabilities.
Joel Jorgensen
Fortune named Joel Jorgensen as chief financial officer, Richard Deferia as chief revenue officer and Kevin Hoople as chief information officer, all reporting to President and CEO Sean O’Scannlain. The company also named Ethan Farber as vice president of marketing, Steven Gwozdz as vice president of frozen seafood and Trey Kidd as market vice president of Texas.
“We are very pleased to announce the addition of six exceptional new senior executives to our leadership, corporate and regional teams at the start of 2024,” O’Scannlain said. “We continue to attract the industry’s very best talent, which allows us to invest in and build stronger customer relationships, accelerate business momentum and drive growth into new markets. I look forward to supporting my new colleagues in their new responsibilities. This is an exciting way to start off the new year.”
Jorgensen will oversee overall financial and operational management at Fortune, as well as play a key leadership role in strategic business planning, M&A execution and integration. He brings over 15 years of financial executive experience in food distribution and packaging to Fortune.
Previously, Jorgensen was chief financial officer at B2B Industrial Packaging, LLC in Addison, Ill., where he led and supported the acquisition of 16 companies and built out the company’s leadership, treasury and HR functions. Before that, he was CFO at Harvest Sherwood Food Distributors in Detroit. He received his B.A. in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa.
Richard Deferia
Deferia will lead and support the continued national expansion of the Fortune Fish & Gourmet distribution business. He has over 15 years of experience in the food and restaurant industries, starting his career as a chef before transitioning into sales and marketing. Before Fortune, Deferia spent 13 years at Sysco, starting his career as a marketing associate before working up to Regional vice president of sales mideast region.
Prior, he was an executive chef at Dockside Jack’s and JB’s Wharf in Michigan. Deferia received a degree of culinary arts from the French Culinary Institute and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame.
Kevin Hoople
Hoople will be responsible for overseeing Fortune’s IT, information security teams and strategy, with an initial focus on data collection infrastructure. He has been an IT executive in the food and distribution industries for over 20 years.
Prior to Fortune, he spent 14 years at Lawson Products, starting as a director of ERP integration & deployment and rising eventually to chief information officer. Before Lawson, Hoople spent 10 years at Reyes Holdings L.L.C. and Martin-Brower L.L.C. He received his B.A. in management computer systems from the University of Wisconsin.
Farber brings nearly 20 years of experience in brand and creative strategy, strategic planning and business insights to the company. Prior to joining Fortune, he was Senior vice president and partner in creative planning at FleishmanHillard in Chicago. Before that, he was executive vice president and U.S. head of planning at BCW Global, formerly Burson-Marsteller, for nearly six years. He is an alumnus of Bowdoin College.
Experienced in front-line retail operations, Gwozdz is a senior food industry leader with expertise across fresh commodities and other categories. Before joining Fortune, he was a category manager III of Seafood Merchandising at Stop and Shop Supermarkets. Gwozdz also spent three years as category manager III of meat merchandising at Giant Food Stores and, before that, as a manager of meat merchandising at Price Chopper/Market 32. He is an alumnus of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.
Based in the Greater Houston area, Kidd is a proven sales and operations leader with over 20 years of experience in the food and beverage industry. Before joining Fortune to oversee Texas operations, he was general manager for three years at BakeMark, a manufacturer and distributor of bakery ingredients. Prior to that, he spent nearly 22 years at Sysco, rising from a marketing associate to vice president of field sales for the Southern Market. He received his B.S. in agriculture from Texas A&M University.
Fortune International, LLC, is the parent operating company of Fortune Fish & Gourmet, a full-service processor and distributor providing white-tablecloth restaurants, private clubs, elegant hotels and gourmet retail stores with the finest quality fresh, live and frozen seafood and gourmet foods. The company handles more than 18,000 unique products daily and delivers to more than 35,000 customer locations throughout the United States with a fleet of refrigerated vehicles, and nationally through FedEx and common carriers. For more information, visit www.fortunefishco.net.
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Prime Shrimp to Give Away Free Products to New Orleans Winner
Prime Shrimp, a New Orleans-based maker of seasoned and sauced frozen shrimp products, is ringing in the New Year with its Free Shrimp for a Year 2024 giveaway. One lucky winner from the greater New Orleans area will receive a 1-year supply of free shrimp equal to 4 pounds per month. Consumers can enter via Instagram or Tik Tok on or before Dec. 30. The brand has partnered with New Orleans-based content creator Alex Robinson to spread the news via Tik Tok and Instagram.
“Shrimp is a staple in the Gulf South, and we want to create exciting new options that offer value and convenience, so shrimp is an easy choice to cook even more often,” said Matt Rosenthal, commercial manager at Prime Shrimp. “With this giveaway, we hope to share what we’ve created with the greater New Orleans community, and to create excitement about an innovative new shrimp product.”
Prime Shrimp, a company steeped in nearly 80 years of seafood industry knowledge, is working to revolutionize the seafood category with a fresh take on shrimp offerings. The brand offers sustainably sourced seasoned and sauced shrimp in vacuum-packed boil-in-bag technology unlike anything else seen in common seafood aisles today. With this unique value-added product, Prime Shrimp combines the best of quality and convenience to make shrimp a quick protein option for home chefs of any skill level.
The winner of the Free Shrimp for a Year 2024 giveaway will receive eight packages per month of any flavor of Prime Shrimp’s frozen boil-in-bag seasoned and sauced shrimp products delivered directly to their home for a total of 12 months, beginning January.
All shoppers are invited to enter via Instagram or Tik Tok. To enter the giveaway, shoppers must follow Prime Shrimp on Instagram and/or Tik Tok and comment on the giveaway post tagging two friends on or before December 30.
The potential winner will be chosen at random and notified by social media direct message on or around Jan. 3. The notification will be sent to the profile used to enter the giveaway via Instagram or Tik Tok comments. After the potential winner responds to the email and their eligibility is confirmed, Prime Shrimp will provide further instructions on obtaining their 12-month supply of shrimp. Shrimp may be dispatched monthly or all at once, according to shopper preference.
For simple steps on how to enter, visit https://www.primeshrimp.com/blogs/news/free-shrimp-for-a-year-sweepstakes-2024
Regardless of the giveaway, all shoppers can save on shrimp throughout the holiday season with weekly sale promotions from Prime Shrimp now through the new year. Available in a range of sauced and seasoned varieties, Prime Shrimp’s frozen shrimp are carefully peeled, deveined and packed with precision in the United States, delivering unmatched freshness and quality.
Customers can shop all seven flavors plus a variety of merchandise and gift card options with the flexibility and convenience of Prime Shrimp’s website. Every shopper’s first order ships free. For more information about the giveaway and holiday promotions, visit Prime Shrimp’s website.
Prime Shrimp makes restaurant-quality seafood accessible at home. Headquartered in New Orleans, Prime Shrimp was created by the original shrimp experts. We’ve combined three generations in the shrimp processing game with easy cooking methods, sustainable sourcing, and world-class flavors, so food lovers everywhere can add delicious, clean seafood to any meal. In an era when increasingly fast-paced lifestyles mean less time for home-cooked meals, Prime Shrimp upscales convenience food, so even busy and beginner home chefs can eat gourmet any day of the week.
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Publix Donates in Honor of World Oceans Day
On World Oceans Day, June 8, Publix announced its continued efforts to support seafood sustainability and protect ocean wildlife. This year’s donations bring the company’s total contributions to more than $600,000 during the 13-year collaboration with Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.
“It is important to Publix that we support and assist seafood industry leaders so that meaningful and lasting steps can be taken to protect marine life while allowing for the responsible and sustainable harvesting of seafood,” said Publix Business Development Director of Seafood Guy Pizzuti.
Over the last year, Publix has donated over $165,000 to SFP to help support fishery and aquaculture improvement projects and other efforts to advance seafood sustainability.
The World Oceans Day donations included more than $83,000 for ropeless fishing gear, more than $42,000 for electronic monitoring to reduce bycatch and Publix’s annual $40,000 donation to support SFP’s initiatives to achieve steady and continuous improvements in fisheries.
Ropeless fishing gear, commonly known in the fishing industry as on-demand gear, includes enhanced traps that catch lobster and crab from the ocean floor but help eliminate the risk of whales getting entangled in the ropes. The gear is supplied through gear libraries to fishers and commercial fisheries free of charge.
Unintended catch, or bycatch, is when fisheries accidentally catch nontarget wildlife, such as whales, sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and seabirds. Five fishing boats within Publix’s supply chain have been equipped with high-quality cameras and monitoring equipment that collect data on the effectiveness of best practices to reduce bycatch in the mahi-mahi, swordfish and yellowfin tuna fisheries in Costa Rica and Panama. The equipment records when and where bycatch occurs, tracks migration patterns and gathers data on the species involved.
The company’s annual donation supports SFP’s initiatives and efforts to advance fishery improvement projects, including addressing bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery and fostering healthy growth of blue swimming crab in various fishing locations.
“These donations from Publix are important for two reasons,” said SFP Director of Biodiversity and Nature Kathryn Novak. “First, it sends a signal to fishermen that retailers like Publix are interested in seeing these changes made to protect ocean wildlife from fishing impacts and, second, it helps the fishers over the hurdle of investing in new gear or practices. SFP is proud to partner with Publix on these important initiatives.”
SFP is a nonprofit marine conservation organization that works with retailers, seafood buyers and supply chains to help rebuild fish stocks and reduce impacts of the fishing industry on ocean wildlife and the marine environment.
To learn more about Publix’s sustainability efforts, including seafood sustainability, visit publix.com/seafoodsustainability.
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