When Knut Nesse left his job as CEO of Nutreco in 2018, he expected it would be the end of his time in management and operations, and a nice break from a job that kept him on the road for upwards of 150 days per year.

Advising, board roles -- a more arm's length participation seemed like the right direction after six years at the Dutch feed giant, which also owns Skretting, the world's largest aquaculture feed producer.

Things were going according to plan when the 53-year-old took over as chairman of the board at Norway-based aquaculture equipment supplier Akva.

And when Hallvard Muri resigned as CEO in November 2019, Nesse volunteered to step up as acting CEO to help with the transition.

But as the search went on, Nesse said he began to be more and more inspired by Akva's plans, and it suddenly became clear that he wanted to roll up his sleeves once again and lead.

"I had the opportunity to lead an international company with headquarters here at home," he said. "I could not say no to that."

Nesse has been given a challenging task, particularly with COVID's impacts. Despite the promise of its land-based division, cost control across the sector led to the cancellation of several projects, which has proved a stumbling block.

The group posted a loss of NOK 21 million (€2 million/$2.3 million) on its land-based technology division during the second quarter, and revenues fell to NOK 70 million (€6.6 million/$7.8 million) down from NOK 95 million (€9 million/$10.6 million) the previous year.

Still, the order intake for the land-based division in the second quarter was three times higher than the same quarter the year prior, and the order backlog for land-based projects ended the quarter at NOK 771 million (€73.2 million/$86.3 million) compared to NOK 611 million (€58 million/$68.4 million) last year.

Akva has inked significant deals, including with Nordic Aqua Partners on its Ningbo, China, operation, and its deal with US project AquaCon, which also sold an equity stake to Akva as part of the deal.

The AquaCon contract could be worth as much as $130 million (€115 million) for Akva.

Aside from land-based, Akva continues to see some positive signs for its cage-based and other technology products, such as its TubeNet system, and the Nordic region is performing well for the group.

If Nesse can lead Akva through the rough COVID waters, the company is ready to reward its team for meeting its targets through a share buyback program initiated earlier this month for use in an employee incentive scheme.

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Former Nutreco CEO Knut Nesse was done with leadership. Then he got an offer he couldn't refuse