Aquaculture equipment supplier Akva named industry veteran Chris Beattie as its new regional business director for North America and Australasia.

The former general manager for Skretting North America will take up his position on Sept. 1, and be responsible for the ongoing development of the group's organizations in the two regions.

Beattie has more than 20 years of international experience in the aquaculture industry, starting as a field technical advisor with the feed giant Skretting in Scotland in 1999 before moving to Canada and working his way up to general manager for the company's North America arm in 2010.

He then joined Merck Animal Health as head of global aquaculture in 2015 based in Madison, New Jersey.

"We’re very excited to have somebody with Chris’s knowledge and experience joining the AKVA group team and wish him every success in his new role," said Andrew Campbell, COO International for Akva.

Beattie will be based in Vancouver, British Columbia.