US seafood supplier Fortune International has appointed six senior executives to help fuel the company's continued growth.
The company named Joel Jorgensen as its chief financial officer, Richard Deferia as its chief revenue officer and Kevin Hoople as its chief information officer.
As chief financial officer, 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, he was CFO at B2B Industrial Packaging in Illinois. In that role, he led and supported the acquisition of 16 companies and built out the company’s leadership, treasury and HR functions.
Last year, Fortune International in March acquired Boston-based seafood processor Boston Sword & Tuna (BST).
The deal is Fortune International's 16th acquisition, extending a decade-long run of expansion for the company.
The purchase of the $285 million (€268 million) BST provides Fortune International with a processing facility and a supply of East Coast seafood species. Last year, BST supplied 34 million pounds of seafood, including swordfish, salmon, tuna, scallops, lobster and more.
As chief revenue officer, Deferia will lead and support the continued national expansion of the Fortune Fish & Gourmet distribution business. Before Fortune, Deferia spent 13 years at Sysco, starting his career as a marketing associate before working up to regional vice president of sales.
As chief information officer, Hoople will be responsible for overseeing Fortune’s IT, information security teams and strategy. Prior to Fortune, he spent 14 years at Lawson Products, starting as a director of enterprise resource planning integration and deployment and rising eventually to chief information officer.
All of the roles are 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.
Prior to joining Fortune, Farber was senior vice president and partner in creative planning at FleishmanHillard in Chicago. He has also previously served as the executive vice president and US head of planning at BCW Global.
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 of seafood merchandising at Stop and Shop Supermarkets. He also spent three years as a category manager of meat merchandising at Giant Food Stores.
Before joining Fortune to oversee Texas operations, Kidd was a 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.
In July of 2022, Fortune International acquired New Orleans Fish House, a supplier of wholesale seafood and specialty products to chefs and restaurants in New Orleans and throughout the southern United States.
Since the launch of Fortune's acquisition strategy in 2012, has completed transactions including: JDY Gourmet (2012); Chef Martin Old World Butcher Shop (2014); Coastal Seafoods (2016); Morey’s Seafood International of Missouri, Classic Provisions Inc. and Jubilee Seafoods (2019); Seattle Fish of Missouri (2020), EuroGourmet and Neesvig’s (2020); C.C.T. Logistics, Meat Processors and Ocean Harvest Wholesale (2021); D’Artagnan, and North Bay Seafood.
Fortune International is the parent operating company of Fortune Fish & Gourmet, a full-service processor and distributor providing white-tablecloth restaurants, private clubs, hotels and retail stores with the fresh, live, and frozen seafood and gourmet foods.
