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Our Story

Raising exceptional seafood

For centuries, fishing and seafood has been an essential part of Icelandic society. We’re located in Grindavik, a legendary seafood town with a 1,000 year old seafood tradition. We are proud to carry on the tradition by raising our fish in crystal-clear waters without chemicals or hormones and by feeding them a quality diet. The result? The world’s healthiest and best tasting choice for our consumers. Our land-based aquaculture system makes us a consistent and trusted source of quality fish. You can find Matorka fish, including our Arctic Char and Steelhead, across North America and Europe.

Hella
Our fish hatchery
Grindavik
Headquarters, grow-out and processing facilities
Keflavík
Our fish are shipped out of nearby Keflavík International Airport

Our Impactour commitment to sustainability

In Icelandic, “mat” means food and “orka” means energy. Matorka translates to food energy. Food is indeed energy, but we take it a step further. Our operations run on sustainable, geothermal energy and any carbon footprint we produce is offset by tree planting. Our fish is more sustainable than wild catch and all other forms of aquaculture. Land-based aquaculture is a key component of responsible seafood production.

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Our Fishresponsibly raised in Grindavik, Iceland

We raise the best tasting fish in the salmon family. From egg to harvest, our fish are raised without chemicals, or hormones and are fed a high quality, sustainable diet.

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Our Teamdedicated to raising sustainable seafood

Christo du Plessis
Chief Executive Officer

Christo joined Matorka in April 2022.

After holding senior positions in FMCG, Retail and Insurance in South Africa, Christo joined Abagold the largest land-based aquaculture entity in Southern Africa, in 2003 as CFO and was promoted to CEO after 5 years. After 12 years with the Abagold group he decided to relocate to Europe in 2016 and joined The Kingfish Company, a dutch based leading land-based RAS farming and processing entity in 2019. At the Kingfish Company he rapidly grew his responsibilities from joining as Head of Sales and Operations, being promoted to General Manager within a year and to CFO in November 2020.
Christo completed his B.Compt (Honours) degree in Finance and Accounting in South Africa in 1994 and qualified as Chartered Accountant (SA) in 1997.

Árni Páll Einarsson
Chief Commercial Officer

Árni is passionate about sustainable aquaculture and has over 20 years of experience running international seafood and aquaculture companies. With an MA in Economics and a BA in International Affairs, he has an extensive understanding and in-depth knowledge of international sales and the marketing of aquaculture products.

Alexander K. Gudmundsson
Chief Financial Officer

Alexander has over 20 years of experience in finance, green energy, and advisory services. Previously, he was the CEO of a geothermal energy investment company and the CFO of a leading Icelandic seafood bank. Prior to these roles, he worked with AGA in Sweden. He holds a Candidatus oeconomices degree from the University of Iceland.

Sveinbjörn Oddsson
Chief Operational Officer

A biologist, Sveinbjörn has over 35 years of experience in aquaculture working in Norway, Chile, Australia, Indonesia and Iceland. In these roles, he has gained extensive knowledge in both land-based and ocean-based aquaculture operations.

Stefanía K. Karlsdóttir
Director of Business Development and Co-founder

With an MBA, MA and BSc in Food Science, Stefanía was previously a board member of Landsbanki, Corporate Banking, CFO of Keilir, Former Mayor of Arborg, former Rector of Technical University of Iceland.

Our Board

Bjarni Thorvardarson
Chairman

Bjarni joined Matorka´s board in 2016.

After holding senior positions in IT, banking and fund management in Reykjavik, Boston and London, Bjarni took on a CEO position with a startup fiber optic company Hibernia Networks in 2004 which, then with operations in 9 countries and headquartered in Dublin and Summit NJ, was successfully sold to a NYSE listed company in 2017.   He also serves on the board of directors of Coripharma, Blue Vacations and Siminn.  Bjarni completed his M.Sc. degree in Finance from LBS, London in 1998, an MBA from ISG, Paris in 1993 and M.Sc. in Engineering from UW, Madison in 1990

Margit Robertet

Margit started her career in the capital markets division of Barclays in London in the early 90‘s and then spent 10 years with the corporate finance team of Credit Suisse in Paris. After moving back to Iceland early 2005, Margit built up the debt finance team of Straumur investment bank before partnering up to create Audur Capital, an independent asset management firm, which later merged into Virding and then Kvika banki. Today Margit heads up the private equity team at Kvika asset management. She currently also sits on the board of Islandshotel and Securitas.

Arnbjorn Ingimundarsson

Arnbjorn manages Eldhrimnir ehf., a family investment company with a record of successful venture capital and private equity investments. In addition to that, he has held various investment management positions during the last twenty years, including the launch of a long/short equity hedge fund in 2005. Arnbjorn joined Matorka’s board in 2016 and also serves as chairman of the board of directors of Mink Campers. He completed a M.Sc. degree in Finance from Boston College in 2004 and is a CFA charterholder since 2005.

Frank van Roest

Frank joined the board of Matorka in 2016 on behalf of Aqua-Spark, a fund focused on sustainable aquaculture investments based in the Netherlands. He joined the fund in early 2015, and currently holds the position of investment Director, and as such heads the investment team. He further holds board positions in Bluegrove, a Norway based aquaculture tech company focused on feed and biomass optimization, and BioFishency, an Isreali aquaculture tech company focused on water treatment. Prior to Aqua-Spark, Frank was an associate at Stichting de Verre Bergen, a Rotterdam-based Venture Philanthropy Fund. Frank received a Master in Business Administration and a Master in International Economics & Business from the University of Groningen.

Olav Ketilsson

Olav Ketilsson is co-founder of Matorka and held the chairman position from 2012 to 2020.

He has for over 30 years been actively involved in sustainability and circular economy leadership globally. He is currently co-founder and CEO of Longevity Village, a company connecting longevity with preventive care, and owns and operates a leading rehabilitation and wellness center in the Canary Island. Previously, he was CEO of Firmament AS, a Norwegian private investment company, from 1999 to 2011. He has also held executive positions in several multinational corporations such as Suez, Norsk Hydro and BASF. He has an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, and a Science degree from Cornell University, USA.