Staff
Susan Jackson
President, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation
Susan Jackson is President of ISSF, a global partnership among scientists, tuna processors and environmental non-profits to undertake science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing bycatch and promoting a healthy marine ecosystem.
Prior to joining ISSF, Jackson was the Vice President for Government/Industry Relations and Seafood Sourcing for Del Monte Foods, where her responsibilities included government relations at the Federal, State and Local levels, and acting as Del Monte’s representative to trade and industry associations. Jackson was also responsible for the purchase of all raw tuna and tuna co-pack manufacturing for Del Monte’s StarKist brand. Jackson joined the H.J. Heinz Company in 1997 as an Attorney in the Law Department, later working with the company’s seafood sourcing and other areas of procurement.
Jackson graduated from The University of Notre Dame with a B.S. in Economics and her law degree is from Duke University.
Dr. Victor Restrepo
Senior Vice President, Science
In addition to his work as Senior Vice President, Science, Dr. Restrepo currently serves as Chair of the ISSF Scientific Advisory Committee and as a member of the ISSF Board of Directors. Previously, he worked with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
Dr. Restrepo has also served as the Chief of the NOAA/NMFS Sustainable Fisheries Division in the southeast USA, where he acted as head scientist of the USA Delegation to ICCAT. He has also spent time as a Population Dynamics Expert at ICCAT, as an Associate Professor at the University of Miami and as an IPA Research Specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Science and Technology in Silver Spring, USA. He has also attended numerous scientific meetings of ICCAT, ICES, NAFO, FAO and US, and chaired ICCAT working groups on Precautionary Approach and Stock Assessment Methods. In addition, he has also served as the Chairman of GFCM-ICCAT working group on Mediterranean Large Pelagic Fishes.
Dr. Restrepo holds a PhD in Population Dynamics from the University of Miami, as well as a BSc in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami.
Pat Hart
Senior Vice President, Operations
As Senior Vice President, Operations, Pat Hart is responsible for planning, organizing and directing ISSF’s administrative staff to support and enhance ISSF’s science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing bycatch and promote a healthy marine ecosystem.
Prior to joining ISSF, Hart founded (1999) and was the principal at H+M, a marketing firm that specialized in business-to-business communications. At H+M, Hart was the lead strategist and copywriter as well as the business manager. Earlier in her career, Hart was an advertising account service professional where she directed creative and strategic development and managed budget allocations for various clients. Hart has worked closely with the ISSF leadership since 2009 on developing the brand and communicating the organization’s strategic initiatives, such as Make the Commitment, A Global Improvement Plan; ProActive Vessel Register; Strategic Plan 2010-2012; and Bycatch Reduction. Hart graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Creative Writing.
Mike Crispino
Vice President, Communications & Outreach
As Vice President of Communications & Outreach for ISSF, Mike Crispino is responsible for media and stakeholder engagement in North America, as well as leading ISSF’s online and media production activities.
Prior to joining ISSF in February of 2009, Crispino worked as a television news journalist traveling from Vermont to New York to Michigan to Washington State. Throughout his career he was hands-on in all aspects of broadcasting spending time as a video journalist, reporter, producer and evening news anchor.
Crispino graduated from The State University of New York at Plattsburgh with a degree in Mass Communications.
Joe Clancy
Retailer Education Associate
Joe Clancy is a Retail Education Associate for ISSF who interacts with key retailers in North America, Europe, and the U.K. Prior to joining ISSF, Clancy was the Vice President of Retail Sales for Chicken of the Sea International, where he was responsible for growing sales and market share in the retail grocery channel. He started his career in the tuna industry with the H.J. Heinz Company’s StarKist brand where he led the Sales & Marketing Team as the Senior Vice President of the Americas.
Joe graduated from Oakland University with a B.A. in Psychology.
Laurel Cameron
Retailer Education Associate
Laurel is a top-level sales executive, with 32 years experience in the food industry. Most recently she was SVP Sales for Bumble Bee Foods. Upon joining the company in 2000, and following numerous buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions, Laurel assimilated and re-engineered internal and external sales forces. Her responsibilities included leading a national Sales team for all classes of trade, motivating a broker network, establishing internal processes and policies, crafting an external operations manual, cultivating key customer and industry relationships, negotiating agreements with national accounts and contributing as an Executive Board member. Prior to this charge, she fulfilled various Sales and Marketing management roles at Ore-Ida Foods (an HJ Heinz Co) and worked with two major food brokers after beginning her career in the retail trade.
Laurel holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and has served on various non-profit boards, mostly recently with the YWCA Princeton.
Michael Cohen
Retailer Education Associate
Michael Cohen is the ISSF Retail Education Associate for Europe and Africa. He joins ISSF from his career as a management consultant in the field of sustainable business development. He provided strategic guidance, operational capacity building and marketing support to international agencies, multi-national corporations and grassroots social enterprises.
Prior to this experience, Michael was the General Manager, International Business Development at the H.J. Heinz Company. Working on growth assignments in the U.S., Europe, Africa and South America, he was responsible for business planning, product development, process design, strategic alliances and marketing. Michael worked in client service at DDB Needham Advertising before joining Heinz.
Michael was born in Buffalo, New York. He was graduated from Brown University with a BA in History, magna cum laude. He is based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Francesca Forrestal
Research Assistant
Francesca Forrestal is a research assistant with ISSF and is Ph.D student at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in the Marine Biology and Fisheries Division. Her research is focused on ecosystem effects of bycatch in tuna purse seine fisheries. Previously, she worked all throughout the Caribbean teaching marine science for college and high school students in experiential education programs. She has a B.S in Marine Biology from UC Santa Cruz and a M.S. in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami. Her master’s thesis focused on the ecosystem effects of bluefin tuna farming in the Mediterranean.
