Paine & Partners expands team further

Paine & Partners, the agribusiness-focused private equity firm, has hired John Binde as an operating director.

Binde joins from Norway Royal Salmon ASA, a fully-integrated fish farming company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, where he was chief executive.

This is the firm’s second operations manager hire in a month; in October it hired Robert Berendes to take on the same role as the team expands its expertise across sectors, Kevin Schwartz, president, told Agri Investor on the sidelines of the Agri Investor Forum in Chicago last week.

“John brings tremendous operational and leadership experience in the aquaculture industry, and we are excited to welcome him as an operating director,” said Dexter Paine, chief executive and founding Partner of Paine & Partners.

Paine & Partners already has two fish product companies in its portfolio: Icicle Seafoods, a Seattle based seafood producer, secured the firm’s investment in 2007, and ScanBio, a fish meal and oil producer, joined the firm’s portfolio in 2013. Both investments were made from Paine & Partners’ third fund, a $1.2 billion vehicle raised in 2007.

It is currently fundraising for its fourth vehicle, a pure agribusiness fund.

Additional reporting by Louisa Burwood-Taylor