Nammu Names Former Seattle Fish Company CEO and NFI Chair Derek Figueroa as Strategic Advisor

Seafood industry veteran joins Nammu as the company continues building tools that help seafood distributors make better use of data.

BOSTON, MA, UNITED STATES, April 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Nammu, a platform built for seafood distributors to manage sales, procurement, and operations intelligence, announced that Derek Figueroa has joined the company as a Strategic Advisor. Figueroa is the former President and CEO of Seattle Fish Company and former Chair of the National Fisheries Institute, and brings 34 years of operating experience in the seafood industry. His appointment comes at a time when distributors are working through sustained cost pressure from tariffs, inflation, labor, and regulation.

Figueroa spent 34 years at Seattle Fish Company, founded in 1918 and the Rocky Mountain region's oldest seafood and specialty foods purveyor, serving in roles across finance, operations, and executive leadership before becoming President and CEO. In 2021, he led the company's sale to Founders Group of Food Companies, retaining all employees. He remained as President and CEO for 2.5 years post-close before exiting in 2024. He served as Board Chair of the National Fisheries Institute, the leading U.S. seafood trade association, and was the first graduate of the NFI Future Leader Program to hold that role. He co-founded Sea Pact, a nonprofit advancing social, economic, and environmental responsibility across the global seafood supply chain, and served as chair of the Colorado Restaurant Foundation. He was recognized as a Titan 100 CEO in 2021 and received the Marine Stewardship Council's Ocean Hero award in 2017. Figueroa currently serves as Principal of North Star Strategic, an advisory practice focused on purpose-driven leadership for food and beverage companies.

“Seafood has given me so much over 34 years. A community, meaningful work, and a sense of purpose in providing responsible and essential nutrition,“ said Derek Figueroa. “But it’s also hard work, and the industry is under real pressure given tariffs, inflation, labor costs, regulation, and consumers who can’t absorb more. Operators have already driven out most of the excess cost. The opportunity that remains is reducing waste and inefficiency in the middle, making seafood more accessible and affordable while improving the customer experience. Nammu is doing that, using data operators already have to surface actionable insight. At this stage of my career, I still seek meaningful work, just delivered differently and in partnership with people who share the same values and can make a real difference. Bert, Griffin, and Ethan are those people. That’s why I decided to partner with Nammu. Plus, they’re fun to work with.”

Nammu was founded by Bert Vandereydt (MIT), Griffin McCauley (Brown University), and Ethan Huang (Brown University), three people with backgrounds in software development and data science. Based in Boston, they spent considerable time in customer discovery across the seafood supply chain before settling on wholesale distribution as the area where the need was clearest. Nammu was founded in late 2024 to help seafood distributors turn the data already inside their businesses into a practical way to track purchasing patterns, spot declining accounts, and identify margin opportunities.

“We’ve put a lot of effort into building Nammu the right way in seafood,” said Bert Vandereydt, CEO of Nammu. “We only work with seafood companies, and we care a lot about being a trusted partner in the industry. Derek brings a deep understanding of the business and strong relationships across the space, and we’re excited to have him with us as we keep building.”

About Nammu
Founded in 2024 and based in Boston, Nammu is a data and analytics platform built for seafood distributors and wholesalers. It connects to the systems a distributor already uses and organizes the data those systems generate into a form that sales reps, sales leaders, and buyers can act on. The company works exclusively with seafood businesses and participates in the National Fisheries Institute and industry organizations across the North American seafood market. Learn more at nammu.ai.

Bert Vandereydt
Nammu, Inc.
email us here
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.