Meet Dana Cleaveley, SeaChoice’s new Seafood Supply Chain Analyst

I am excited to be joining the SeaChoice team as Seafood Supply Chain Analyst with the aim of helping businesses develop more ambitious commitments to environmental sustainability and social responsibility to improve the sustainability of seafood in Canada. 

I grew up in a commercial fishing family in Vancouver, B.C. where I witnessed the backend of the industry. I applied this experience later in life when I took on the front-end role of Sales & Logistics Manager for my family’s seafood distribution company. The combination of these experiences, and the relationships that I developed along the way, allowed me to establish an empathetic and systems thinking approach to developing sustainable fisheries.

My collective field experience later motivated me to obtain a Bachelor of Commerce in Entrepreneurial Management degree from Royal Roads University, with the aim of bringing my experience and education together to help reduce the environmental impact of business processes. Environmental corporate and social responsibility (ECSR) change initiatives are sometimes viewed as a liability to corporations and handled with a compliance approach, but I’ve learned that these initiatives are actually opportunities to realize a competitive advantage. 

I look forward to leveraging my business knowledge in my role with SeaChoice to communicate this opportunity with Canadian retailers. Beyond providing a platform for relaying their progress to consumers, our recommendations can provide retailers with the opportunity to develop collaborative supply chains that can improve supplier relationships, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction. 

In tandem with my position with SeaChoice I work as a Strategic Planning Consultant for MarFishEco Fisheries Consultants Ltd on the second phase of a Washington fisheries project. My work on this project entails the creation of a strategic plan that provides recommendations for developing more localized and sustainable fisheries systems. My intention is to build on MarFishEco’s market analysis findings by recommending ways to develop markets for underutilized seafood species that will help to restore balance in the coastal ecosystem and strengthen distressed economies.

My overarching purpose that I serve in both endeavours, and in any career move that I make, is to make my community (in every sense of the definition) more sustainable. I look forward to embarking on this journey with the SeaChoice team and to the meaningful work that lies ahead of us.