ANDY INGLIS

Managing Director

Andy is the  founder and managing director of Acquamara. Born and brought up in Edinburgh, he has a CV that requires Google maps to do it justice. Now living in Dunbar, with a 12-year-old daughter, Farlan, he feels that running Acquamara finally ties together all the disparate elements in his career to date.
Andy has a BSc in Environmental Studies, an MSc in Resource Management and 25 years experience in working with rural communities, helping them maximise the economic and development potential of their natural resources. This inludes a stint as a full-time adviser for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as well as positions with the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the British government and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
He has also worked as a consultant to many international official organisations, private sector companies, government departments, local authorities, international and national charities, universities and community groups. This has taken him to remote spots - as well as to sweaty meetings in capital cities - and he has worked throughout the British Isles, western and eastern Europe, the Caribbean, east, west and central Africa, north America, the South Pacific and Asia. Andy also ran a couple of successful small businesses for 10 years, all of which has given him extensive expertise in running small scale, natural-resource based enterprises, community forestry and how to convert international government policies into economically beneficial local action.
Food is a life-long passion. His grandmother, from Forres, was a cook in one of the grand townhouses on Edinburgh’s Regent Road and a formative influence on young Andy. Later on, two stints with the UN in Rome converted Andy to the Italian philosophy of using the best quality local ingredients and cooking them as simply as possible. It also contributed to the name Acquamara, using the Italian rather than the Latin spelling.
Living in Leith, and later Dunbar, exposed him to the enviable bars and restaurants of the former, then the fishermen of the latter. And, as an aid official for the British government, he has wined and dined with government ministers, ambassadors and Nobel prize winners in the finest restaurants of Paris, Washington, New York, London, Yaounde, Kinshasa, Brussels and Helsinki. He is looking forward to visiting them all again, this time with samples of Acquamara.

THE ACQUAMARA STORY

HUGH GOVAN

Marine Biologist

Hugh is Acquamara’s scientific adviser and a valuable asset to the company. A Scot currently based in Fiji, he has 23 years experience in developing fisheries in conjunction with local communities, helping them manage their marine resources and maximise the economic benefits. As well as the South Pacific Hugh has worked in Scotland, Romania, Caribbean and Central America.
His expertise ranges well beyond the shoreline. As well as being a marine biology adviser to many international and national clients, specialising in water quality, pollution and shellfish, he is involved at a management level in every aspect of community development: legal support, human rights, cultural recovery and others. Having helped set up sustainable and eco-friendly enterprises across the world, his practical input is invaluable to everyone at Acquamara.
Hugh supervises postgraduate students as well as training of university students, research teams and government agencies. As well as working with Acquamara, other recent projects include writing, and supporting, a community-based coastal resource management plan in the South Pacific, plus monitoring and evaluating other projects and industry initiatives in the South Pacific, Costa Rica and Scotland.

ANDREW RODGER

Director, Technical Adviser and supplier of seawater

Andrew Rodger will be supplying Acquamara with seawater from the sparkling blue Atlantic Ocean near his home on the tiny Hebridean island of Berneray. He has lived there, his mother's family home, since 1998
with his wife Meg and more recently their two young sons.
The sea is Andrew’s life; he has been working in development and management of marine resources over the last 15 years on the mainland and overseas, across academic research, conservation, fisheries and aquaculture – specifically with fish, shellfish and seaweeds.
He runs a herd of Hebridean sheep on the family croft, which even have to cross the water sometimes to graze on the unpopulated islands forming part of their crofting share. He has a couple of boats, dives for his
own scallops and has founded the company Hebridean Gourmet, dedicated to bringing a range of high quality island products to market.