Undercurrent News, the leading source of news, price and trade information for the global seafood industry, has recently made a series of key hires to prepare the company for growth in its transition to becoming an independent price reporting agency (PRA).

The additions come as UCN builds out a US wholesale pricing platform, which is set to launch in the next few weeks. In addition, more global benchmarks will be added to UCN's prices portal, which already has nearly 3,000 data sets. 

Lorin Castiglione, Undercurrent News' head of price reporting - Americas

Seafood industry veteran Lorin Castiglione has been named head of price reporting for the Americas at UCN. With seven years of experience as a seafood price reporter, she has a strong track record of delivering actionable insights to industry stakeholders. Castiglione will lead efforts to develop new datasets and methodologies, expand coverage areas, and oversee the North American price reporting team, focusing initially on farmed shrimp, farmed whitefish, frozen lobster, groundfish and scallops. 

A graduate of the University of Connecticut and the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Future Leaders program, she frequently speaks at events and actively supports initiatives empowering women in seafood. She is based out of Toms River, New Jersey.

In addition, UCN has appointed Gary Morrison as head of growth and strategy. With nearly 20 years of experience in price reporting, including five dedicated to PRA leadership, Morrison brings deep expertise in providing price assessments and market insights across various commodities. He combines this with a keen understanding of economic data, analyzing how it drives market decisions, price action, and buying patterns. Morrison will initially focus on imported, farm-raised white and black tiger shrimp coverage while collaborating with senior leaders on the company’s strategic growth initiatives.

Morrison previously led HR initiatives and holds a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University School of Business and an MBA from Georgian Court University. He is a graduate of the NFI Future Leaders program and also a regular speaker at industry conferences. He is also based out of Toms River, New Jersey. 

Amanda Buckle has been named deputy editor for the Americas. Buckle is a journalist with 10-plus years of experience, the last seven of which she has spent developing a household name in the seafood industry through podcasts and videos. She is responsible for planning editorial content, overseeing copy, and helping to manage the team that provides leading industry content to Undercurrent's subscriber base. 

She is a graduate of Monmouth University and the NFI Future Leaders program and can often be seen moderating industry panels. She is based out of Barnegat, New Jersey.

Additionally, Jacob Resneck was hired this fall as a senior reporter assigned to covering the US west coast and Alaska fisheries. His experience includes years as a globe-trotting freelance correspondent, investigative reporter and public radio news director covering Alaska coastal communities in Bristol Bay, Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Sitka and Juneau. He's a graduate of the University of Leeds in the UK and is based in Sonoma County on California's North Coast.

"These hires are important to our next growth phase in becoming the leading pure-play seafood price reporting agency," said Tom Seaman, Undercurrent's co-founder and editorial director. "Each has years of experience in the industry and brings valuable insights and skills to the team. This reinforces our commitment to delivering high-quality, reliable information that empowers businesses to make more informed decisions in an increasingly complex global market," 

He said more hires will be made in the near future on the UCN commercial, editorial and PRA teams, while the company simultaneously leverages its existing reporters in Asia, Europe and North America to bring in more proprietary data. 

Check out the UCN prices portal here and the UCN trade portal here.