US-based Trident Seafoods has made a clutch of executive appointments, including creating the position of COO.

The company, which has sold off assets this year, has named board director and former Microsoft executive Mike Quinn to the new role.

Two Trident Seafoods veterans – Jeff Welbourn and Kenji Nasu – have been appointed president of the company’s US business and president of its unit Alaskan unit respectively.

Quinn has spent 25 years at Microsoft, where, most recently, he was VP of sales – global account management. He has been a Trident Seafoods director for five years.

“Creating this new position and adding a proven leader like Mike is the next step in Trident’s evolution to a customer-centric, business unit-led strategy that will return value to all stakeholders,” CEO Joe Bundrant said.

Quinn added: “Trident has been an industry leader for over 50 years and, despite the unprecedented challenges in the seafood sector, I see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

Before moving into his new role, Welbourn was the company’s SVP for its Alaska operations. Nasu was most recently the SVP for global species.

Privately-owned Trident Seafoods is one of the largest companies in the sector in North America. Based in Seattle, it employs around 9,000 people worldwide with operations in six countries.

Earlier this year, US peer Silver Bay Seafoods bought two facilities in Alaska from Trident Seafoods.

In March, Trident Seafoods sold another processing plant in the state to US group E.C. Phillips & Son.