The Team
Borghild Hillestad
CEO & CO-FOUNDER
Mobile: +47 975 29 472
Email: borghild@scifish.no
Borghild holds a Ph.D. in Breeding and Genetics from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), completed in 2015, where she studied genomic inbreeding and homozygosity using the bovine genome. In late 2022, she completed an Executive MBA specialising in Strategic Management at the Norwegian School of Economics.
In addition to her role at SciFish Animalia, Borghild serves as Director of Fish Welfare at Viking Aqua, a company licensed to produce 33,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon on land in a marine RAS facility in Skipavika, Gulen municipality. Her responsibilities span fish welfare, sustainability, and strategy, from the design of next-generation RAS facilities through construction quality assurance, team building, and establishing contracts and partnerships with vendors and suppliers.
Prior to this, as Genetics Manager at Benchmark Genetics Norway, she led breeding and genetics strategy to develop a sustainable, fast-growing, and robust salmon population. She managed R&D projects, administered budgets, negotiated supplier contracts, and served as the bridge between the genetics department and the commercial team, working directly with hatcheries, fish farmers, laboratories, and research partners.
Throughout her career, Borghild has built deep expertise in project and team leadership, business start-ups, and facility construction and planning at both small and large scale. She is driven by results, whether measured in company performance, team development, or individual growth.
Hooman Moghadam
CTO & CO-FOUNDER
Mobile: +47 405 10 494
Email: hooman@scifish.no
Hooman holds an M.Sc. in Animal Breeding and Genetics from the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, University of Guelph, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genomics from the Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, completed in 2004.
His career spans research positions at some of the world’s leading institutions, including the University of Guelph, the Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto), Cornell University, the University of Oxford, the Institute of Marine Biology and Genetics (Greece), NOFIMA, and most recently Benchmark Genetics (Norway).
Hooman’s expertise covers the full genome, from transcriptomics and methylomics to SNP detection and genotyping array design. He has developed diagnostic assays for pathogen-resistant animals, built bioinformatics pipelines for genomic analyses, and designed genotyping platforms now used by multinational salmon breeding companies. He has also created and managed large databases essential for optimised breeding operations.