Our Team

  • Phil Werdal
    Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Phil leads the Trace Register team and develops the company’s strategy. He brings decades of experience in the seafood industry. Phil co-founded and served as president of Jubilee Fisheries, a fully integrated fishing company that caught and froze bottom fish in Alaska. His previous roles included serving as a United States Government fisheries observer on board Japanese surimi-producing vessels in the Bering Sea and a Japanese whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean. For 20 years, he served as the representative agent in Japan for the United States Surimi Commission. Born and raised in Japan, he deeply understands and respects Asia’s social, cultural, and business traditions. Phil received a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Washington. His diverse background and unique perspective on global seafood supply chains inspire Trace Register.

  • Heath England
    President

Heath joined the Trace Register team in 2022 to help expand the company’s industry-leading offerings and oversee Trace Register’s dynamic growth. A previous key customer of Trace Register, he is familiar with the value the TR5 platform brings. With over a decade in the international seafood industry and 20-plus years of operations experience, he is well-positioned to lead Trace Register to its next level of delivering customer success. His background in global operations, data analysis, sales, and information systems help him leverage Trace Register’s industry-leading TR5 traceability solution, which will continue to solve problems the seafood industry wrestles with every day. In previous roles, he successfully optimized global seafood supply chains, grew top-line sales, and implemented systems and processes that drove profitability and organization at his companies. Heath holds a Bachelor of Arts from Oklahoma Baptist University and has served as a board member for the National Fisheries Institute.

  • Chris Bradford
    Senior Vice President, Sales

Chris is a high-performing leader recognized for driving actionable change through collaborative teamwork. At Trace Register, she will lead the sales, marketing, and customer success teams to support strategic goals, bringing a proven business and revenue growth track record. Chris has an extensive retail and seafood background, both domestic and international. Her experience with major food and variety retailers includes numerous roles at Walmart and Sam’s Club. Her creative approach enables out-of-the-box solutions for customer success. Chris received a Bachelor of Science in Administrative Management and an MBA in Business Management from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

  • Sayo Morita Kijima
    Vice President, Customer Service

Sayo leads the Trace Register Customer Service team, ensuring clients around the globe receive support. Sayo is based in her home country of Japan but spent several years in Seattle, Washington. She comes from a tradition of food industry involvement as her father was a fishing boat captain and seafood company manager, instilling in Sayo a passion for exceptional quality food. She brings years of customer service experience and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Kanagawa University, Japan.

  • Stephen Pratt
    Vice President, Customer Success

Stephen leads the Customer Success team to identify and support customer goal attainment. He also demonstrates how the Trace Register solution increases confidence, prevents problems, transforms workflows, and increases productivity and margins. Stephen has cross-cultural work experience and the capability to communicate complex concepts and ideas to diverse audiences clearly. Stephen received an Executive MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, bringing insights into international perspectives to serve Trace Register customers. At Trace Register, Stephen has held various roles related to customer support, product development, marketing, and sales. His goal is to ensure customers have the right solution to be successful.

  • Peter Larkins
    Vice President, Integrations

As data integration becomes increasingly essential to full-chain event-based traceability, Peter is proud to lead the integrations team and work with clients to ensure they can integrate their supply chain into TR5. He has extensive experience implementing event-based traceability, leading Trace Register’s customer service operations since 2008. Before joining Trace Register, Peter gained expertise in more than ten countries in fish farming and fishing industries. This practical experience, combined with his educational background, including a Master of Science in Aquaculture and an MBA, equips him to develop and drive customer success.

  • Bill Franceschine
    Vice President, Technology

Bill has been a dedicated member of Trace Register’s development team since 2007. In addition to leading the development team, he focuses on efforts around strategy formation and development projects. He has the unique ability to integrate strategic goals, practical business processes, and good code. Bill brings over 30 years of software development experience and has worked on various projects, including medical office software management, large retail grocery management, and lumber products software management. He holds an Associate of Arts degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Design, and Programming from ITT Technical Institute, Spokane, Washington.

  • Havah Kinne
    Director, Customer Service, The Americas

Havah joined Trace Register in 2022 with a passion for development and consumer relationships. In her role with our Customer Service team, Havah focuses on serving our customers while introducing new initiatives to keep them engaged and excited about Trace Register. With an extensive business background rooted in retail and seafood, she has a relentless drive for excellence and a passion for people. Havah comes from a leading seafood importer, bringing considerable and comprehensive knowledge of seafood, the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), NOAA requirements, and experience as a customer/user of Trace Register. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Employment Relations from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville and an MBA from John Brown University.

  • Zak Cobb
    Director, IT

Zak brings a breadth of experience from many years working in the IT world with expertise that encompasses design, implementation, plus management of small to large IT systems. He has been with Trace Register since 2012, with roles of Systems Administrator and Database Administrator. As Director of IT, he is responsible for all aspects of Trace Register’s IT infrastructure. Zak holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University.

  • Caleb Holt
    Director, Sales

Caleb joined the Trace Register team in March 2022. He brings experience from multiple industries, including hospitality, energy, and technology. He is a PMP (Project Management Professional) and LSS GB (Lean Six Sigma Green Belt), applying this expertise to demonstrate value to prospective Trace Register customers. Caleb has a proven track record of building high-performing sales teams while increasing revenue and margins. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Bioenvironmental Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, and Soil Sciences from Texas A & M University. He also earned an MBA in Marketing and a Master of Science in Management: Project Management from Colorado Technical University. Caleb loves riding and training horses and traveling throughout the United States and internationally in his spare time.