Inside Marine Inside Marine

On Season 2, Episode 7 of Inside Marine we were delighted to be joined by Aino-Leena Grapin, the CEO of Winch Design.

Aino joined Winch Design in 2016, getting involved with one of the world’s leading design studios. Before that, her 20-year career was based in leading and growing businesses in creative industries such as art, luxury design and technology. She brings that creative flair to her leadership style and her work within the marine industry.

Aino-Leena works closely with Andrew, the board and senior management team at Winch Design to ensure it’s as strong commercially as it is creatively. The team has just celebrated a year of employee ownership, giving Aino-Leena fascinating perspectives on how a company should be run.

Aino-Leena has been an active part of the marine industry, speaking about creativity, innovation and sustainability to various publications and at networking events.

During this episode we touched on a wealth of topics, from how she entered the marine industry to her passion for rewilding the sea.

We hope you find this episode as inspiring as we did!

On this weeks episode of Inside Marine, we were joined by none other than Suzanne Blaustone, the CEO of Barton Marine.

Her manufacturing career began in Chicago, when she was among the first women selling hot rolled steel bars directly to US forging operations. Arriving in the UK in 1997, she worked in international sales for US exporters before becoming the CEO at Barton Marine in 2014.

After expanding Barton’s global sales and market positioning with her team, Suzanne was awarded the Boating Business Woman in the Marine Trades 2017 award.

Suzanne remains passionate about the growth of manufacturing sectors in the UK and focuses on sales expansion through exporting, business partnering and optimising distribution networks.

In this episode we spoke about everything from Brexit to getting kids into sailing.

Enjoy!

On episode 5 of Inside Marine we sat down with Chris Whatley, the Growth Hacker at savvy navvy.

With such a quirky job title, we were intrigued to hear about the work he’s doing to digitally promote savvy navvy and the rest of the marine industry. Chris is part of the marketing team and is responsible for their growth as a company, so his work with a wide digital landscape and experience of wearing different business hats really comes into play there.

Chris started sailing in his mid twenties and is now enjoying boat racing on Thursday nights or “product testing” with his colleagues.

We talk about how digital technology is impacting the marine industry, from navigation systems to disrupting the current status quo and attracting young people to the sector.

Tune into this fascinating episode to hack into your full potential!

On this episode of Inside Marine we had the pleasure of being joined by Charles Hall, CEO at Pixii Yachts.

Before joining the marine industry Charles studied Taxation and Law at university, then went on to create a business that delivered unforgettable events all over the UK, Europe and the USA for over 15 years.

Specialising in sales strategies that he pairs with his understanding of design engineering, Charles moved away from events industry and into the marine industry, developing Pixii Yachts into an industry leader. He aims to create a sustainable future by working with and investing in sustainable marine businesses. Pixii is the fruit of that passionate drive to do better in the marine sector.

In this episode we talk about how to make the marine industry interesting, what we’re missing as a sector and what we need educating on, as well as his personal experience of growing a brand within marine technology.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did!

Joining us for Episode 3 of Inside Marine’s second season is special guest Philip Pereira. Philip is the Commercial Director at IBI Magazine, part of the BOAT International Media group.

With a background in publishing sales, Philip started working as an Associate Publisher at Time Inc. UK for over 22 years, where he specialised in their marine B2B activities, before moving to Boating Communications Ltd in 2017. Throughout his impressive career Philip has worked across Europe, Australia, America and South-East Asia. He is a competitive consultant who is passionate about launching and growing brands in the marine industry.

In this episode we discuss why sustainability is the biggest trend in the marine industry currently, Phillip’s number one tip for those looking to enter the industry, how we can keep more customers in the industry and plenty more.

Sit back and enjoy this episode of Inside Marine!

Joining us for Episode 2 of the 2nd season of Inside Marine is Hollie Luff. Hollie is a Business Systems Manager at Premier Marinas. She’s worked her way up at Premier Marinas starting as a seasonal worker in the marinas.

Having grown up around boats, water sports and the sea, her passion for the water has been a lifelong affair. She is now responsible for the implementation, upkeep and enhancement of the operational systems that enable the smooth operation of all ten of Premier’s south coast marinas. Working with a range of technology and industry partners those systems include group-wide Access Control solutions, highly bespoke lock control systems and self-service fuel facilities to name a few.

In this episode, we find out why it’s important we understand the next generation of customers’ needs, how those needs are changing, how Hollie got into the position she is in today and why finding an inspirational leader to learn from was one of the most important factors in her career to date.

Enjoy another fascinating episode of Inside Marine.