West Nautical Appoints Commercial Director

West Nautical prepares to introduce a fresh new approach to professional services for the superyacht sector, beginning with the appointment of Kurt Fraser as commercial director.

Fraser departs Camper & Nicholsons International after more than three years as the group’s director of marketing and executive committee member, where he orchestrated a highly successful renewal of the prestigious yachting brand amid a series of major shareholder and corporate changes.  

This appointment signals an opportunity for Fraser to build on a track record of success and apply his trademark creative thinking into a business poised for strategic growth. West Nautical has developed an excellent reputation for superyacht owner services due to the operational, technical and regulatory expertise of its specialist team. With several yachts up to 72m under operational and charter management, Fraser’s first tasks will be to finesse the brand, introduce an innovative new commercial approach to supporting superyacht owners, and expand the company’s sales brokerage and retail charter services.

West Nautical managing director, Geoff Moore, said: “Kurt has an extremely unique blend of corporate strategy, sales and marketing capabilities and when we considered the extent of his past leadership roles both inside and outside the superyacht sector, he was the ideal choice to help us enter an exciting new chapter and achieve our objective of building West Nautical into the most respected, knowledgeable and accountable professional services firm in the superyacht sector.”

Fraser added: “What excites me most about West Nautical is that we have a deep roster of operational, technical and regulatory specialists and supporting staff that are functioning as part of a very happy and collaborative team, with a great reputation. We have a unique opportunity to model ourselves as a next generation professional services firm, driven by one goal – to relentlessly pursue the best interests of each and every client. And because we are free of the costly operational structures of many other more traditional firms, we have the freedom and flexibility to use our pool of experts in innovative new ways. We are thinking boldly as to how we provide superyacht owners with tailored services, structured in financially appealing ways, that provide tangible benefits and maximum value.”

Fraser has often been called upon to fill strategic leadership roles that help shape brands, reinvigorate marketing programmes, enhance sales effectiveness and build cohesive high performing teams. His assignments have taken him from his native Vancouver Canada to Switzerland and for the past ten years, London, which will be his base with West Nautical. Over this time, he has directed several creative, marketing and sales assignments across a range of sectors including yachting, marinas, residential property, destination tourism, heritage branding and more.

Some of Fraser’s past assignments include: a five-year tenure as sales and marketing director of Camper & Nicholsons Marinas; launch of the Mediterranean’s leading superyacht homeport and marina village Porto Montenegro; launch of the luxury villa collection at top 100 golf course PGA Catalunya in Spain; International Sales Director for estate agent Hamptons International; as well as directing several luxury resort property launches such as the Four Seasons Private Residences in Mauritius in his role as senior director of marketing with Intrawest’s renowned ‘Playground’ resort property division.