Mets Announces Boat Builder Awards Judging Panel

IBI and METSTRADE have announced the panel of seven industry luminaries who will judge the inaugural IBI-METS Boat Builder Awards for Business Achievement, due to take place at a gala dinner during METS, in the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam on November 18, 2015.

John Maxey, a senior partner in Deloitte, the leading audit, consultancy and M&A services firm based in London, will chair the international panel selected for its diverse and comprehensive understanding of the boating business.

Maxey, a passionate boater, has advised the acquirers of yacht builders in several buyout transactions. Apart from building boats himself, in the last few years he has commissioned two semi-custom 24m motoryachts and been intimately involved with their build and specification. His current motoryacht is moored in the South of France.

The panel will comprise Michel Luizet, editor-in-chief of Neptune Yachting Moteur, the leading French high-end boating magazine published by Editions Larivière, and Marta Gasparini, editor-in-chief of Vela e Motore, Barche da Sogno and La Barca per Tutti, three leading yachting magazines published by Edisport Editoriale in Milan (Italy), where she has worked since 1990.

They will be joined by IBI magazine’s US editor Michael Verdon, who has been writing about boats since 1983. Verdon was a senior editor at Motor Boating & Sailing and Boating World magazines as well as editor-in-chief at Boating Industry magazine. He has lived in the US, Ireland and France and has visited many shipyards in North America and Europe.

Bringing his design and engineering acumen to the jury will be Klaus Roeder of Carpe Diem Yacht Design. Roeder has extensive experience in the design of both sailing and motor yachts, as well as mechanical systems such as lifting keels and rudders. Since 2003 he has been presenting the annual symposium ‘Yacht Design & Yacht Building’, which runs during the Hamburg boat show (Hanseboot).
 
The panel is completed by Barry Jenkins, who has managed the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show for 23 years and is a director of the Australian International Marine Export Group (AIMEX); and former Avon Inflatables managing director Alan Morgan. Morgan was Chairman of National Boat Shows Ltd., (organisers of the Southampton and London boat shows) from 2006 to 2008.

He was elected President of the British Marine Federation from 2011 to 2012 and remains Chairman of BMF Wales. Since his retirement from Avon Inflatables and the Zodiac group in 2011, he has formed a personal consultancy AM Projects and is linked as partner in the MP Solution marine consultancy and Mariteam Associates and continues to play an active role in the recreational marine sector.

Nick Hopkinson, IBI’s publishing director, commented: “I am very pleased that we have had acceptances from such a well-qualified and geographically diverse panel of judges to ensure the international nature and impartiality of the judging process.”
 
Nominations from the industry for the six categories of awards will be sought from June to August (details of how to enter will be released shortly) and all entrants will be included in an online marine industry poll to ascertain the three most highly thought of nominations in each category. The 18 short-listed candidates will then be reviewed by the judging panel to select a winner in each category.

The categories involved will highlight success in the following business areas: retail marketing initiatives; international distributor/dealer development; boatbuilder and equipment manufacturer collaborative solutions; innovative on-board design solution; advancement in a production process; and an individual lifetime achievement award.