Sunseeker names new executive committee, operations director
As British yacht builder Sunseeker International works to recover from its last few tumultuous years, the company has announced a new executive committee to lead those efforts.
Sunseeker was purchased by Chinese investment group Dalian Wanda in 2013, and since then has laid off several hundred workers from its British operations.
The executive team will place a clear focus on new product innovation and model development, aligned to world class manufacturing and support services across the business, the company said.
Thomas Klein has also joined Sunseeker as the new operations director, bringing 30 years of manufacuring experience to the company.
CEO Phil Popham, who joined Sunseeker in January, will lead the committee.
The new Executive Committee will also include:
- Hugues Jacquin – Chief Financial Officer
- Sean Robertson – Sales & Marketing Director
- John Braithwaite – Product Development Director
- Thomas Klein – Operations Director
- Clive Harrop – Director of Industrial Strategy
- Jonathan Macklin – Quality & Customer Service Director
- Sian Thomas – HR Director
- Adrian Powell – General Counsel & Company Secretary
Founder Robert Braithwaite will continue to support the business and advise the executive team.
The Wanda Group remains fully committed to the long term development of the brand and to maintaining production at its current facilities in Poole, the company said.
“I’m delighted to be working with this strengthened executive team to achieve Sunseeker’s ambitious growth plans,” Popham said. “As an industry leading, world-renowned British brand, we are extremely well placed to take advantage of recovering markets in the Americas, renewed optimism in Europe and exciting opportunities in the Middle and Far East.
“We’re continuing to grow our distributor network with new appointments throughout the world whilst here in the UK we’re investing to improve our facilities which will house our latest generation of yachts to include 4 new models within the next 12 months alone. This is backed-up by our world-class people in whom we invest through initiatives such as our apprenticeship scheme which will this year see a record number of 38 new apprentices join the business.
“Everything we do at Sunseeker is driven by our customers and our desire to continually set new standards for the industry, both in terms of the world class products we create and the exceptional service we deliver. This is an exciting time for the group as we seek to capitalise on the opportunities, develop our next generation of models and continue to strengthen the iconic Sunseeker brand around the world.”
