OEM Manager – Southeast & Brazil

There are thousands of boats built every year in the southeast United States, primarily Florida. It is the Southeast OEM team’s job to get a Seakeeper unit in as many of those boats as possible when they are being built. We work closely with our OEM partners and Seakeeper’s Applications team to help builders design and sell Seakeeper units on their boats.

I joined Seakeeper after graduating from the University of Tampa. During college I worked in a local tackle shop, Tampa Fishing Outfitters, and coached swimming at my old club team, Academy Aquatic Club.

July 5, 2016

One thing that has not changed is uneducated customers and builders saying some version of, “my boat doesn’t need that.” What has changed is the customer saying it. When I first started with Seakeeper, owners and captains of 60’+ sportfishes were telling us their boat doesn’t need Seakeeper. Today, it is the owners and builders and 25’-30’ boats. I suspect those people will come around like the naysayers of the past.

This may be recency bias, but the Seakeeper 1 integration has been both interesting and challenging. Breaking into high volume, production builders, and their dealer networks require a lot of facetime, commitment, and creative thinking. Happy to have the team today to help tackle this challenge. Also, in 2019 we installed nine Seakeepers on a 165’ Mangusta (7 x Seakeeper 16’s and 2 x Seakeeper 9’s). I remember sitting in the bilge of that boat chuckling with our Seakeeper dealer thinking there was no way the owner would go for this, but he did.

Not related to work, but getting engaged last year sits at the top of my list.

The people. It is extremely motivating to get out in the field and at events with our great team. I’ve also had the pleasure of making lifelong friends from around the world both inside and outside of the company.

There are a lot of moving parts (and people) which change every day in the marine industry, particularly with the accounts Seakeeper partners with. The team and I down here must keep an ear to the ground every day to make sure we are not missing opportunities or changes within the space we work.

Utilize all resources provided. No one here is expected to go at it alone, reach out and ask questions, encourage communication and teamwork in between departments. Chances are everyone will grow together

Myself and Coty Garrett have spent a lot of time in the trenches, on the road, in front of customers, and working through challenging situations over the years. Even though we are no longer working together on gyro anymore, Coty remains a great friend and asset to bounce ideas off of.

In addition to Coty, I could write on and on about our leadership and executive team. Every one of them has had a significant impact on me which I am extremely thankful for.

I have two: “RFP” and “process over outcome”. I feel both go together and help myself stay focused on being my best every day. RFP stands for Relentless Forward Progress. I try to find wins every day, no matter how big or small, forward progress is always the goal. “Process over outcome” I borrowed from Lighting head coach, Jon Cooper, the motto is a staple in his leadership approach. I 100% believe in myself and the team focusing on our mission and the way we do it every day, the results will speak for itself long term.

During COVID the sales team had a mullet growing competition, I smoked everyone.