2024 Boating Industry Bold Moves
By Krystina Skibo
While there are many dedicated and talented leaders in the boating and marine industry, Boating Industry’s Movers & Shakers program puts a spotlight on those who went above and beyond. The winners of 2024 have proven how hard work can truly transform business and production for the better and bring their ideas to light.
These five leaders have been making Bold Moves to drive the industry forward. From working with their local governments to adopting the latest technologies, these people have shown the utmost devotion to bringing about positive change. Boating Industry recognizes the unique approaches each of these leaders are taking to make an impact.
Working Towards a Brighter Future for Boating Safety
Zachary Commeau
Regional Environmental Health and Safety manager, Safe Harbor Marinas
At just 25 years old, Zachary Commeau has quite the list of responsibilities and accomplishments. He oversees compliance at 29 marinas, trains and manages over 350 teammates, and is a Red Cross CPR and OSHA 500 instructor.
Being drawn to the marine industry at a young age allowed Zachary to make a name for himself early on and quickly work his way up through the ranks.
“In high school, I attended my local trade school, where the marine tech program caught my eye for its diversity,” he says. “As a kid exploring various career paths, I was drawn to the marine trade because it offered numerous future opportunities. When it was time to make a decision, choosing the marine trade was a clear choice. The idea of having a career connected to the water made it an easy and appealing option.”
Growing up in the Northeast, Zachary noticed an increasing number of industrial accidents and environmental disasters in the news. Drawn to the idea of making a difference is what led him to his current role as regional environmental health and safety manager at Safe Harbor Marinas.
Now, Zachary works hard every day to increase the overall effort for safety and environmental awareness, starting with engaging the younger boating generation by equipping them with the right training and knowledge.
“Boating safety and environmental awareness are closely linked in this industry,” notes Zachary. “We take measures to protect ourselves and enjoy a better future, so it only makes sense to also care for the environment that makes our enjoyment possible. Since we can never predict when an accident or environmental disaster might occur, it’s crucial for us as an industry to proactively prevent such issues. By doing so, we enhance both our own experiences and the world we live in.”
Zachary uses his youth to encourage the younger generation to take better care of the environment and protect each other with safety measures.
“As a young professional myself, I collaborate with younger generations to offer training and insight on safety and environmental issues,” he says. “Additionally, I serve as an advisor for the maritime program at my local trade school. We have the power to make a difference, and it starts with our future. Educating newcomers to the trade will ultimately benefit us all.”
Working with the local trade school Zachary graduated from is one step he’s currently taking to help continue to enhance boating safety in the marine industry.
Looking toward the future, Zachary hopes to live in a world where boating safety is top priority. “One where life jackets are always worn without reminders, where incidents on the water are a thing of the past and where everyone leaves the dock and returns home safely in the same condition. It may seem ambitious, but that’s why we set goals: to strive for a better future,” he says.
Building a Business From the Ground Up
Estephanie Herrera
President, EH2O Marine Business Solutions
Boating Industry’s Movers & Shakers Awards program honors leaders who are not afraid to take risks, innovate and tackle the challenges currently facing the marine industry.
Working from the bottom up starting at age 18, Estephanie Herrera exhibits all these characteristics and more.
“My journey into the boating industry wasn’t driven by a childhood passion,” says Estephanie. “Growing up in Puerto Rico, my experiences with boating were very humble; a makeshift boat which was more about fun than any real boating.”
Estephanie explains that her real introduction into the marine industry happened when looking for a part-time job as a college student. “I came across a newspaper ad for a part-time receptionist position just two miles from my college. It was how I supported myself through school, working shifts between classes. Twenty years later, that’s how I found myself in the boating world.”
Today, Estephanie is a leader of EH2O Marine Business Solutions and continues to grow. She started this company with a goal to help guide boat dealers and their employees on how to successfully close deals in a way that benefits not only the dealer, but ultimately leaves the customer with the best possible experience.
“Through my years in the industry and networking with different dealerships, I noticed a gap that I could fill: helping dealers boost their closing operations by using proven best practices,” explains Estephanie. “Having worked in business office operations for over 15 years now, I apply the same techniques that led to my success.”
Her approach begins with a comprehensive one-to-two day visit to the dealership to assess the current practices. After the assessment, she then creates a detailed weekly coaching plan that identifies priority areas for improvement. “We then tackle these areas through personalized one-on-one sessions, which can be performed via Zoom or in person,” she says.
Starting your own business is no easy feat. Estephanie notes that she had to overcome two large challenges when creating EH2O: the first is starting a consulting business from scratch, which comes with its own difficulties. The second is being a woman in a male dominated field.
“Working in an industry dominated by caucasian males, I have certainly faced challenges such as pay disparity, racism, male chauvinism and sexism,” she says. “Overcoming these challenges has required resilience and strategic thinking. I make it a point to assess situations carefully, adapt as needed and always have multiple plans in place.”
Just within the last year, Estephanie has obtained her USCG Captain’s license. While she doesn’t plan on running charters, her goal is to encourage and empower more women to feel confident on the water. She’s also on the path to becoming a certified instructor through the National Boating Safety Council.
“Professionally, I’m collaborating with other like-minded leaders on initiatives meant at improving the overall operations of the Business Office and the sales teams, especially in closing deals,” mentions Estephanie. “Another focus of mine is joining the American Vessel Documentation Association (AVDA) to assist boat dealerships with their USCG documentation needs, which help facilitate the ongoing expansion of EH2O to be a complete resource partner for marine dealers.”
Driving Success for Future Generations
Kim Koditek
Head of Brand Strategy & Communications, Boatsetter
Since joining the marine industry in 2016, Kim Koditek has played an active role in driving the success and brand evolutions of multiple companies across the industry — from Boats Group to the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Discover Boating to most recently, Boatsetter.
As Head of Brand Strategy & Communications, Kim helps grow category awareness for new consumers and first-time boat buyers to have their first introductions with recreational boating and on-the-water experiences. Going from an entry level employee to now a team leader, Kim has taken everything she’s learned from previous managers and sprinkles in some of her own flair to help her team thrive.
“I started in this industry so young, and now I’m eight years in. I’m not the youngest in the room anymore, but now I have a totally different way of looking at things,” Kim reminisces. “When I first started at the entry level, it was really rewarding for me to take everything in from the managers I worked for. If I can instill that same kind of mentality into my team, then I feel like I’m doing my part and helping shape the future of boating.”
The unsustainable dependency on paid marketing tactics (such as SEM and paid social) is a challenge for many up-and-coming brands as they quickly try to accelerate their growth. After joining Boatsetter, Kim was tasked with helping the company move away from its historical marketing executions and finding new ways to drive organic growth and increase overall brand awareness, and ultimately, helping to boost direct traffic.
Utilizing proven content marketing strategies that she had implemented at Boats Group and Discover Boating, Kim was able to successfully scale the publishing of high quality content across various areas of the Boatsetter platform. In her first year with the company, Boatsetter’s Boating Resources articles doubled in new visitor growth, contributing significantly to bringing both new boat owners and renters into the community.
“Paid search and SEO were originally part of Boatsetter’s marketing arsenal, but what we’ve done in the past two years since I’ve joined is focus more on brand marketing,” explains Kim. “As part of that, one of the things I oversaw was public relations (PR) and the role that it can actually play.”
PR has been extremely impactful for Boatsetter, getting stories with Buzzfeed and Pop Sugar and even Fox and Friends. “It enables us to get a really wide reach, which I don’t think you always get with performance marketing like SEM and SEO,” Kim says.
Just this past year, Kim’s team added a new social media manager, who has helped completely change the way they approach influencer marketing. “That’s also been a real game changer for us too,” she says. “If you’re relying on an external source who has their own unique audience and followers who trust them to tell them what products and services they love, it can greatly help to expand your reach.”
Not only has Kim been instrumental in boosting the marketing at Boatsetter, but she also helped to launch Boatsetter Academy in 2023. This free beginner’s boating course is designed to teach new boaters the fundamentals of operating a boat, thereby expanding on-water experiences and making boating more accessible to a broader audience.
“I really love the boating space and would love to stay in it forever, with more of a focus on the consumer side,” notes Kim. “The direct-to-consumer side is starting to become increasingly more important in the boating space, with brands like Freedom Boat Club helping to grow the participation category and helping people have their first touch with boating. I think that’s going to get increasingly more important, especially as my generation and younger generations get older.”
Building a Winning Culture in Boating
FJ Frazier
Chief Operating Officer, Gage Marine
The joy of recreational boating is how most people end up in the marine industry, and the same can be said for FJ Frazier. “I love lake-life and boating, so what better industry is there to work in than where you can look at the lake every day from your office,” he says.
Frazier’s love for boating also stems from his father, who was one of the first employees at Gage Marine in 1958. Today, Frazier is the COO at the company, growing up alongside Bill Gage, the current owner and CEO.
“I sold my business at 50 and was not ready to retire,” Frazier notes. “Bill asked me if I would come to help him run the day-to-day business of Gage Marine Corporation. When I joined the company, we had a boat marine business, a pier business, an excursion tour boat business, a restaurant business and a retail store operation. I felt it had great potential for growth if we could put the right team together.”
Since first arriving at the company, Frazier has continued to be a crucial driving force behind the growth of Gage Marine. Some of his accomplishments include completing a company audit which brought to light the improvements he could make including creating a stronger, more consistent brand, realigning employee structure and roles, establishing a company tagline and core values and getting more buy-in on the company culture.
“We built a winning culture across each business unit. We are ‘In it to Win it!” Frazier says about his plans to help the company. “This inspired change and motivated employees to believe in themselves and their senior leadership team. They embraced the changes implemented to help each business unit grow to its potential and then some. We meet weekly as a senior management team and review financial dashboards to ensure we stay on track to achieve the results we set out at the beginning of each year.”
Frazier not only restructured the company’s external-facing tone, but he also refreshed and improved the company’s internal system. Restructuring the organizational chart of all the business divisions for more efficiencies, he put in place numerous policies to hold employees accountable, remove duplicated or missed efforts, established roles and responsibilities along with divisional budgets and instituted new software programs to save time and resources.
After restructuring employees’ roles, Frazier set upon refining the company’s culture. A new tagline — “Lake Life Begins with Gage” — was developed to solidify the company’s promise to its customers and tie all the business units under Gage Marine together as one.
Frazier continues to set goals not only for himself, but also for the company. “Our daily goal is to continue exceeding our customers’ expectations. Our long-term goals are to continue growing each business unit through intelligent, strategic and well-executed initiatives that deliver positive results for the employees, customers and the Gage Marine Corporation. Our major goal is to be a $100 million company with multiple locations by 2029,” he says.
With his efforts extending outside of Gage Marine, Frazier also mentors the next generation of the boating industry workforce by participating in sponsoring Great Lakes Boat Building School students, hiring and promoting young adults to fill company positions and giving company managers all the resources they need to be great leaders.
“The marine industry and your dealership are only as strong as the next generation of workers and leaders coming into the boating business,” he says. “We were constantly looking for marine technicians, and it was impacting our growth as we could not service the current customers and try to grow our customer base at the same time. We did some research and found the Great Lake Boat Building School.”
Frazier and his team decided to contact GLBBS, offering scholarships to incoming students, with the requirement they work for Gage Marine after graduation.
“The relationship with GLBSS has been a tremendous success,” he mentions. “We have our fourth technician from GLBSS starting for us this fall and have another student attending GLBBS right now who will graduate next August. This partnership with GLBBS has contributed to our ability to grow and service our customers.”
The New Incoming President of Marine Marketers of America
Alisdair Martin
Founder and CEO, Alisdair Martin Consultancy
Throughout his years in the industry, Alisdair’s passion and drive has impacted a plethora of marine companies. And he won’t stop anytime soon.
For the last three years Alisdair has been the host of the Neptune Awards, recognizing excellence in Marine Industry Marketing. He assembles over 80 judges (marketing VPs at major industry brands) who collectively select the winners. He then hosts the awards ceremony at the Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show.
In addition to this, he conducts industry seminars / webinars and panels at boat shows and industry events, which always seem to garner attention. All his efforts are certainly paying off, as he was recently chosen as president-elect by board members of the Marine Marketers of America.
From his humble beginnings to his most recent ventures, Alisdair continues to innovate and push boundaries in the marine industry — making boating better and more accessible for everyone involved.
Alisdair was instrumental in modernizing the consumer journey to buy a boat, especially around boat shows. His first U.S. business invited boat builders to forego traditional advertising in favor of a modern, digital alternative that provided buyers with quick, convenient access to boat content and data.
“90% of advertising is a brand getting in the way of something else the consumer wants to do. My business was built on the concept that if you give consumers access to the information that will help to shape their buying decision (video, review, specs, prices, comparison, customization tools, etc.) you don’t need to get their way,” says Martin.
Alisdair was a driving force in improving pricing transparency for boat buyers. While traditional practices in the boating industry involved keeping the prices hidden from prospective buyers until they engaged with a dealer, Alisdair tackled this issue head-on by engaging directly with hundreds of manufacturers. He promoted the broad, industry-wide benefits of greater pricing transparency and succeeded in significantly changing the old policy, thus fostering a more inclusive and consumer-friendly environment.
Between 2020 and 2023, as VP of Strategy at NMMA, Martin further developed this strategy through the creation of the Boat Finder tool. This initiative drove consumers to start their boat-buying journey online, broadening the appeal of boating to a wider audience, particularly first-time boaters.
“If I’ve made any kind of mark in the industry, it’s with innovating and modernizing the consumer journey to spend money on boating,’ notes Alisdair. “Our industry tends to be a little innovation averse. When we bring our culture in-line with the expectations of modern consumers, we make boating far more accessible, and we combat attrition and churn.”
Alisdair has excelled in various roles, from solo start-ups to major corporate positions to seats across multiple industry boards. The launch of his new consultancy, Alisdair Martin Consultancy, and his new position as president-elect of the Marine Marketers of America, demonstrates his passion for driving the boating industry forward. “The goal of my agency is to work with the brands who are helping to combat some of the challenges that the marine industry is currently being confronted with, especially for newer boaters,” says Alisdair. “The brands we work with are all taking steps to make boating easier, more fun and more accessible. We harness modern, innovative strategies to help grow and drive our industry forward.”
