Dominion Marine Media appoints former Orbitz SVP Sam Fulton as CEO
Dominion Marine Media announced the appointment of Sam Fulton as the company’s CEO. Prior to joining DMM, Fulton served as an senior vice president of Groupon and as president of Orbitz.com and SVP of U.S. Consumer Travel at Orbitz Worldwide.
Ian Atkins, DMM president and marine industry veteran, will be transitioning to the role of company chairman and will advise on industry-specific topics.
“Sam brings over 14 years of experience in building and operating e-commerce businesses. His expertise working at large scale consumer-oriented brands, which drive value for their industry partners each and every day, is a perfect fit for the company,” said Marcelo Gigliani, partner, digital services of Apax Partners. “Sam’s appointment marks an important step in the company’s development as it becomes a more innovative platform focused on leveraging technology to further improve and personalize the boat shopping experience.”
The company says Fulton will provide strategic direction and hands-on guidance as DMM augments its history of industry expertise with an increasing focus on providing technology-centric solutions for both its industry partners and its consumer audience. The company plans to streamline the process of boat buying and selling by using its data to provide a powerful, yet straightforward user experience.
DMM operates four web portals – Boat Trader, YachtWorld, boats.com and CosasDeBarcos.
“Our brands resonate with consumers and are incredibly effective in generating leads for our merchant partners,” said Sam Fulton, CEO, Dominion Marine Media. “Our goal is to create a world class shopping experience for consumers and market-leading value for our industry partners. I am excited by the opportunity to lead the Dominion Marine Media team as we focus on providing solutions that can better serve our audiences in an increasingly mobile world.”
DMM says its recent data points reveal a dramatic shift in the way consumers shop for boats using mobile devices and are the driving force behind the company’s vision to create a world-class shopping experience across all devices. While mobile traffic continued to increase at 30 percent year on year in 2016 across DMM portals, the sites also saw mobile traffic surpass desktop for the first time. In 2016, 55 percent of the company’s consumer base shopped for boats via mobile devices compared to 48 percent in 2015, a 15 percent increase. User engagement for mobile traffic increased as well, with mobile visitors viewing an average of 18 percent more boat listing pages in 2016 than in 2015.
The announcement follows DMM’s recent acquisition by Funds advised by Apax Partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
For more information about Dominion Marine Media, visit www.dominionmarinemedia.com.
