Reggie Fountain resigns from Fountain Powerboats
WASHINGTON, N.C. — Reggie Fountain, president and CEO of Fountain Powerboats, announced his resignation today from the company he founded more than 30 years ago.
“As of 2:30 today, Reggie Fountain resigned. We were working on coming up with a new position for him, but he resigned before we could come to an agreement,” John Walker, COO of Fountain, told local news station WNCT. “Reggie is welcome to come back to the company at any point.”
Fountain shared his reasons for leaving in a statement.
“When I first started building performance sport and fishing boats in the late 1970’s, I was personally involved in every facet of the operation,” said Fountain. “At this stage of my career I’ve come full circle and want to return to the custom, one-on-one roots I started with.”
“There are key differences in opinion and philosophy between the current owners and myself on how to run the company,” said Fountain. “I’ve always been one that plotted his own course and feel the best ways to utilize my talents is in new product development, racing and working directly with my customers. The performance boat business is changing fast and there are certain basic elements that must be in place to succeed.”
“We’ve sold more than a billion dollars worth of boats since we started,” concluded Fountain “and although I’m not able to announce any firm plans moving forward, boat building has always been my passion and the future looks both exciting and challenging.”
On Dec. 8, the company had announced on its website that Fountain was on administrative leave effective immediately.
- Can’t get enough boating news? Subscribe to our blog’s RSS feed, follow us on Twitter or look for “Boating Industry” on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- For more of the latest news, click here.
