Board of Directors

As President, Speciale directs the Marine Group, including all U.S.-based marine activities and subsidiaries. He oversees Yamaha’s boat companies and subsidiaries, including Skeeter bass boats, G3 aluminum fishing boats and Precision Propeller Industries. Yamaha has approximately 2,000 marine dealers and is an OEM outboard supplier to 120 independent boat brands in the U.S

Involved since childhood in his family’s marina and marine dealership, he joined Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. in 1987 with Yamaha Marine Parts and Accessories. Over the years at Yamaha Marine Group, Speciale held positions in marketing and promotions. Speciale left Yamaha in 1992 to serve as New Fishing Production Manager at Fenwick Fishing Tackle in Huntington Beach, Calif.  He returned to Yamaha Marine in 1996 in strategic planning and financial operations. He was promoted to Vice President, Operations and Planning in 2005.

During Speciale’s tenure as Vice President of Yamaha Marine, the outboards received a number of design and innovation awards from the marine industry and national media. Yamaha also is the only outboard motor company to receive awards in the National Marine Manufacturers Association Customer Satisfaction Index survey every year since its inception.

Ann Baldree, Senior Vice President, Chaparral Boats, Inc. and Robalo Boats LLC

Joined Chaparral Boats, Inc. in 1981 and has held several positions including national/international sales manager. Currently she is senior vice president of Chaparral and Robalo Boats. She works diligently to promote the company’s vision. She is the 2008 Winner of the Darlene Briggs Marine Industry Woman of the Year Award. She currently serves on the National Marine Manufacturers Association BMD Board of Directors and the NMMA Board of Directors and is an active participant in her community as well as various charities. She is a native of Nashville, Georgia.

Maurice Bowen, Group Marketing Director, White River Marine Group (subsidiary of Bass Pro Group)

Maurice joined Bass Pro Group as vice president of marketing for its Tracker Marine boat manufacturing operations in January 2001 after spending 25 years in the automotive industry, starting with Ford Motor Company and following with Hyundai Motor America as its senior marketing executive. As senior director of marketing for White River Marine Group, his responsibilities now include development of marketing strategy, plans and programs for the Tracker, Nitro, Sun Tracker, Regency, Tahoe and Mako boat brands, the company-owned retail boating centers as well as support for its independent dealer channel.

Huw Bower, President, Brunswick Boat Group

Huw Bower joined Brunswick in 2006 and became president of Boston Whaler in 2013 where he was responsible for managing the Boston Whaler, Brunswick Commercial & Government Products, Rayglass and Brunswick’s European boat brands. He was named president of the Brunswick Boat Group in April of 2016 and is now responsible for the 14 brands which comprise the Brunswick Boat Group.

Bower has a master of arts from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was a captain in the British Army, and served with Royal Marine Commando units in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Kris Carroll, President, Grady-White Boats, Inc.

Kris Carroll came up through the ranks at Grady-White Boats, starting as a production control clerk in 1975 and eventually was promoted to vice president of engineering and manufacturing in the late 1980s. In 1993, Kris was promoted to president of Grady-White Boats. She was the first woman to ever hold this position in the boat manufacturing industry. Under her guidance, Grady-White has been ranked at the top of customer satisfaction surveys in every third party measure of customer satisfaction ever done in its categories in the marine industry; this includes 11 top rankings from the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the highest ranking in every marine study done by J.D. Power and Associates.

Kris holds active leadership roles in the industry and her community. She is currently serving on the board of the Center for Coastal Conservation, and is on the board and Advisory Council of BOATU.S. Kris has over 20 years of continuous service on the board of the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the National Marine Manufacturers Association BMD Board of which she is also past chairwoman.

Scott Deal, President & CEO, Maverick Boat Company, Inc.

Scott Deal, founder of Maverick Boat Group, Inc., manufacturer of Maverick, Hewes, Pathfinder and Cobia boats, is involved in all aspects of running the company.

Participates on the following boards/associations: BMD board member, NMMA board member, NMMA Executive Committee member, past chairman of Grow Boating, Inc., current and past chairman and present board member of Independent Boatbuilders Inc., (IBBI), The Center for Coastal Conservation, CCA, and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust. He was also on the Standards and Quality task force member for NMMA’s Grow Boating Initiative, 2003-2004.

Nick Harvey, President, Jeanneau America Inc.

Nick is responsible for several of the brands in parent company Beneteau’s growing portfolio. He oversees Jeanneau sailboats, which have grown market share and presence in North America, as well as Jeanneau’s powerboat operations, which recently began a push in the North American markets. Also responsible for Prestige, a brand that has taken off since it arrived in the Americas in 2011. Glastron and Wellcraft, two of the brands Beneteau picked up after acquiring Rec Boat Holdings, also added to his portfolio.

Born and raised in France and having worked assignments around the globe, he now lives with his wife and daughters in Annapolis, Maryland.

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Under Rowe’s leadership as president, Indmar has grown to become the world’s largest privately held manufacturer of gasoline inboard marine engines. It is the leading manufacturer in the towed-watersports segment and supports over 1,200 dealerships and service centers worldwide with customers in more than 150 nations.

Since Rowe joined Indmar in 1973, he has improved quality, lowered costs and delivered industry leading technology to the marine industry.  In addition, the company has been awarded five patents, fifteen customer satisfaction awards, seven innovation awards, three top product awards and three environmental achievement awards.

Outside of Indmar, Rowe is vested in the effort to protect and grow recreational boating through public policy advocacy and industry-focused growth initiatives. He served as the Chairman on the Board of Directors for National Marine Manufacturers Association, still serving as a director memberr, as well as Engine Manufacturers Division Board.

Mr. Jack Springer is the CEO and a Director on the Board of Malibu Boats, Inc., leading the iconic brands of Malibu Boats, the #1 watersports towboat manufacturer in the world, Cobalt Boats, the leading stern drive manufacturer in the marine space and Pursuit Boats, a large premi-um manufacturer saltwater outboard boat.

Mr. Springer is a well-rounded executive specializing in full leadership of companies, whether in a growth mode to improve market share, add business segments, expand through acquisition, and improve operations or to lead companies in tough economic times or turnaround situations. His executive roles have included CEO, CRO, COO, CFO and CSMO across several industries, in-cluding recreational, retail, furniture, plastics manufacturing, body armor, foundry, auto parts, textiles, and semi-conductors. Mr. Springer believes that most companies struggle in three critical areas: Focus, Discipline, and Accountability. As a result, mediocrity is a corporate way of life. His successful approach is to build and empower well-functioning executive teams, set strategy, and lead a company to significant advantages by out-strategizing, out-thinking, out-planning, and out-working the competition.

Mr. Springer joined Malibu in 2009, when the company was amid the Great Recession, which led to a severe marine-industry recession with revenues as much as 70% decreased from 2007. Under his leadership, Malibu completely transformed, attracting and building one of the strongest lead-ership teams in the industry and becoming the world-wide leader in performance sport boats. By 2012, the Company was more successful than it had ever been in its thirty-year history. In Janu-ary of 2014, Mr. Springer led Malibu Boats in becoming a publicly held company that has thrived, meeting or exceeding expectations every quarter. Today, in 2019, Springer has led Mali-bu to a 40%+ worldwide market share with Malibu and growing separation between Cobalt and her nearest competitors. Malibu, Inc. success is derived by having the best distribution network of dealers for each Company, a product development machine that brings newer product and fea-tures than any competitor and financial metrics that are better than all marine manufacturers and most publicly held recreational companies, which includes the powersports industry, as well as marine.

In July of 2017 Malibu acquired one of the most successful brands in the marine industry, Cobalt Boats. Then in October 2018, Malibu closed on the acquisition of Pursuit Boats. The combination of Cobalt, Pursuit and Malibu provides a vehicle for continued growth and expansion into multi-ple segments of marine which has already strengthened the combined Company and created a marine powerhouse.

Mr. Springer is a native Texan, resides in Texas and Tennessee & received his BBA from the University of Texas (PB).

Tilders is Director of Sales for the Americas for several divisions including Marine, RV, Beverage, and Industrial. Rule has gone through many acquisitions, notably the 1998 sale to ITT corporation and subsequent spilt to create Xylem. Three powerful brands serve the marine market: Rule, Jabsco, and Flojet.

Tilders began his boating industry career working for Boatlife in New York. Over the next 17 years, he became their VP of Sales and Marketing. Tilders’ subsequent position was at Rule Industries in Massachusetts as Product Manager for Bilge pumps, anchors, winches and boat care products.

Steve has his BBA and MBA in marketing from Hofstra University in New York. In recent years he has made over 30 trips to Haiti for humanitarian work to help the people of this impoverished nation.

Steve Tilders has been a NMMA Board member since 2008, currently serving on their Executive Committee. He also serves as Chairman of NMMA’s Marine Accessories and Components Division Board.