Meet the 36 Superyacht Design Symposium 2017 speakers

Vripack is a third generation studio founded in 1961 and is lead by designer and naval architect Bart M. Bouwhuis and Marnix J. Hoekstra. The Dutch naval architecture, design and engineering studio has created over 7000 designs and is renowned for its high quality no-nonsense-go-anywhere ships that roam the Seven Seas.

“To seamlessly blend the sailing wishes of our clients into a design that first throws them off their feet and later on is embraced as if they thought of every inch themselves gives our team and thus me a great pleasure”, says Marnix J. Hoekstra.

"At Vripack we believe that a good design should not meet all requirements. It should surpass them, creating a boat that is able to go beyond dream. Vripacks holistic design approach is crucial with regard to working on the cutting edge of design and technology. At Vripack we don’t just design yachts, we Engineer Fantasies."

Mike Fisher is the creative director and founder of Studio Indigo – an architecture and interior design studio specialising in high end residential work in the UK and around the world.

Studio Indigo’s expertise lies in its ability to grasp how their clients live, what their needs and desires are and to create imaginative and inspiring spaces which reflect that. Surprise and delight is the studio’s motto, taking the client on a journey that is creative and enjoyable.

This skill is now being transferred into the yachting world with Studio Indigo having recently completed the interior of 70 metre Feadship Joy. Their largest yacht to date, Joy is an example of Studio Indigo’s fresh perspective, collaborative approach and meticulous attention to detail.

Teamwork has been a hallmark of Mike’s studio since its inception in 2005. He has built up a multicultural and multilingual group of 50 specialist designers based in a converted warehouse overlooking the Thames in Chelsea, London.

Mike is a keen yachtsman himself and understands the necessary balance between luxury, comfort and functionality. He is able to combine his team’s various fields of expertise and his 25 years’ experience in residential design to deliver yachts that have their own unique and distinctive character.

Terence Disdale Designs is one of the world’s leading companies specialising in yacht design. The company employs a team of 15 and was formed in 1973.

Prior to this Terence worked as one of Jon Bannenberg’s two design assistants for a few years. His other experiences were in the hotel design industry and with shop fitting and joinery specialists.

In his forty years of experience Terence has participated in the design and construction of more than a hundred yachts including fifty of these above the category of 45 meters. Eighteen of his projects have been completed above the category of 60 meters & he is the holder of thirty international design awards for his projects, including their latest creation the 81 metre Kibo which won the 2015 Showboats Holistic Design Award.

In 2015 the 163 metre Motor Yacht Eclipse was recognised by Boat International with the status of ‘Motor Yacht of the Decade’ which incorporates Terence Disdale’s exterior styling, general arrangement and complete interior design.

His forte is in creating the total design concept of the yacht from the water line upward. The design team develops the complete deck by deck planning, the superstructure lines, design and detail as well as the complete and totally bespoke interior.

Occasionally they have been invited to work on the interior of private aircraft and the houses of various clients where they have carried out extensive architectural work, landscape design and interior design.

Martin Francis of Francis Design are currently working on a variety of different projects, including architectural work on the New headquarters for Vitsoe in Leamington Spa and a project for flood resistant housing in the UK. Their yachting work includes the 124-meter M/Y Golden Odyssey recently delivered by Luerssen plus other new large yacht projects. Francis Design are also completing the technical development of a 14 meter Mercedes-Benz Styled luxury yacht for Silver Arrows Marine and a consultancy project with Swarovski for the development of new surface products for interiors.

For the last 20 years, Martin has been working collaboratively with the American Artist Frank Stella on large sculptures and computer assisted art projects. In 2005 he was engaged by RCCL Celebrity Cruises to design the exterior of the Solstice class a series of five 120,000 GRT Cruise Ships. In 1982 Martin joined Peter Rice in the creation of RFR, a Paris based engineering company, established to design the glass facades of the Museum of Science and Technology in Paris. He was also responsible for assisting IM Pei in the design of the cable structure of the Louvre Pyramid using yacht rigging technology.

Working in France since 1976, Martin's first motor yacht was the iconic ECO followed by a number of innovative vessels like M/Y Senses, M/Y Golden Shadow, M/Y Sultan and more recently the 118-meter M/Y ‘A’ for which he was the Technical and Naval designer, a joint project with Phillip Starck.

Martin trained at the Central School of Art and Design and worked as a cabinet maker before in 1967 starting working with Architect Norman Foster on a wide range of projects including the glass wall of the Willis Faber and Dumas building in Ipswich.

Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architects is a Victoria B.C. based design firm owned by Principals Greg Marshall and Gordon Galbraith. The firm has been operating from Victoria for 22 years, and has created more than 400 designs from which more than 1000 vessels have been built.

Gregory C. Marshall NA (GCMNA) designs a wide range of vessels from small aluminum runabouts to a current project under construction that is over 270 feet. The firm is involved in the Design, Naval Architecture, Structural and Mechanical Engineering as well as interior design. Their projects are building on all continents except Antarctica. The firm is in the regular business of designing in Steel, Aluminum, FRP as well as wood.

GCMNA has won numerous Awards worldwide including “Best Naval Architecture” (2 times) , “Best Yacht Under 500 GRT” (3 times) , “Most Innovative Yacht” (3 times) “Best Styling” (3 Times) “Best Interior” (3 times) and “Best Refit”.

Peder Eidsgaard founded Eidsgaard Design in 2005 to create exterior and interior designs for superyachts. The company is headed with partners Ben Harrison and Ewa Eidsgaard.

The company’s team of eight is based in London, from where they have delivered designs for yachts including Tango, Saudade, Angel’s Share, Halo and Vanish.

“- We enjoy creating yachts that each have a unique character to reflect the owners personality. Only the engine room location is conventional in our layouts, which are fully created from scratch around the lifestyle of the owner.”

Eidsgaard’s exteriors aim to each have a certain dynamic elegance, but every profile is made to be individual and recognizable.

Peder decided on his chosen career after reading about London’s superyacht designers in a magazine when he was 12 years old.

He was born in Great Britain but grew up in Oslo, Norway, and gained a Bachelor of Science degree in design in Switzerland, before he spent nine years working for Andrew Winch Designs in London.

Since 2005 Peder Eidsgaard has also delivered 23 V-VIP private jets under his separate company Pegasus Design: “- Superyachts and private jets are vastly different in that one is a holiday home and the other a business tool, but both disciplines share the same design process and the same design-conscious clientele.”

For several of Peder’s clients the team has designed both the jet and yacht.

Peder’s spare time is spent with family and friends on the ski slopes in the Winter and on his small boat in Norway during the Summer.

Maurizio Minossi is the technical Director at Videoworks which he joined in 1998. He is also a member of the Board and Director of research and development. Maurizio is currently focused on smart environments, IT redundancy, weareable devices and virtualisation of AV devices.

Videoworks entered the Luxury Yachts Market in 1998 and has been involved in more than 80 projects from 27 to 330 feet in Italy, Netherlands, US and China.

Maurizio began working in Industrial Automation and Industrial Networking in the early 1990s. He has an MBA from Institute Adriano Olivetti ISTAO, 1994 and graduated in Electronic Engineering at the University Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona in 1991.

Superyacht charter was part of family life for Roy Nasser from a young age, and his passion for boats and the sea was instantly apparent. Roy’s family purchased their first boat in the early 2000’s, and for them, yachting remains to be about family time. Since then, the family has bought, refitted & built 5 yachts, ranging in length from 13m to 43m. They have been involved in builds/refits over 3 continents and have cruised extensively, often spending months on board. Roy’s Mother & Sister, Sabina, (after whom the yachts' name M/Y Bina comes from), are extremely design oriented, with a unique approach to form "AND" function, as opposed to form "over" function. In contrast, his father and Roy are both from an engineering/technology background and have always been interested, aware and very involved in everything "behind the scenes". This unique family dynamic has produced incredible results and M/Y Bina’s extensive refit is the latest showcase of our work.

Roy studied at the British School in São Paulo, then pursued studies in Boston, MA before then returning to São Paulo to continue the business he started at 15yrs old. Roy’s software technology company has 'taken off' in the past 4 years which means he now divides his time between São Paulo, Miami, New York (where his sister lives), and Europe (where his mother and grandparents reside).

Bob Corcoran has been the Captain of 77m M/Y Samar for 9 years, traveling extensively from the Fjords of Norway to the Persian Gulf. He is currently involved with the project management of a new 107m motor yacht, project Zoza, a project on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. In addition, he has been involved in 2 previous new builds (being Yard Captain for Broward Marine) and several extensive refit projects as well as offering consultation services on a freelance basis, for new builds and to the development of yachting in Malta.

Bob has been in the Luxury Yacht field since 1984 as Captain, commanding both Charter and Private yachts. He grew up on boats in the waters of the Great Lakes in Michigan. After receiving his first commercial license in 1979 at the age of 20, Bob attended Michigan State University Kellogg School to study Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management.

Bob currently holds a Master 3000 ton License, Cayman Islands Endorsement and a Chief Mate Unlimited License and is working towards a Master Unlimited License.

Nicola Nicolai is Product Development Director of Benetti, Azimut|Benetti Group, in charge of product development of semicustom and full custom new projects. Starting as Project Manager of full custom yachts in 2006, he soon was appointed Head of Project Management Department after managing with success many custom new builds, and then Director of Product & Project Management Department in 2012, managing new builds of semicustom and full custom projects from 30 up to 90+ mt. At this time Nicola Nicolai, acting as Interim Sales Manager, leaded the “Benetti Design Innovation Project” working along with a selected group of top designers of the superyacht industry to rethink the future exterior lines of Benetti’s custom projects.

During his career Nicola has had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most important owners, designers, naval architects, brokerage and management companies in the industry. He managed projects such as Benetti’s 70mt Spectre, 45mt Domani, 61mt Diamonds Are Forever, 65mt Seanna, 64mt Silver Angel, 56mt Annaeva, Riva 115’ Athena series, Genesis 153’ and many others.

With over 16 years’ experience in the superyacht industry, Nicola worked at Riva, a Ferretti Group Brand, in 2003 as Project Manager after starting his career in 2000 as Design and Engineering Coordinator for North American Yachts and Shipbuilding.

Combining his professional experience together with his natural passion for yachts he developed a 360 degrees knowledge of product and process, from negotiation to design, engineering, production and delivery of superyachts. Nicola always had an incredible passion for sea and yachting that he developed when still a student sailing as skipper for charter cruises and regattas. He graduated in Architecture and Yacht Design from Florence University of Architecture.