Exclusive: Sunseeker CEO Scott Millar on courage, transformation and why culture matters

Scott Millar ran Sunseeker International as interim chief executive at the end of 2025 and left for pastures new, but could not stop thinking about Poole. A PwC-trained chartered accountant whose career has taken in McLaren and ASOS, Millar has led 16 transformation programmes over roughly 15 years. By his count, 15 ended with recovered EBITDA, improved cash flow and higher equity value; the sixteenth, a business he says was already losing $200 million a month when he arrived.

Sunseeker was meant to be one more engagement before the next. Instead, he has returned with a chief commercial officer, a chief information officer and a chief strategy officer added to an executive team that previously had none.

In the first interview since his move became permanent on 1 October, the transformation specialist explained to BOAT International why Sunseeker honoured customer deposits when its European distributor collapsed, why leaving the superyacht market was “a massive strategic blunder” and why he wants Sunseeker to be the McLaren of the water.

You ran Sunseeker as interim chief executive, moved on to a German OEM, and have now come back permanently. What happened?

When I leave a business, I’m generally straight on to the next job, but this one I just couldn’t shake. Sunseeker was under my skin. I worked every hour God sent for said German OEM, but when I went to bed at night, honestly, one of the last thoughts other than my family was Sunseeker. I’d spoken to Steve Timms pretty much every weekend the whole way through, even when I wasn’t coming back, because he was bouncing ideas off me.