Ronno Schouten is manager of Feadship's design department responsible for layout, styling and technical feasibility of new projects.
Since joining De Voogt Naval Architects in 2003, Ronno has held roles including manager of Yacht Services, responsible for refits, as well as manager of the Naval Architecture department. Before De Voogt Naval Architects, Ronno worked on several yards mainly involved in yacht building.
Ronno has a masters degree in naval architecture as well as marketing.
Richard Woolley is the studio director for Special Vehicle Operations, working under the direction of Gerry McGovern, Jaguar Land Rover board member and Land Rover’s chief creative officer.
Richard leads a team of creative designers looking at new product opportunities. This includes design responsibility for the Special Vehicle Operations business within Land Rover, which develops high-end luxury bespoke and extreme performance vehicles, including the range Rover SVAutobiography and the Range Rover Sport SVR. His significant design achievements include the 2003 Range Stormer Concept, 2004 Range Rover Sport, 2007 Freelander and 2009 Range Rover. He also led the design team working on the all-new 2012 Range Rover.
Before Land Rover, Richard spent time working in Detroit for Ford Design North America as well as the Rover Group on numerous passenger vehicle programmes including Rover, MG, MINI and Land Rover Vehicles. During this period he also worked in Tokyo, Japan and Munich, Germany.
Richard started his career in the UK, completing studies at Swansea University College of Art and Design before taking on his first design role at Airbus Industry in Hamburg, Germany.
Andrew Winch is the founder and creative director at Winch Design, his position enables him to inspire both clients and design teams with his vision, passion and energy. Winch Design was founded in 1986 by Andrew and Jane Winch as a specialist Exterior and Interior Yacht Design Studio. Over time, the studio has added Aviation, Architecture and Interiors teams to its yacht portfolio and is now a multi-disciplinary studio employing over 75 people, made up of architects, engineers, graphic, interior, textile and furniture designers plus project managers and support staff. Currently working on numerous international design projects on land, in the air and at sea, Winch Design creates spaces which are majestic, timeless and unique. Based in an old fire station on the banks of the River Thames in London, Andrew Winch is celebrating 30 years in business this year.
Prior to Winch Design, Andrew worked at Jon Bannenberg Ltd as an apprentice designer after having spent a year sailing as a crew member across the Atlantic and in the Caribbean on a private 52-foot sailing yacht.
Andrew’s formal training took place at St Martins’ School of Art, London and Kingston College of Art which laid the foundations for his career. Andrew grew up sailing on the south coast of England in dinghies and cruising yachts, his love of the sea embodies all of his work.
Rob Armstrong has always had a huge interest in all aspects of design, completing an extensive range of projects and commissions for clients internationally, ranging from marine to residential and commercial design.
After seven years working for one of the top superyacht designers, Ken Freivokh, Rob established the ThirtyC design studio and consultancy alongside fellow designer Alastair Fletcher. Multi-discipline design is Rob’s strength, from exterior styling through to interior design, evolving with each-and-every client.
ThirtyC are continually looking at pushing the boundaries of creativity, drawing upon their own influences and experiences. The studio’s decision to work closely with other design firms has allowed them to work with some of the most well know names in the superyacht industry and be involved in several unique and award winning designs both afloat and in build.
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.
Thomas Haffa has been passionate about boating from an early age, inspired by a little folding boat with sails that his uncle gave him. Thomas’ enthusiasm for boats has remained constant and his passion has grown with his age and wealth in size and scope. So far, Thomas Haffa owned 33 boats –including the famous Wally Tiketitoo. While racing this boat for several years, he invented, together with Massimo Perotti, his Sanlorenzo Alloy No. 1 4H. – winner of the 18th Showboats Award 2008 in Monaco. Recently, he developed the Cantieri di Pisa 22 together with Luca Dini and currently he is discussing an explorer project with Sanlorenzo.
Thomas Haffa is a German entrepreneur, well-known as founder of EM.TV AG, a German Media Company. Thomas Haffa was the
company’s CEO and major shareholder until July 2001, when he sold his shares. Today, Thomas Haffa operates Air Independence GmbH, an exclusive air charter company based in Germany and Austria, amongst other entrepreneurial activities. His latest venture is dotbooks GmbH – an electronic book company.
Thomas Haffa is founding member of the International SeaKeepers Society (www.seakeepers.org). For charity commitment, Thomas Haffa runs the Thomas Haffa Foundation (Thomas Haffa Stiftung).
Bill Duker is the founder of Amici LLC, acquired by Xerox in 2006 for $174 million. Founded in 2002, Amici is a leading provider of electronic-discovery (e-discovery) services, primarily supporting litigation and regulatory compliance. E-discovery is the identification, filtering, production and storage of relevant data from paper or electronic documents, like e-mail, text files, memos, databases, presentations and spreadsheets.
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.