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.
Tom Cheesewright is the founder of applied futurism practice, Book of the Future and creator of the Futurist's Toolkit, a suite of tools for agile organisations.
Through consulting, speaking and media work Tom helps people to see, share and respond to a coherent vision of tomorrow. Clients range from charities and public sector organisations to FTSE100 enterprises and global technology corporations, They include LG, Nikon, Sony Pictures, the NHS, Manchester University, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Tom followed a degree in Mechatronic Engineering with 14 years in the tech industry, working with global brands such as BT, EE and IBM, and subsequently founded a series of technology-driven companies. Most recently Tom co-founded venture-backed big data analytics start-up CANDDi, of which he remains a shareholder. He acts as an advisor to a number of technology-driven start-ups.
Tom is a frequent presence on TV and radio, appearing across the BBC from the Breakfast sofa to Newsround and World Business Report, and as a regular contributor to 5live and Radio 4. He has shared his thoughts on the future with Channel 4′s Sunday Brunch, Sky News, the Guardian, Evening Standard, Entrepreneur Magazine, Stuff and MSN.
Tim Heywood founded Tim Heywood Designs, with his partner Vanessa Reville, in 1996. New projects followed very quickly and he became involved in ever increasing sized yachts, M/Y Pelorus, M/Y Carinthia VII, M/Y Dilbar, M/Y Ice, M/Y Radiant, all built by Lürssen, M/Y Mayan Queen IV, M/Y Baton Rouge, M/Y Cakewalk, M/Y Kogo, M/Y Al Mirqab, M/Y Symphony and, again with Lürssen, M/Y Quantum Blue and M/Y Topaz, (being the largest yacht he has designed to date, at 147 metres.)
Tim’s working relationship with the Amels Ship yard and the Limited Editions series of yachts, now totalling over 30 yachts in the last ten years, has been extremely successful and continues to this day. Tim has worked with nearly all the major yacht building yards of the world, Lürssen, Amels, Feadship, (both Royal Van Lent and De Vries), Blohm & Voss, Kusch, Fincantieri, Icon, Alstom, Direcktor, Oceanfast, Oceanco, Benetti and Picchiotti.
The flowing lines of his exterior designs, often matched with twisting structures, large windows and large wing stations, give his designs an original, individual and strong presence that makes his designs stand out from their contemporaries. Tim’s work has been very influential, he enjoys pushing the building yards, gently and with good humour, to create, what he considers to be, timelessly, elegant yachts.
Tim entered the yacht design world in 1972 at the Chelsea studio of Jon Bannenberg, prior to this he studied Industrial Design Engineering.
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.
John Leonida is a partner at Clyde & Co and heads up the superyacht practice. John's legal specialism lies in transactional work where he is regarded as a "leading individual" by highly regarded Chambers & Partner legal directory. He also advises on regulatory issues relating to the ownership of ships and has extensive experience in negotiating shipbuilding and ship financing documents. His clients are either shipping entrepreneurs or, in the case of John's superyacht work, high net-worth individuals, superyacht builders, designers and banks. He is a regular contributor to Boat International.
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.
Sara Gioanola joined Heesen in 2009 as the role of PR and Press Officer. She shares her enthusiasm for the Heesen brand via the media, with extensive content in print publications, digital platforms, videography, events and trade shows. She has helped raise Heesen’s profile considerably thanks to her skills in communication coupled with a thorough understanding of luxury brands and marketing, all around the world.
Prior to Heesen Yachts, Sara worked with Baglietto as a fast motoryacht specialist and Perini Navi, the major superyacht builder specialising in large sailing yachts, from 2005 – 2008.
Sara graduated in 2001 with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. She has always been a passionate sailor and is fluent in three languages.
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.