GMBA

Global Marine Business Advisors

International negotiations

Godfrey Zwygart

CHINA AND ASIA

Experience

Frenchman Godfrey Zwygart is a former captain and chief engineer who spent decades in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Originally trained in the French Naval Academy he served on both navy and merchant ships and as captain on mega yachts. He moved to Asia in the 80’s as a boat builder in Taiwan, and now specializes in development, management and marketing of world class international yacht marinas and yacht clubs.

 

In 2010 Zwygart moved to Sanya to build and act as general manager operations of the multi-awards winning Sanya Serenity Marina. The 5 gold anchors platinum marina has been a host twice for the Volvo Ocean Race, as well as the Clipper Race and the youth world sailing championships.

 

Zwygart then established Marevisio Co Limited, aiming to help marinas and super yachts brands in the Asian region through management consultancy, training, and services. Zwygart has published two books as well as a large number of articles in Chinese and he is a prominent figure in China’s yachting and marine industry.

 

As foreign expert for the Hainan government, he collaborates with the local government on the development of the Hainan free trade port.

 

Zwygart is fluent in French, English, Italian and Chinese.

Regional Expertise

China and Asia

Recent Insights

Albert Willemsen

Albert Willemsen

Netherlands

Experience

Albert Willemsen, the GMBA technical expert, is a qualified engineer with significant capability in the superyacht and leisure marine sector. His knowledge on sustainability and environmental matters is legendary and covers diverse areas such as anti-fouling, end–of-life and recycling issues, marina dredging, to name a few. He has decades of experience in governmental relations and has been an active player in the drafting of guidelines and legislation for the sector.

Regional Expertise

Netherlands

Recent Insights

Knut Heiberg-Andersen

NORWAY

Experience

As a young International Management Trainee in a large cement and building material conglomerate, Knut was invited to manage one of their subsidiaries, FJORD PLAST AS, which at the time was one of the largest boat industries in Europe. 

 

Little did Knut know that this would be his lifetime engagement and passion.

 

After running their operations in the Philippines for a number of years, Knut moved on to become the Managing Director of the Fjord Company and on behalf of Norcem AS, sold it to an outside group.

 

Eight years later a close friend asked Knut to help with WINDY & DRACO,  a project estimated to take  2- 3 years to complete. This “project” has lasted since 1990 and the name of WINDY is today synonymous with the very best of Scandinavian quality.

 

Knut steered WINDY Through exciting and challenging times with a team of the most competent and passionate co-workers and has left a legacy of respect for conduct and “inside-out-quality” which only the few have had the pleasure of experiencing.  Over the years Knut offered his time and services to national marine associations as well as contributing to the European marine organization we have today.

 

Over the years Knut has offered his time and services to national marine associations as well as contributing to the European marine organization we have today.

 

After 29 years at the helm of WINDY BOATS AS, Knut is now overseeing the development of his life-long passion, WINDY, as Chairman and Mentor.

Regional expertise:

Regional Expertise

Norway

Recent Insights

Kai Malmivaara

MIDDLE EAST

Experience

Kai is a Dubai based business executive with more than 30 years’ experience in different international businesses, including shipping, oil and gas, import export, real estate, construction, asset management, private equity investment and business consulting. Kai has been member of the board in more than 40 companies and in several of those he has acted as a chairman.

 

The focus of his work has been in consulting and building up businesses, creating and developing strategies and business plans, monitoring and directing the business operations and in building long term value of the concerned corporations. He combines the understanding of legal and contractual issues with general business understanding. In particular Kai is specialized international negotiations and has a good understanding of different types of industrial contracts.

 

Kai has lived in Dubai since 2005 and has played a central role in building Middle East business for Marinetek Group, acting as Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Marinetek Middle East and Asia. In this role he has gained an in-depth knowledge of marine related business in the area and has established good network with different actors in the field.
Kai is fluent in English, Finnish and Swedish language. He has a master’s degree in law (LL.M.) from the University of Helsinki and MBA degree from IMD, Switzerland.

Regional Expertise

UAE

Recent Insights

David Lewin

United Kingdom

Experience

After 14 years in the fashion clothing industry where he trained in Germany as a production engineer, David started his own business producing protective sports clothing for sailing, country sports and skiing. Having sold it after 17 years he spent 9 years running a mail-order and internet based marine retail business. Thereafter he bought into a marine and specialist paint manufacturing company whilst consulting for various electronics companies developing MOB systems and also for a major German lifejacket manufacturer. Latterly he has been developing the UK market for a large French boat interior furniture producer.

 

Whilst doing this, he worked his way through various committees to become President of the British Marine Federation (rebranded to simply “British Marine” in 2015), Vice Chairman of National Boat Shows, Vice Chairman of ICOMIA and a Council Member of the RYA.

 

He has now worked in the marine industry for nearly 40 years.

Regional Expertise

United Kingdom

Recent Insights

Dr Jouko Huju, DBA

FINLAND

Experience

Jouko has worked all his career in export promotion and international trade, both in private and public sectors. He served at FINNBOAT (Finnish Marine Industries Federation) for over 20 years in various capacities including that of CEO and later, as Chairman. His passion for industry development, exports and international relations led him to ICOMIA (International Council of Marine Industry Associations) where he was a board member for 14 years. He was actively involved in the establishment of European Boating Industry (EBI) and the KV- Foorum, a public- private partnership to foster dialogue and promote cooperation in the export sector. He has served as Board member and Chairman of numerous organisations including, but not limited to ICOMIA, IMCI, FINNBOAT and KV-Foorum.

 

He believes in both work-based-learning and lifelong-learning, completing an English MBA program and straight after that also a DrBA program. After 6 years of studying alongside work he wrote a thesis on: “Navigating New routes to Lobbying in Brussels – A Research on European Boating Industry”.

 

Jouko is fluent in Finnish, Swedish, English and German.

Regional Expertise

Jouko is a born Finn but has worked extensively in Sweden, Norway and the Central European Countries

Recent Insights