THE BOATING BUSINESS NEWSPAPER VOL. XLIV, NO. 3 SEPTEMBER 2006
FALL BOAT SHOW PREVIEW P. 8
®
INSIDE:
A group of
locals bought
a marina so
boaters can
keep a rich
part of their
cultural
heritage.
p. 44
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High stakes, high stress, high paychecks
Marine CEOs don’t top executive salary lists, but a few have multimillon-dollar packages
By Elizabeth MacBride
Peter Harris’s track
record as a CEO so
impressed the West
Marine board of
directors it gave him
a $6.5 million package to orchestrate a
company turnaround.
list of the highest-paid or overpaid CEOs;
the companies are too small. Still, some
In January 2005 West Marine’s board of the pay deals in the industry are
of directors hired Peter Harris, a former sweet. Consider Chaparral’s president,
CEO of the San Francisco 49ers, to turn James Lane, who took home $5.4 mil-the languishing chain around. They lion because of his agreement with the
gave him an eye-popping $6.5 million company that he gets a bonus of 10 per-starting package. cent of the company’s pre-tax profits.
Whether he’s worth it remains to be His compensation will rise and fall
seen. The company’s earnings fell by al- based on how well the company does
most 75 percent in the first half of — but even if profits fall considerably,
2006, and it has lowered expectations he’ll still be earning much more than
for the rest of the year, continued on Page 20
Harris is one of five CEOs of public
companies in the marine industry, ranging from giant Brunswick Corp. to niche
player Fountain Powerboat. The pay of
these CEOs varies from Reginald Fountain’s $401,000 to Harris’ big take-home.
But one thing is clear for all of them:
Even in a stagnant or declining boating
market, marine CEOs aren’t suffering.
plus
“I wish every dealer made the kind of
money these men do,” said Phil Keeter,
president of the Marine Retailers Association of America.
Hefty CEO pay and pension packages,
especially those that aren’t tied to company performance, have been raising
public ire for the past few years. In
1990 the average CEO earned 107 times
what the average production worker
did. In 2004 that ratio had increased to
431 to 1, according to the liberal think
tank United for a Fair Economy.
“I don’t think anyone could make the
argument that CEO productivity has
gone up that much,” says Dan Pedrotty,
counsel for the AFL-CIO’s office of investment, which helps guide investment decisions for union pension
plans. Union and government pension
plans have been among the loudest
critics of CEO compensation.
Marine CEOs don’t make anyone’s hit
Finance & Insurance
A Trade Only special report
• With boat sales trending downward,
marine bankers are writing fewer
loans. Activity was off 15 percent in
the first half of the year and lenders
say they expect the negative trend to
continue at a 12 percent rate through
the end of the year. p. 16
• Massive payouts to cover losses from
two years of destructive hurricanes
have created an insurance crisis for
marine businesses in Florida. Some
can’t get coverage at all, and others
have seen their premiums soar. p. 50
‰ OUR VIEW: A peek at the National Marine Manufacturers Association statistics ...p. 6
‰ PEOPLE: A new president for the Hatteras Collection ..................................p. 61
‰ FOR THE RECORD: Jersey Cape Custom Sportfishing Yachts expands .............p. 65
‰ CALENDAR: Virginia In-Water Boat Expo in Norfolk, Va. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. 66
COMEBACK AT PALMER JOHNSON — P. 36
