Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> June 23, 2003
WILLIAM (BILL) H. McGILL JR. has served as the Chief Executive
Officer of MarineMax, Inc., since the company's inception in
January 1998 and as the Chairman of the Board and as a Director
of the company since March 6, 1998. He graduated with a Bachelor
of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University
of Dayton. He joined Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as a Test Engineer,
designing and developing such things as the SR-71 spy plane. Mr.
McGill went on to work at Northrop Nortronics, as subcontractor
for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
There he was involved in the space station program, conducting
extended space station chamber tests. He decided to apply his
engineering, leadership and management skills to a new career in
manufacturing at the Kendall Company in Kentucky which
subsequently became part of Colgate-Palmolive. In 1973, he
assumed ownership of a 12-year-old boat dealership in Sarasota,
Florida, called Gulfwind Marine and opened a retail operation in
St. Pete Beach, Florida. He opened a Clearwater, Florida,
location in 1974 and eventually, grew the dealerships, to cover
the West Coast of Florida to become one of the largest marine
retailers in the world. MarineMax is now the nation's largest
boat retailer and the industry leader in growth and
profitability, with 60 locations in Arizona, California,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North
Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Profile
Mr. McGill: We are in the marine retailing business ' power
pleasure boats ' we are selling products anywhere from 12 feet in
length
