Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> August 5, 2002

William Mcgill Jr. – Marinemax Inc (hzo)

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
TWST: Could you give us a brief historical sketch of MarineMax, Inc.,

and a picture of things as they are now?

Mr. McGill: MarineMax is the largest retailer of power pleasure boats in

the