Boating Industry Canada April 2015 - (Page 19)

huge investment for Mercury Marine and a gamble on the directions engine technology would take in the future. That gamble has paid off handsomely! Schwabero guided Mercury Marine through seven of the industry's worst sales years and in 2014, was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer of Brunswick Corporation. In May of 2014, John Pfeifer was announced as the new President of Mercury Marine. We had the pleasure of meeting John and interviewing him at the Toronto International Boat Show at what we suspect will be the start of a great new era in the marine industry with Mercury well-positioned to ride the wave as the good times roll back into boating. We were keen to meet John Pfeifer and learn more about him. John Pfeifer's family background is very interesting. He was born in Peterborough, Ontario and to this day proudly holds his Canadian passport. We asked how he originally got into boating and he took us way back to an earlier time in his life. He was fairly young when his father, who was a surgeon, moved to Detroit, Michigan with his family to set up a medical practice. Back in the 1960s, Detroit was a booming place because it was the epicenter of the automobile industry. That was in the days of highperformance cars, Trans Am racing and lots of new models to satisfy the tastes of the baby boom generation and the booming economy of the day. It's clear that John Pfeifer grew up as an enthusiast on cars, boats and all things mechanical. While cars like the Camaro and Mustang were king of the hill in those days, by the time John was at University of Michigan in the 1980s, everyone could see the rising influence of Japanese cars and manufacturing, and the study of foreign languages was a requirement of the course he was enrolled in. You guessed it - he studied Japanese. Companies like Honda and Toyota were building plants in America at that time and Japanese cars were becoming a growing force in the market. Knowing Japanese was a rare qualification for those days and immediately on his graduation, Pfeifer headed off to Tokyo and a rapidly growing range of personal opportunity. As he told us, "This set me on my course to international business." There's always been a strong correlation between the automotive industry and the marine world and that was obviously driving Pfeifer' personal interests, but he wasn't finished with his education. He wound up with a degree in Economics with a concentration in Finance, as well as a degree in Japanese, and that was what later opened the door for him at Mercury Marine. Over the years, he had become a family man and a boater. In fact, his wife is an avid water skier. He has three teenaged children, two of whom are bilingual. One speaks English and French, another English and Chinese. The family has lived all around the world, but he is quick to say how pleased they all are to now be living in Wisconsin. John Pfeifer joined Mercury Marine in early 2006 so he has now been with Mercury for nine years. Prior to that, he had lived in Hong Kong and he joined the organization to take Taking to the stage on February 12, John Pfeifer had the pleasure of introducing the new engines to an even larger media group and countless members of the public who were attending the Miami International Boat Show. responsibility for Mercury's Asia-Pacific group, which includes all of the Mercury Marine businesses in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. After a time on that, he moved halfway around the world to Brussels, Belgium where he took over Mercury's "EMEA" division, Europe, Africa and the Middle East operations. Then, in late 2012 he moved back to Fond du Lac Wisconsin to Mercury Marine's head office as Vice President - Global Operations. Pfeifer pointed out that Mercury really is a global company with operations all around the world and in fact, Mercury is in every country on the planet except for five. And he comments that it will soon be only four when Cuba opens up to American business and tourism. He commented to us that from the Mercury standpoint, the growth opportunities are global in nature although he was quick to acknowledge that since the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, North America has rebounded further and faster than other markets. Not surprisingly, North America is therefore one of Mercury's biggest growth opportunities presently. Commenting further on the international scene, Pfeifer acknowledged that Europe presents macro economic challenges at the present time. He commented that there is growth in the Middle East and that while China's 10% per annum GDP growth has slowed to 7%, that's still a blistering rate of growth and Mercury sees a lot of opportunity in China. Then, South America was doing well until about two years ago and although this is currently a troubled market, he expects things there will work their way through and that we will see a growth environment again there. You could sense John Pfeifer's excitement about the future as he talked to us about the many new product introductions that Mercury has had recently. As he told us, "Mercury is an www.boatingindustry.ca 19 http://www.boatingindustry.ca

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Boating Industry Canada April 2015

Insight
Industry News
Ad Nauseam
Impact - John Pfeifer
Propulsion - Mercury's Latest & Greatest
Product Innovation - Xantrex
Made in Canada - Nova Kool
The Boat Shop - NMEA

Boating Industry Canada April 2015