Steve Coultate
Managing Director
Steve joined Sealine in May 2006. With over 25 years experience in manufacturing industry, he began as an apprentice at the age of 17. Gaining a degree in Mechanical Engineering and later an MBA, he took positions of increasing seniority through Production Control, IT, Quality Control, Design, Product Launch, and Lean Manufacturing. He was a member of the leadership team responsible for transforming the Halewood plant on Merseyside from a Ford to a Jaguar plant - and now rated by JD Power as one of the world’s top quality automotive plants. After 16 years at Jaguar, Steve moved to Land Rover as Manufacturing Director in 2002. Five new models were launched in a three and a half year period resulting in the strongest model line-up in Land Rover’s history.
In moving to Sealine, Steve saw the opportunity for taking ultimate responsibility for another great British brand. His initial focus has been to develop an outstanding team – combining the marine strengths within Sealine with some of the best talent from outside. The team have accelerated Product Development – most recently launching the award-winning SC35 and revealing the SC47, due for launch in summer 2008. The company is also expanding its international presence, and introducing the latest manufacturing techniques to its boat building operations.
His view at the recent London Boat Show: "I have been delighted with how the team has developed: we have assembled a very dynamic, high calibre group of people with a real passion for this business. They are demonstrating what fresh thinking can do for a business: our agenda is geared to our customers – and delivering great products is at the heart of this strategy. The Boat of the Year Award for the SC35 is a testament to the team’s abilities."
Nicholas Turner
Marketing & Sales Director
Nicholas has built a successful track record in sales and marketing, most recently working in the automotive sector as Marketing Director for one of the UK’s largest retail dealer groups, the Camden Motor Group. Prior to that, Nicholas spent 10 years with international data management firm Acxiom providing CRM and customer-facing marketing solutions for the automotive, travel and financial service sectors.
Nicholas has a lifelong leisure interest in sailing and motor boating and personally owns a motor cruiser berthed in the Solent. In addition, he has recently completed a commercial Motor Yacht Skipper’s qualification to formally confirm his boat handling skills.
The combination of Nicholas’ sales, marketing and maritime skills, together with his knowledge of the motor yacht market, should prove a powerful force in developing Sealine’s marketing activity and strengthening distribution channels. Nicholas currently lives in Richmond, Surrey but hopes to relocate to the Kidderminster area. Nicholas is 45 years old and completed his bachelor’s degree in Business Studies at the London Guildhall University.
Roger Tucker
Creative Director
Roger studied design at Leicester College of Art before joining a design consultancy where he worked on a variety of products including sports cars and household goods. In the early 80’s he was recruited by Austin Rover to work on the new Austin Metro and Montego – widely acknowledged as fine examples of modern cars in their day.12 years later, Roger established his own design consultancy service, advising clients such as Ford, Swan Electric and Sealine. His first collaboration with Sealine resulted in the 365 and he since been responsible for every boat. Roger officially joined the company full time in 1999.
He is particularly proud of the SC29, which he says came about after a conversation with Sealine's chief boat tester who revealed that even during hot summers he would leave the front section of the canopy erected to provide both shade and shelter. The coupe has the performance and feel of an open sports cruiser with the comfort and convenience of a hard top.
Carsten Astheimer
Design Director
Carsten graduated with a BSc honours degree in both Mechanical Engineering from Leicester University and Transportation Design from Art Center College of Design Pasadena.
After a work experience with the Volkswagen/Audi Design center in California, his professional career has been nurtured in the Design Rich region of Northern Italy.
The first four years were with Idea Institute Turin, working mostly on car design projects for the likes of Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, Lotus, Kia and Honda.
After which he opened his own studio Inovo design, a studio which is still going strong, which was the number one design supplier for the Fiat group.
And finally for seven years with Pininfarina, managing the Design studio Pininfarina Extra responsible for all none automotive products from boats and planes to cell phones and sports equipment.
Here he followed more than three hundred successful projects into production for world leading clients being acclaimed many design awards along the way, including:
Three red dot design awards for projects with Samsung, 3M and a Design team award, two Good Design Awards by the Museum of Architecture and Design of Chicago and several nominations for the gold compass award. He helped set up a design studio for the Motorola IDEn technology group in Florida, and has made ground breaking projects for the likes for Lange ski boots, Jacuzzi, Snaidero kitchens, and Ray Ban. A highlight of this time was the Olympic torch project and the caldron for Torino 2006 which has become a characteristic feature of the town of Turin.
Carsten, hired by the Brunswick Boat group, joined Sealine as Design Director in October 2006 and has relished the opportunity in creating a new Design Direction, the SC35 being the first foundation block for this new direction.
Dean Kennan
Manufacturing Director
Dean’s career with Sealine began as a boat builder in 1987. Since then, he has progressed through several supervisory roles within manufacturing including Team Leader, Unit Manager and then onto Production Manager responsible for all areas of manufacturing. During his career, he has been involved with developing the majority of new products introduced. In August 2004, he was appointed as Technical Director where he was directly involved in the development and led the first build of the T60, SC29 and the T50.
During his 20 years with Sealine, Dean has seen the company grow and double in size. He has always maintained a very hands-on approach which he believes has given him the ability to interact with the design department. Dean’s role has been pivotal in co-ordinating design inspirations with technical specifications to make design sketches a reality.
In February 2007, Dean was appointed Manufacturing Director where he will once again apply himself to lead the Manufacturing departments. Within this role he is instrumental in addressing several initiatives including the re-layout of the Manufacturing facility to improve flow of parts, and achieve several efficiency improvements throughout the build process. He has also engaged with the Manufacturing Engineering department to optimize further manufacturing methods and efficiency opportunities, and has effectively transferred several elements of the on-line build process to an off-line modular process.
He is now investigating the opportunities of applying Lean manufacturing disciplines, tools and techniques from a boat building perspective to further develop and improve Sealine’s manufacturing capabilities.
Mark Turner
Supply Chain Director
Mark’s career began in the automotive industry in the West Midlands, with a role at Thyssen – a first tier supplier to Toyota, Jaguar and GM for cast and machined aluminium parts. Within the first year of joining the company, he became Chief Buyer and progressed to Purchasing Manager. After spending 9 years with Thyssen, Mark moved on to a number of positions focusing on supply chain systems development, strategic sourcing and new programme introduction.
Prior to joining Sealine, Mark moved into the aerospace industry working for Goodrich – a company that designs and manufactures actuation systems for civil and military aircraft. As Supply Chain Manager, Mark worked in divisions in Coventry, Wolverhampton and even spent a few months in France. Shortly after moving to Goodrich, Mark completed an MBA.
His role at Sealine is to transform the supply side of the business, including the development of materials requirement systems to ensure purchased parts are available at the time they are needed, to target cost.
Mark is married and lives near Birmingham
Nick Swift
Product Development and Engineering Director
Nick has extensive experience in engineering design and development and has been involved in the delivery of numerous projects from concept to production. Possessing an honours degree in Mechanical Engineering and Chartered Engineer status, Nick has worked for the last 20 years in the truck and construction machinery manufacturing industries managing R&D, Design and Development teams. He has worked with well-known British brands including Foden Trucks, JCB and Dennis Eagle.
Joining Sealine in October of 2007, Nick sees the opportunity of working with another famous British brand as an exciting challenge and looks forward to transferring the skills he has honed in his career to another product range.
Nick is married with a son and a daughter and in his spare time enjoys watching football, DIY and home cinema as his hobbies.
Warren McCafferty
Group Quality Manager
From Ayrshire on the West Coast of Scotland, where he worked in the electronics industry for 20 yrs supplying printed circuit boards to a variety of sectors including personal computers, telecoms, military, aerospace, marine and automotive. He started his career as a chemical engineer and latterly completed an MBA. His career experience during this time included senior roles in process engineering management, cad/cam, lean manufacturing management, customer service, sales management and quality management.
In 2003 he decided to change careers to seek a new challenge and joined an American company supplying interiors to the automotive market. Based in Warrington, Coventry and Hungary the primary products were leather seating supplying Mercedes, Landrover, Ford, Opel, Honda, Nissan and Renault.
During his time there as the Group Quality Manager he was responsible for implementing the automotive quality standard ISO TS 16949 based on ISO 9001 and led continuous improvement activities using a variety of quality tools such as SPC and structured problem solving, as well as Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies.
Having now joined Sealine he will assist in the organisations transformation of the quality systems and processes being used leading to improved boat building quality and reliability in line with the overall strategy of the company.
Rob Bonham
Finance Director
Rob most recently served as Financial Controller in a large division of the Anglo-Dutch steel manufacturer Corus plc, where he has been since 2002. Prior to Corus, Rob spent four years in the positions of Finance Director and Controller at the Polestar Group, the largest independent printer in the UK. Rob qualified as a Chartered Accountant (ACA) back in 1994 where he served his initial financial ‘apprenticeship’ with KPMG in Birmingham.
Rob currently lives in Worcester. He is 38 years old and married with two children aged 8 and 5. In terms of education, Rob holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography from Durham University. In his spare time Rob plays hockey and cricket with a passion and otherwise fills his spare time by keeping his young family out of trouble!
Matt Cherry
Human Resources Director
Matt joined Sealine in 2004 and has 15 years experience in human resource management in the UK manufacturing sector.
After completing a Business Studies degree, then a Masters in Personnel Management at the London School of Economics, Matt moved to the West Midlands to join British Steel (now Corus Group) where he undertook a number of general HR management roles.
Within Sealine, Matt is responsible for the development of fit for purpose people management and development activity that maximises the contribution of Sealine personnel. He particularly focuses on enhancing career development opportunities, promoting investment in training to improve skill levels, increasing job satisfaction and improving internal communications to boost overall productivity and business performance.
Matt is married with two young children and lives in Shropshire. As well as spending time with the family he enjoys playing and watching a range of sports, swimming and exercising at a local gym.