‘Life is short’: Amer Yachts co-CEO opens up
Barbara Amerio is the co-CEO of Amer Yachts with brother Rodolfo.
She had dreams of becoming an archaeologist or a journalist and took a job on a golf magazine in Milan, but for Barbara Amerio the pull of the sea was too strong.
She returned to the family business in San Remo, Italy intent on carving out a career in yachting and making a contribution, braced for the demands of a male-dominated world.
“My father said, ‘See if you like it, if not you can go and do something different. I’m not forcing you,’” she tells us.
“I wanted to take on the challenge. Imagine a woman in a sector exclusively for men to sell boats. I also wanted to be myself, not the sister of Dodo or the daughter of Mr Fernando. I wanted to be Barbara Amerio.”
She is now co-CEO, along with her brother Rodolfo (Dodo), of Amer Yachts, the brand which grew out of her father Fernando Amerio’s Permare shipyard, with other family members in various roles.
“It has been the right choice,” she adds. “It is a great treasure to work together as a family. We always choose by majority.”
‘Not easy’
Amer Yachts has a 50-year pedigree, beginning as a small repair workshop in 1973 which grew into Gruppo Permare, a shipyard building among other things the renowned Raffaelli Ouragan range of yachts up to 20m.
Early in her career, Barbara secured her yacht broker’s licence, compulsory in Italy, and worked alongside her brother forging a successful career in brokerage.
“It was not easy at the beginning as a young woman in Italy trying to sell yachts, but I was also with my brother,” she says. “He was more a technician, I was more on the documents side. But we made a lot of sales.”
In the 1990s, the company took the plunge and began building yachts under its own marque, Amer Yachts.
It now produces custom steel and composite boats with four made-to-order vessels in production – a 74m, two 50m and a 41m, which will be delivered this year.
The company has grown quickly in the past four years, increasing sales from €10m to €60m, and is building a new shipyard in Pisa to increase capacity.
“We started with a very low profile, but people talk, captains talk and we have been contacted by other clients who want other metal boats,” adds Amerio.
The sweet spot is vessels from 45-60m with propulsion provided by Volvo’s fuel-efficient, forward-facing Penta IPS engines.
The Amerio family: (L-R) Noemi, Barbara, Ferrnando, Rodolfo, Arianna, Alessandra.
Open-minded
Clients, mostly from Europe or the Far East, are people who have the same desire as Amer to be “close to the sea”.
“They don’t follow the fashion,” says Amerio. “They prefer a quality, small company. Because we are a family business they speak directly with us. They appreciate our passion and after-sales service.”
To highlight owner loyalty, one “serial client” has bought five boats with them and now has a holiday home in San Remo to be near the shipyard.
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Like many businesses, Amer has experienced a cooling because of recent global economic “confusion”, as she puts it. But Barbara Amerio, as a leading voice in various Italian national and regional trade associations, is involved in a 120-strong cross-industry panel working with the European Commission to navigate a new path for European trade.
“As EU Trade Champions, we are there to explain the benefits of international trade to people who are less familiar with the opportunities to export,” she says.
“I believe a lot in association because it gives a different point of view. You have to think about making the right choice for a group of people and companies. Sometimes you have to choose something against you but be open-minded to think in a different way.”
‘Life is short’
As a board member and president of superyachts of the Confindustria Nautica, Italy’s marine industry association, Amerio also feel a responsibility to act as a role model for women in the industry.
“There is a gender gap that we have to balance but women in yachting are very motivated, very skilled,” she says.
“That is more important because you have to demonstrate that you work well, not that you are a woman or a man. But there is also a salary gap.”
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She is mindful of the issues women can face in a demanding career but acknowledges that men can also struggle with the “double life” of work and home and says flexibility is key.
“It is really important to have empathy with people because if we have a success, it is thanks to them because the boat is made with many hours of hard work,” she says.
“Life is short and most of it is spent working so you have to be respectful, grant good conditions and prevent toxic situations. This is what my father has taught to me and I want to pass it on to the next generation.”
Her leadership philosophy reflects that. “A leader has not to be egoistic,” she explains. “You give your time, you listen. And you have to remain humble, be honest and respect the word that you give. Values are something very different to what is on the surface.”
A render of Amer Yachts’ 74m steel project under construction.
Respect for the environment as well as its people is part of Amer’s DNA, says Amerio. The company regularly collaborates with universities and research institutes to innovate in the quest for a more sustainable future.
“Sustainability is part of the philosophy of Amer because we want to respect the sea,” says Amerio, who recently completed an executive programme in sustainability at Sant’Anna Scuola Superiore di Pisa.
“I am very curious, so I take my time to study a lot. If there is something that I don’t understand I try to go deep in the subject because I don’t want to not be ready to explain.”
Their work is open to all, even competitors (she calls them colleagues – “it’s a small industry”).
“We want to do open innovation because we believe that for the future for sustainable matters, we can’t keep it only for ourselves, for many reasons,” says Amerio. “You will be always the first to have done this. And for us, it’s enough.”
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Her father Fernando, even at 86 years old, still goes to the office and is also still studying alongside the team, looking at the feasibility of hydrogen alongside hybrid propulsion and other forms of greener power, particularly in collaboration with Volvo.
Barbara herself is an innovator, with a patent for a new “smart mould” and other groundbreaking research into basalt fibres and recyclable resins to adopt a new recyclable composite in place of GRP.
She senses the time is coming to pass on her experience to a younger generation, be that from the family or outside. But for now the desire to keep pushing remains strong.
“In a certain way, I have managed more or less to be myself, to give a contribution to the company,” she says.
“They say the first generation creates, the second keeps and the third generation destroys. I do not want to be the third. I hope the next generation has my passion to keep going.”
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