We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Drew Orvieto on the Shipshape podcast. During the interview, Drew shared his insights and experiences as a leader of cross-functional teams, and how he approaches problem-solving in dynamic environments.
Drew’s unique skill set, which spans product design, engineering management, leadership, sales, business development, and naval architecture, has allowed him to become a bridge between different disciplines and departments. He was once described by a former manager as “an engineer who can really talk to people,” which he wears with great pride.
As a lifelong boater and holder of multiple patents for marine products and technology, Drew is particularly interested in innovation in the recreational boating industry. His experience with naval architecture, product development, project management, 3D modeling and rendering, engineering design, numerical simulation and optimization, and physical testing, gives him a comprehensive understanding of the industry’s challenges and opportunities.
Throughout the interview, Drew’s passion for collaboration and finding innovative solutions was evident. He approaches his work each day with a focus on being more effective, creative, and having more fun. It’s clear that Drew is not only a leader in his field but also a great person to work with.
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Farah [00:00:05] Hello and welcome to the Shipshape Podcast, a series of podcasts where we meet amazing people and talk about their experiences, personal, technical and all related to the maritime world. Come and dive in. Dive in. Diving.
Georgia [00:00:40] This week on the Shipshape podcast, we speak to Drew Orvieto senior manager at passenger vessels at AB. We discover how he came to be named one of the boating industry’s 40 under 40. The true meaning of innovation and what it’s like to be described as an engineer who can actually talk to people. My name is George Tyndall and I’m a freelance editor and writer in the Maritime Space, and I’m joined by Merrill Shaw at Merrill Charette.
Merrill Charette [00:01:05] I’m a liveaboard on a Ta Shing Tashiba 36 in Boston, Massachusetts. So, Drew, where are you coming from?
Drew [00:01:12] To you just a little bit west of Fort Lauderdale. So kind of the yachting boating mecca of of North America, really. So that that’s where I’m from originally. And I like to think that’s sort of how I got my start in the industry was really growing up down in this area of South Florida and being around the water and around boats and growing up as a boater myself.
Merrill Charette [00:01:33] And how much has boating allowed you to travel? I see that you’ve been in the Netherlands at one point.
Drew [00:01:39] Yeah. Boating has really taken me all over the world. Throughout my career. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to all parts of Europe, in Asia, Scandinavia, South America, of some parts of the Caribbean, and really all over the continental U.S. in particular. So I’ve been very fortunate in my career to have those opportunities. And again, it all started with sort of this this deep love for being on the water and boating. And my career sort of trajectory was, let’s say, not so subtly selected to allow me to live somewhere near the water and have access to to sort of that way of life.
Merrill Charette [00:02:12] Well, tell us a little bit about your background. So did you grow up boating your family, big boaters?
Drew [00:02:17] Yes, my family, we grew up, started out originally co owning a 22 Catalina. So sailing out of out of South Miami. And I just remember it’s really a testament to the way people boated during that time. So growing up kind of early at mid nineties when we were sailing a lot, it was much different than it is now. There was nowhere else to be. There was no social media, no cell phones. So it was literally like, you wake up in the morning, you get your cooler and you go and sail and you get back when the wind tells you you’re going to get back. And it was always this really nice sort of just simple time of just enjoying family and friends on the water. Eventually, things sort of caught up. We got really busy. You know, my older brother and I were into sports and all these other activities, so boating took a different role. So we eventually got into the power boating game again, sort of owning with a with another family, this 3100 year open. So really just a a super solid boat that we could take off shore, do a little bit of fishing. But it really became more of a instead of all day cruising on the sailboat, it became, you know, little windows here. So, hey, we got an opening between 11 and three on Saturday. We’re going to go hit the Intercoastal, go to lunch, you know, kind of blast out into the ocean for a bit and come back. So the boating was still a presence in our lives, but took on a different role to kind of match our busy schedules.
Georgia [00:03:38] And what was your first kind of way and your first kind of gig professionally?
Drew [00:03:42] So I guess I’d take a step back, if that’s all right. But I’m sort of the odd, odd person who had 17, 18 years old was dead set on going into naval architecture. Again, I think from this sort of South Florida and boating background. So I set my sights on that and I went up to to snowy Michigan to study at the University of Michigan Naval architecture in particular. So left my sunny home for that experience over the course of four years and graduated with a degree in naval architecture after I did a master’s as well. But then my first gig was with Brunswick. So at the time, I think still today, one of, if not the largest bulk billing groups. So we were responsible for new design and development of models for bay liner Sea Ray Meridian and kind of dabble and supported the Boston Whaler guys here and there. So really a fascinating first experience out into the industry and allow me to kind of cut my teeth as as a boat designer, which was kind of my original intention when I went to study naval architecture.
Georgia [00:04:40] Yeah. And was there anything that surprised you while studying naval architecture? Was it because it’s a fairly niche and niche thing to want to do? Did you come across anything while you were studying where you were like, Oh, this is really not not all I was expecting?
Drew [00:04:53] It’s a good question. There was definitely things that were were surprising. I mean, I got into it because I really loved sort of small planning boats and yachts and then quickly you find out this is a really small portion of the curriculum. I thought, you know, day one, you’re just going to be studying, okay, how do we design a boat? And in reality, they bludgeon you with mathematics and physics courses.
Georgia [00:05:13] Right? Okay.
Drew [00:05:13] So really, really engineering theory heavy in the curriculum. So for me, it was quite a challenge. I mean, I look back on that experience and it’s one of the things I’m proudest of just because it’s really not in my comfort zone. I like to think of myself in terms of the scholarly side more well-rounded. So I’m. Not a typical engineer in the sense that I really just love to nerd out on math and physics. So I had to sort of power through probably three years of that kind of curriculum before I got into the true design work, which is where I really sort of came into my own in that regard. Yes. The other thing I would say is the community that resulted from it, I guess I underestimated that side of it. So that was one thing that I really still to this day, I’m reaping the benefits of is, as you said, it’s such a niche that if you have this qualification, you’re kind of always in demand, you know, in even in tough job markets, I’ve found that there’s been people reaching out and somebody is always looking for this skill set because as a discipline, it forces you to be really well-rounded across a lot of different areas. So you may not be a true structural engineer, but you have to know structures well enough. And the same with electrical and mechanical engineering. So it forces you to to take this really sort of broad approach and even you get the sort of esthetic side in there as well if you’re going into the recreational business. So there’s a lot of elements that go into it that I think have made me the professional that I am today, that I had that foundation.
Merrill Charette [00:06:34] So what is the difference really, between a naval architect and a yacht designer?
Drew [00:06:39] This is a bit of a loaded question. I don’t I don’t want to offend anybody, I guess. So my opinion, I think there is definitely if there’s a Venn diagram, the middle is there’s definitely a middle there where you can be someone who has a naval architecture background and skill set that is also a yacht designer. I would say the key difference is typically in the the kind of engineering focus. So the naval architect is usually responsible more for all design and compliance and functional systems and vessel performance. Whereas the yacht designer, I would say more focused on the esthetic and the experiential side. Again, in that Venn diagram, that’s where I like to live, is you have a bit of both. So I like to be dangerous enough on both sides where you can speak to an owner, understand the requirements, draw up a beautiful set of lines, work with, you know, with specialists, whether those be stylists or soft goods manufacturers or interior designers ultimately put together something that’s really going to be this this fabulous experience for the owner, but also be, you know, technical enough to guarantee the feasibility of these things. You know, one thing I see a lot in the industry is people I don’t know how they’re getting all these press releases, but such and such announces this fabulous design. And I take one look and say, who could possibly ever build this? You know, I’m glad there are people that are really pushing the envelope from a esthetics of exterior design point of view. But I think that, again, that middle of the Venn diagram is where we want to live, because that’s where projects really come to life.
Merrill Charette [00:08:02] We had interviewed Robert Perry a while back and he has a column on Sailing magazine, I believe it is, where he talks about different, you know, sailboat designs that are coming out. And basically he was highlighting how all the sailboats that he’s seeing come out are very much similar whole shapes and designs due to software and all of that. Where do you see kind of the industry headed when it comes to designs? Is there going to be like one perfect design or are you going to get to that point or.
Drew [00:08:33] I don’t know that we get to the point of one perfect design, but one thing that’s really exciting is how good the computational tools and the design tools are getting. So if you look at the way they can do fluid dynamics simulations now, it’s only going to continue to get better. And it’s already light years better than it was when I first started my career and using those tools. So the quicker and more accurately that we can simulate what’s going to happen with a particular hull shape, the more we can quickly optimize those whole shapes. And what I hope is that we actually don’t go towards some perfect optimized situation. I hope these tools allow us to end up with holes that we’ve never thought of before. You know, I’ve seen some out there that are really unique. There’s a lot of people doing this sort of combine almost like a hybrid between a planing hull and a and a multi hull. So you’ll see sort of outriggers in different positions with different geometries. There’s this rationale hold that I’ve seen. I think it’s out of Iceland. There’s just some really unique stuff that’s that’s out there. And now you have a whole segment of the market going electric that wants also hydrofoil designs. So I think the the prevalence of of really good tools like CFD will allow us to hopefully explore parts of the design space that we didn’t even know to look for before. And that’s where it starts to take on kind of this new identity boats. At least when I started, I admittedly grew frustrated at times because, you know, we’re doing okay. This sea rate 22, it looks just like the last sea raid 22 And because tooling is so expensive, you just can’t afford to make a mistake. So you typically only get incremental improvements in some of these designs from model to model. So would be nice to say, you know what, the computer simulations we’ve run, we can then confirm have been in full scale, but we’re so confident with what we’ve designed and and the resulting performance we’re going to get that we can go ahead and invest seven or eight figures in new sets of tooling and really push the envelope. I mean, that’s going to be exciting.
Georgia [00:10:20] Yeah, and that’s really exciting to hear because one of the accusations that gets leveled at this technology is that it might actually restrict designers and you will end up. So complacent and not creative because they’re doing all the work for you. It sounds like what you’re arguing is actually enables you to take more risks and be more creative in some ways because that sort of it’s being tested out. Yes. All right. So. Exactly. That’s a really good counterargument, isn’t it?
Drew [00:10:44] Yeah. And I look at it. I don’t know if you guys are in it when your audience is fans of auto racing. But if you look at Formula One, this is a great example of where these tools are employed to the highest level. So if you look at an ad, a modern automobile, they all kind of have these smooth bodywork and you say, okay, that looks sort of aerodynamic and streamlined. You look at a Formula One car and there’s all these strange little winglets and all these things moving around, and it’s just a strange sort of Frankenstein geometry that comes out. And it is so tuned and purpose built to move through the air and perform this very specific function. And I look at that and say, this was a combination of really smart people using really smart tools and ending up with something that you would never conceive of this just from a blank sheet of paper, you know, because it’s maybe not the most esthetically pleasing car you’ve ever seen, but it’s so purposeful. So if our if our goal is maximum performance or optimization of of the whole shape, I think these tools will afford us a lot more capabilities. And that’s why I’m optimistic about where they can go, because, again, I use my own design experience and say, you know, we really have kind of an intuition that, you know, changing this angle or that angle, this shape, that shape, that this might yield this result, but it’s difficult to validate it. So if the tools are there to say, listen, with 95% accuracy, whatever it might be, here’s the results. Now you might feel willing to take that risk and that sort of topples a few more dominoes along the way as more people start to do designs like that.
Georgia [00:12:10] Yeah, I guess it’s who are the early adopters of this stuff is nerds being willing to take the risks and make they make the financial investments, as you’ve already alluded to, isn’t it?
Drew [00:12:19] Yeah, it’s interesting because the the boating space in general is such a spectrum, right? You have everything from the really, really big multinationals to Brunswick’s, the Beneteau groups of the world. And then you have these really exciting startups that can Delos and trying to think who are the who are some of the other guys? Sure. For example, I’ve been working with these guys Alloy that have this really exciting technology, so there’s a lot of people in the space, but there’s almost no middle ground. There’s a lot of really small, exciting new players that are a bit more risk tolerant, and then you have the really big guys at the other end that maybe have the infrastructure to kind of play around. But they’re also depending on, you know, monthly shareholder reports. And so maybe their risk tolerance is a bit lower than kind of the guys in the startup space.
Georgia [00:13:02] Yeah. I mean, what is it’s a bit of a weird question, but what how do you see the industry in terms of innovation and willingness to to take risks? Because as you’ve said, that’s quite a spectrum that.
Drew [00:13:12] I think it’s improving. I’m excited by some of the activity, especially in kind of the startup entrepreneurial side of things. But it is I do worry about more consolidation because again, you have sort of these mega groups that form in multibillion dollar acquisitions that are being done. And I fear that there will be more consolidation and it’s in all aspects of the industry. Right? You’ll see Brunswick basically gobbled up and acquired most of their key suppliers. So all of their systems and basically everything that they’re putting into these boats is some part of their vertical supply chain. And there’s advantages and disadvantages to that. So I fear that there is a tipping point that we’re going to reach where you just have this sort of hierarchy at the top of these really big players and you’re constantly going to be struggling if you’re one of the smaller players to try and either compete with them or get acquired by them. But that that really depends on the founder and their individual individual goals. But again, you see it in all aspects of the industry, not just in the boat building side, but some of the technology and electronic space. You see it even in the the sales and brokerage side, you know, places like Marine Max that are scooping up major brokerage houses and building up their technology arms. And so I think I have to be careful about what I say because the more I talk, I realize I’m maybe talking in circles a little bit, but I just love talking about this stuff. And I think it’s such a fascinating time in our industry. So you get I think the the startups really push the envelope and maybe de-risk some of the these new technology ideas for the big players. So I guess I’m in favor of the direction we’re going so long as that technology manifests itself in some way.
Merrill Charette [00:14:45] One of the I’ve done consulting for a few blue tech and maritime investment groups and most of the time they posed me with the question of we can’t seemingly find anyone that’s doing any innovation. Like, where do we look? So you have any thoughts on that? Where are these people that are coming up with these innovative ideas.
Drew [00:15:05] All over the place? Honestly, I think it’s actually getting easier to find these people with just how connected people are in general. I’ve worked with this group Yachting Ventures, for example. That’s basically this yachting focused startup incubator, and this is kind of forming its own little network of not only sort of companies that it’s kind of shepherding into their next phase of development, but also all these participants and this. Kind of extended network is sort of organically building itself as people participate in their events. And so the more you have people like Gabby Richardson, who’s running that activity, there’s more Gabby Richardsons that I’m sure are out there. And so the challenge they’re going to have is the access to funding. I mean, we saw this last year where there’s tons of great ideas and just the financial circumstances were such that it was really difficult to get some of these exciting ventures off the ground and funded the way they need to. So I think back to your question, Merrill, I’m encouraged by where the space is at. And I think, again, the more communication, the more these extended networks sort of build out. I think it’s going to be easier for people to find this sort of thing. I think there’s a general recognition in the industry that even from the big players, that there is more disruption needed. If I look at where Maureen is compared to things like automotive, it’s 10 to 20 years behind, depending on which aspect of it that you look at. And I’ll give you an example. I was in New Orleans earlier this month speaking with the ABC. That’s the main standards bearing and sort of adjudicating branch in the United States for boats and yachts. So all the safety rules and best practices, this is the group that that’s responsible for that. And we had a sort of panel discussion about autonomy and sort of driver assistance systems and what does this mean for boating and yachting and comparing where boating and yachting is today. We’re talking about we need a basic framework. How do we talk about these systems? What is the functional safety expectations? Automotive’s had this for 20 years. You know, so we’re we’re just now trying to figure out how we can really catch up and in certain ways. And again, it starts with some of these small grassroots efforts. If you look at how many events and incubators and things like that are dedicated to other industries, marinas is behind, but I think it’s moving in the right direction. So when you mentioned these sort of blue tech activities that you’ve been a part of, I think it’s encouraging. If some of the innovators that we see coming in in our space are participating in those sort of activities as well, you know, participating alongside other kind of blue tech companies. So assuming there’s a there’s a technology fit there.
Merrill Charette [00:17:34] Certainly one of the things about technology that I get hung up on because, you know, everyone’s kind of in their own sector and they’re focused on their own goals. And they a lot of people how I describe it is that Marine is like a color wheel and everyone’s in their own color and they don’t really talk between the other colors. And when it comes to innovation, you know, I’ve heard so many stories of a new product coming to the market, but there’s no support, right? There’s a service providers that can work on it. And I just want to hear what your take is on kind of the double edged sword of technology, but having people to actually have the support behind it.
Drew [00:18:12] It’s a great question and I’ve dealt with this quite a bit in a previous role when I was with ZF Marine on the propulsion side. And so we had developed a well, really a couple of things. We had a couple of kind of software based products, we had a couple of hardware based products. And the I would say I learned a lot from the, the rigorous process of trying to push kind of a grassroots innovative idea through a really large multibillion dollar organization. And so one of the things that you go through is this whole process of building the business case and having all those questions not only answered but anticipated. So you want to answer them before you’re even asked by the executive levels about how are you going to support this and that. And we had the luxury in those times of being a really large player with a big expansive service network. I think we can point to other examples, like I think of seven Marine, which you probably know the the really the inventors of this really large outboard category that’s dominating now. These guys were tremendous engineers. I mean, they really saw a market opportunity that no one else saw and really create just a dynamite product. But my understanding is the service was really challenging because it’s really this niche operation out of Wisconsin. It wasn’t some big established brand. And I think you compare that now to somebody like a Mercury with ultimately what’s a similar product, at least a similar power node and in the outboard space. But they have this big multinational and really global service network. So you compare these two say, Well, I got to give the edge to the guys with a huge network. Now one thing that maybe closes the gap is if it’s a product that’s sort of digitally connected and there’s some sort of software angle and some level of connectivity, there might be a way that you can do some of this support remotely. So if it doesn’t require oil changes and wrenching on things and, you know, disassembly, reassembly kind of stuff or changing of parts, if we’re talking about digital solutions now, you can have a product offering that could really be run from a small office somewhere. And this is where I think some of the disruption is is going to take place. So you see players now coming to market with various apps and add ons to existing investees and things like this, where that’s where I think some of the innovation is going to be because software as compared to hardware is relatively inexpensive to build and support. You know, there’s no tooling cost, there’s no inventory required. So there’s some advantages if you go down this sort of more software and digital product approach versus the hardware side.
Farah [00:20:31] This show was sponsored by.
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Georgia [00:21:31] Welcome back to the Shipshape podcast. So I hear I saw that, um, you did take part in the post graduate program in Maritime Energy. So you graduated from that a few months ago. That sounds absolutely fascinating. So what were kind of some of the key exciting things that you discovered while you were studying that? Because, you know, I’m sure you did a lot on kind of alternative fuels and the future of the future of what the maritime space is going to be, what what kind of the best bits of that course.
Drew [00:22:02] So I think the most fascinating part of it was, like I said, a lot of time spent looking into alternative fuels and different combustion processes and how you go about designing propulsion systems of the future. But also it was really a fascinating comparison of different parts of the world. So you look at it starting from the perspective of what is the IMO legislated on to the maritime industry as a whole. So major, major carbon emission greenhouse gas reduction targets that the world basically that this constituency IMO members need to adhere to. And you have this wide, wide spectrum from super developed, you know, international superpower nations all the way down to much more developing nations. And how do you find solutions in this spectrum that are technologically and financially feasible? And the program really went into great detail about not just the ship side solutions, but also into the port infrastructure, I mean, even down to local politics. And how are you influencing people to to understand their their grid capabilities if you need something like shore charging, for example? So a lot of interesting kind of end to end discussions when we talk about alternative fuels. There are nations, like I want to say Scandinavia in particular is really strong in this area. Like it’s not enough to say we’re going electric. They want to go electric where all the electricity is powered by geothermal energy. I mean, so they’re taking it to another degree. We’re not going to say, well, we burn a bunch of coal to create power to kind of do a bit of a greenwashing exercise with a hybrid boat. No, no, no. We’re we’re really going to go end to end on this. And that, to me, is really exciting to see people thinking along those lines, because that’s really the kind of, let’s say, ferment and and strong action that’s needed to, I think, to to close this emissions gap that we have now.
Georgia [00:23:45] Yeah. And it’s so interesting what you mentioned about the kind of global perspective, because it’s all very well being idealistic and saying, oh, we want to do this, this and this, but kind of have to get other countries to cooperate as well, right? Yes. So it’s political as well.
Drew [00:23:57] Absolutely. And the IMO, at its core is a very consensus driven organization, shall we say. And so their decision making process is very careful. I don’t want to say slow, but it’s very careful and very measured in its approach because as you said, you have all these different stakeholders, huge variety of perspectives, huge variety of different sort of resources available and levels of technical expertise and capability. So finding the balance, finding something that really works for all of these member nations is really difficult. And so on the technology side, finding solutions that can scale up and down is really important. So when we look at something now, we don’t want to just look and say, what is the absolute top end we can do because you limit your market scope tremendously. So really finding ways to simplify it and really capture the essence of of the goal, not overengineered anything. This is really a focal point going forward, I believe.
Merrill Charette [00:24:48] So I got to ask, I kind of already know what the answer is, but will we ever see, you know, international shipping with sales?
Drew [00:24:55] Oh, absolutely. I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff with people doing well. I guess let me caveat this. Are we talking full Foley sailing or we’re talking sail assist? Because there’s really a lot of interesting stuff going on with these kind of assistant mechanisms.
Merrill Charette [00:25:09] We’ll talk on both.
Drew [00:25:10] Yeah, sure. So the I guess it will this is a big topic. I have a lot of thoughts. So on the big shipping side, I mean, the big thing that comes to mind is is container vessels shipping big amounts of cargo, you know, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of to use internationally. And part of that, the main driver behind that is sort of the Amazon ification of everything. I mean, obviously the commerce has always sort of been there, certainly in our lives, but it’s taken kind of another leap forward in the sense that if I order something today, if it’s not here by 3 p.m. at this point, it’s like, what’s wrong with Amazon? They’re so slow, you know? So the expectations have been ratcheted up. And one of the things that was so fascinating, going back to this WMU Maritime Energy program, one of the most fascinating things was if ships just slow down, everything improves tremendously. You know, if they’re not waiting in port, just burning fuel, and if they go, you know, ten knots instead of 20 knots. But people don’t want to wait for that. So finding a way to bridge that gap and make the ships more efficient to achieve the same design speed and make them operate with as little wasted effort as possible. So no big lines and ports and coordinating entries and exits and more efficient loading and offloading. This is all part of it. So it’s not too simple to say we just need to change the propulsion. It’s really kind of an end to end solution. But back to the sails. I think the the vessels as they’re currently designed, I think would be really. I want to say borderline impossible to set up with sales effectively. But actually, just back to the program, and this was a really good program and reflection. We actually did a whole investigation of of a bulk carrier. So carrying, you know, or one of these kind of bulk commodities and what would it look like with wing sales and what was the relative efficiency of these wing sales? And that would be done, as I say, again, a sort of a sailing assist. But you run into a number of problems with, let’s say in this example with WINK sales, where what does visibility look like? You know, you now have to be able to retract or deploy the sales at certain intervals to make sure you have appropriate visibility or relying on camera systems or something like this. So there’s a number of, let’s say, design challenges that need to be overcome. So I think we back to your question. I think we will actually get there, but we need to rethink how we’re doing it. I think if you want a vessel that goes in appropriate speed and can operate fully on wing sail power, for example, rigid sort of rotor rotor operated wing sails, the vessel itself needs to look different. You know, maybe the wheelhouse is configured differently or in a different place. The cargo is handled differently. So it almost needs a total rethink. What we’ve seen today is people kind of dipping your toes in the water and saying, we’re going to do a retrofit of kind of what we have today and make some semi-major modifications, but not a complete redesign to say, I’m going to be the first one with a sailing container vessel. Let’s say I’m optimistic, but more work is needed. On the design side. We need some of those disruptors that we talked about earlier to really embrace that.
Merrill Charette [00:27:56] Well, there’s certainly a ton of challenges when it comes to it, but it just kind of highlights how much opportunity there truly is in our industry.
Drew [00:28:03] Yeah, absolutely. And again, it’s it’s exciting that it’s all across different spectrums. You know, like we’ve already talked about today, you know, everything from small hydrofoil electric boats now up to kind of big international shipping enterprises with wind sails. I mean, this is pretty exciting. If you look at sort of the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small. And there’s huge opportunities and disruption happening everywhere and the goals behind them, I think the underlying motivation is really encouraging. Again, we’re talking about in the smaller side, it’s all about sort of onboard experience, but also this sort of carbon reduction. Certainly as the bigger we get into vessels that emissions reduction gets more and more critical to the ultimate sort of success of the industry. But yeah, it’s just really encouraging to see to see where we’re at and it’s really a great time to be in in our industry.
Georgia [00:28:48] Tell us about how it was being 40 under 40. Tell us. Talk us through that.
Drew [00:28:53] Yeah, that was back a couple of years ago in 2020 when I was selected to that esteemed list. And that was really a proud moment, to be honest. I was just there was definitely some validation that I that I felt, again, going from the South Florida guy goes up to the snowy Michigan to study naval architecture. And there’s always this sort of self doubt of like, was this really the right choice? Because I just lasered in on this career path and you wonder like, am I really making the kind of impact that I want to make? And so I’ve been fortunate to have some great opportunities and great mentors and teammates and employees in my career. But there is something about getting some some external validation from kind of an esteemed source that that really hits home. And, you know, from that sort of extended network throughout my career, the outpouring of sort of congratulations and reflecting on great projects that we’ve done together and things like that, it was it just sort of warm my heart and and it’s something I look back on really fondly.
Merrill Charette [00:29:45] Well, one of the things I want to start to talk about is on your LinkedIn, it says an engineer who can really talk to people. And I run into so many engineers that can find themselves like, we’re an engineer, you know, we don’t know how to communicate. So how do you effectively communicate to technical people and non-technical people?
Drew [00:30:06] Yeah, good question. And that’s sort of the moniker that was given to me by a previous boss of mine when he was interviewing me for the first time, actually at a Fort Lauderdale boat show. This was back in 2014, and I wear that as really a badge of honor because, like I said, there’s I love my fellow engineers, but there’s sort of different types that you can get some that are really comfortable lasering in and sitting with headphones on for hours at a time, doing their calculations in the back room. And they’re happy as can be. And we absolutely need those folks. And there’s other folks that want to go out and talk to customers to mix it up a little bit, to be on the trade show floor, to go cold calling. And these are things that I’ve done throughout my career that I think have really helped to sort of round out my skill set. And yeah, to your direct question, Merrill, it’s it takes practice. You know, I’m sure when I started out there was a lot of kind of fake it till you make it. You’re not as technical as you would like to be starting out in your career. So it’s a lot of kind of repeating what you hear and just sort of saying with confidence. I think the one thing that for me that I always try to get across is the sort of glue that binds those two skillsets together is enthusiasm. You know, I look at it, hopefully it’s coming through in the in the interview, but I chose this industry for a reason. I love talking about this stuff. And so long as we stick on topics that I really know and appreciate and am passionate about, I think that ultimately helps to connect with people. You know, I think that’s where maybe on the engineering side it’s more difficult because you get into the ones and zeros or. The equations that you’re working with or whatever simulation it is, and it’s harder to connect with people on that. But if you get if you get into some of these kind of really meaty, interesting topics, I mean, you could stop anybody on the street and talk to them about a time they were on the water and probably get a smile on their face. And so if you find those connection points that that can really help you to sort of build those relationships and drive that kind of person ability, I think, through your discussions.
Georgia [00:31:54] Do you think there is a lack of understanding about the sort of maritime sphere outside of the maritime sphere? Do you feel it’s kind of talking to itself? Leading question.
Drew [00:32:03] Yep. No, I totally get where you’re coming from and the answer is yes, I am stopped regularly, several times a year. And people will, once they find out sort of what my background is, they’ll, they’ll it’s always the same question or some variation. They’re like the cruise ships. How did they float? It’s like, Oh boy, where do we even start? It’s like, I don’t know. There’s such a lack of understanding of basic principles, you know, again, buoyancy. How how does it work? People are stunned to find out that ships can float and they have no idea. It’s like they’re so big and so have let me back it up and break it down for you. So you get a lot of funny questions like that. Again, because naval architecture is such a niche field, you get a lot of funny stuff like that. I think people can resonate with like, Oh well, an architect and a general contractor, they designed my house, but while you’re in your house, you understand that somebody’s had to do that and maybe you saw some of that process. But I remember talking to somebody recently as well. You know, tell me about yourself. And I go into this Navy, look at naval architecture. Oh, yeah, I guess people do have to design all those things like, yeah, somebody has to do it, you know. So I will say those kinds of questions, it does make you if you have a bit of a curious mind like I do, it does make you sort of think in this way about other aspects of of the world. So I was traveling last week and I’m just killing some time before my plane’s ready to go and there’s a little baggage handling carts driving up. And I’m like, I wonder where the guy that designed that baggage handler, like, what is that guy up to and how does his design process go? So you get started is starting. As much as I sort of chuckle about these questions, it makes me sort of think about how this works in other industries, you know?
Georgia [00:33:35] Yeah. And is it that curiosity that you find is your main driver like is that what gets you up on a morning or is it something else?
Drew [00:33:42] That’s definitely one of them. I mean, if I look at the things that I’m sort of proudest of in my career, it’s all stuff that nobody asked me to do. So it’s like we we look at at a specific problem or we come across a technology and we say, Wow, this would be really cool. We could apply to these ways. And, you know, we end up with with a patent and hopefully a customer in the end. And these were all again, if I go through the list of if I was to say my top three or four or five things, every one of those is we’re just doing that on the side because we see something or think of something and come up with an idea and just just go after it. You know, it was not part of the typical day to day. So yeah, I think some of that sort of internal curiosity and kind of entrepreneurial spirit I think is probably the main the main driver for that.
Merrill Charette [00:34:27] As you had alluded to, there’s short term goals in the industry and there’s long term visions. So how do you effectively, you know, balance the two of them?
Drew [00:34:37] Good question. I think you want to have a good sort of understanding of where you want to go long term and then make the short term goals kind of stepping stones or building blocks to to reach those long term goals. And I go back to that that autonomy sort of task force seminar. We were out a few weeks ago in New Orleans for ABC, and this was exactly the message. You know, long term, we kind of have this general vision, you know, okay, so what can we do? What tangible steps can we take to get us a little bit closer to that? And each time we achieve one of those milestones, you have to really go back and validate that initial assumption. Because if you look at and say, listen, there’s new technology, or we realized this just won’t work, we need to now change the long term view, that’s okay. I think the challenge comes in where people get so set in their ways, are so unwilling to to admit that they have more information and change that that long term vision really updated. You know, if you look at your own goals in your life, you realize, hey, I’ve already achieved this, or hey, that’s never going to happen. You know, you’re just going to be beating your head into the wall with without actually modifying those those objectives. So I think for our industry, I guess it depends on the segment, but I think you start to see some, let’s say, some general movement into into certain areas. You know, I think Brunswick actually does a good job of some of this up with their ACES strategy. So it’s autonomous connected electrification and shared access. So if you look at these stores, they have these sort of different pillars or different verticals that they’re going after. And I think those certainly apply in the recreational business. But certainly the first three, maybe not so much the shared access, but the first three apply broadly to maritime in general. So you’re looking at, again, more technology to make operations safer. So that’s kind of the autonomy side and you’ll see varying degrees of that from fully remote or fully autonomous vessels in specific commercial circumstances to more safety systems on recreational boats. The connectivity I go back to things like digital solutions. Where, you know, we look at our car and my car tells me, hey, you need to go in and change your tires in X number of miles because the tire wear sensor is reading such and such. I mean, this kind of stuff doesn’t really exist at a sophisticated level in many vessels, you know, especially on the kind of lighter commercial side and and recreational side. So I think that sort of connected aspect is is growing and that the electrification side we’ve talked about, that’s maybe a combination, I would say maybe in the in the grand scheme of things that’s more decarbonization than electrification because it really depends on the application what solution will be best. Some things are great for full battery electric, others are great for could be longer with some sort of a backup system. I don’t know. It really depends on the application, but I think those three sort of verticals are kind of where we’re where we’re headed. And back to your question, I think the we’re starting to see some of those initial steps take shape. What I would like to see is more consolidation of efforts, especially sort of domestically for us here in the States. So one thing I learned from that WMU Maritime Energy course work, we did a comparison between, you know, some other nation and, well, basically two nations. And I looked at, okay, what is the U.S. doing compared to Norway, who was really innovative in the space? And one thing we learned from from Norway in the literature review is these guys were laser focused about we’re going to go after these technologies and the government funds it and we really support it. We build the regulations, we incentivize people to do it. It wasn’t we want you to go out and figure out 50 different kinds of fuels. It was go after these and just really nail them. And so you see, they’re much further along because it’s not a thousand different entities going a thousand different directions. It’s a thousand that is going two directions or three direction. And so as a result, you get much quicker, more satisfying results. So I would love to see I think the innovation is great. I think you need people that want to disrupt, but at the same time, if you can get a bit more coordination and collaboration. We’re such a capitalist society here that it’s difficult to say that, but a little more cooperation, a little more sharing of best practices and just honing in on what solutions really are going to be most viable for us as a nation. I think that would really help speed things along.
Merrill Charette [00:38:35] Well, as you mentioned, everyone’s kind of doing their own thing. So how do you kind of stay updated with the latest trends in technology that’s going on in the space?
Drew [00:38:44] Yeah, good question. I mean, the short answer is I consume as much sort of related media as I can. If you looked at my browser bookmarks, there’s probably 15 different ones of all industry sites. And every day it’s it’s required reading whatever’s new, you know, things like this podcast, for example, exposing myself to media, whether it’s, you know, documentaries that come out or again, programs like this where you get to hear from people in the industry with maybe a different perspective. And it’s a lot different hearing, hearing people in their own words describe it versus a canned press release or something. So that’s why I like what you guys are doing, because you get to really kind of learn a little bit about the person behind behind the actions and help hear their their background and motivation for for what they’re doing. And oftentimes that context is really the missing link to understanding what’s going on and what’s driving things. It’s a constant effort to try and stay abreast of everything that’s that’s going on. And what I find is the longer I’ve been in the industry, the more my sort of extended network has become just this increasingly great asset to have. So it’s regular lunches with people in the industry or catching up at boat shows and things like that. And you always get little nuggets here and there that help form the broader picture of what’s really going on in the industry. You know, I’m hearing four different sources about the same topic, and they all have kind of a different story. Now it’s up to me to kind of synthesize what does that mean and how can I maybe play a part in some of this? You know.
Georgia [00:40:02] I find LinkedIn is actually quite a can be quite a useful tool for gauging the sort of vibes in the industry as well. There’s a lot of lively discussion on there. I don’t miss as well.
Drew [00:40:12] Yeah, absolutely. I’m on there probably too much, certainly in the evenings after work to just to kind of see, okay, what did I miss. What what sort of new announcements are out there. One thing I would say I love about LinkedIn is how interactive it is in the sense that, you know, I’ve gotten kind of connected with people. You know, I’ll post something, Hey, I’m speaking at this conference or whatever it is we know, you know, we’d love to you know, here’s the record. We’d love to hear what you think and you’ll get responses from people you’ve never met before and suddenly a real connection is made. So it’s not one of these fluffy like you just go and blast and cold call, you know, invites. This is really like someone took the time to read what you wrote or or listen to what you said and is reaching out to to collaborate. And I’ve found some pretty good experiences and pretty compelling relationships that have resulted from using the tool.
Georgia [00:40:59] So absolutely. And just on a sort of broader bowtie question, if you could travel anywhere by boat, whether that be electrified, sail assisted, whatever, where would you go?
Drew [00:41:10] So this is, I would say, a point of contention between my wife and I doesn’t she doesn’t like the cold. Not at all. She’s she’s a Florida girl. I’m also from Florida. But I think there’s something to be said for experiencing experiencing cold from time to time. And I have this sort of probably far too romantic picture of going down from like Patagonia and. Going and traveling by ship into Antarctica. Oh, I’ll be one solo. I just think it just looks just like nowhere else on earth. It just seems fascinating. But then every now and then, I’ll think about it again and I’ll see some video online on Instagram or LinkedIn or something of a boat just getting tossed around like, maybe this isn’t the best idea, you know, But but something like that, something that’s that’s really totally different. So something Yeah, Arctic or a really sort of snowy fjord or something that’s totally different from the kind of boating that I grew up doing. I think that that to me would be most, most interesting. You know, it’s like when we just being in South Florida, it’s the same kind of question is like, Well, do you want to go to the mountains of the beach for a vacation? It’s like, Well, I’ll just go to the beach like tomorrow. I don’t need to do that for vacation. So I’d rather go somewhere and do something really out there by comparison and get a totally unique experience.
Merrill Charette [00:42:17] So as we come to our conclusion, what tips and tricks would you give someone that’s, you know, looking to pursue a career in this industry?
Drew [00:42:25] Good question. I actually get this one quite a bit just because I started to do some kind of mentoring and I do some alumni interviews with my university all around this, the same sort of topic of kind of how do you break through and if you can link yourself up with some kind of a mentor in the industry, that’s to be the best. I was very fortunate early on in my career to have great managers and ultimately great professional mentors. But if you’re kind of even before that step, you know, we talked about LinkedIn a bit. I think that’s a great tool to kind of get started, at least on the digital side. You know, reach out to people. It’s a bit of a numbers game. You know, you probably have to reach out quite a bit, but do your homework, pick the people that who have a career or a path that that really fascinates you and reach out to them. And you’ll be surprised how many industry leaders are willing to just sort of entertain a discussion, just, hey, can I have 15 minutes of your time? I’m I’m so interested in what you’ve done. And I really like these aspects of it. It really resonated with me. Can we have just a 15 minute call? I’d love to get your perspective and you’d be surprised how quickly you can build a relationship. The other would be doing the same sort of exercise, but at an industry event, you know, if you’re in South Florida, for example, a miami boat show for a lot of the boat show, IBEX, one of these kind of industry events, you know, obviously everybody’s very busy. But again, the same kind of thing, dropping off a business card and just a quick connection point. And I think ultimately that’s that’s going to pay dividends. You only need one or two if you’re reaching out to a bunch of people, you really only need one or two that that get back to you. And it sort of builds from there as you’re starting out. But I know a lot of folks in the industry have similar stories where they say, you know, I was kind of interested here and I talked to so-and-so, and that led to a conversation over here and there. And ten years later, here I am leading my own company in crew management, for example, in the yachting industry. So there’s a lot of cool stories that start with a single sort of LinkedIn message or a single handshake and, you know, kind of small talking about show. And the industry is really tight knit in the end. So once you find your way in, you’re kind of in for life.
Merrill Charette [00:44:19] Yeah, I mean, I started my whole career. I had a bunch of things going on, but I was very local. And, you know, in Boston then reached out to Carl Blackwell on LinkedIn. I said, How can we talk? And it was like, you know, sure. So and he connected me with everyone else in the industry, and now I’m at where I’m at.
Drew [00:44:37] There you go. Yes. You have the same kind of thing as me. Again, it was one of these deals where somebody if I look at where my sort of main mentorship came from, one of these was kind of a family contact that put me in touch with somebody. We had lunch one day and, you know, whatever is 15 years later, this is still one of my like my main professional mentor that I go to any time where, you know, I’m going to make a career change or some big industry decision or whatever it might be, it’s like I want to get his opinion because he’s really been with me from the start and it all started from kind of loose mutual connection, one lunch meeting and here we are 15 years later. So it it’s a testament to that that sort of, yeah, a little building that atomic that one little thing that that sparks the whole relationship.
Merrill Charette [00:45:20] So Drew, where can people find you and contact you and reach out to you?
Drew [00:45:25] Probably in general, LinkedIn is probably the best place. I’m pretty active there. So if I’m going to be at an event or doing a speaking engagement or working on a new project, consulting on something, you’ll hear about it there. So yeah, I would say LinkedIn, that’s that’s the best place to reach out. And as we’ve talked about, you know, I’m fairly open to, to discussion in the industry. So if you got a new idea you want to pitch or want to just got to have a chat about what’s going on. Again, I love talking about this stuff and I love people that are passionate about it like I am. So. So yeah, feel free to find me on there and yeah, look forward to hearing from anybody who’s who’s interested.
Merrill Charette [00:45:58] Awesome. Drew Well, it was an absolutely fascinating conversation.
Georgia [00:46:02] Thank you so much.
Drew [00:46:03] Thanks very much, guys. Really enjoyed it.
Farah [00:46:23] Check back every Tuesday for our latest episode and be sure to like to share and subscribe to ship shaped up for our.
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