ABOUT US

Stephen Heese, President 

Stephen F. Heese, President and CEO of Chris-Craft Corporation, and partner of Stellican Limited, the British Investment firm led by Stephen Julius.

Prior to Chris-Craft, Steve spent twelve years at Erico international Corporation in a variety of roles, including Managing Director of the Europe, Asia and Australia regions, President of Erico Products Australia Ltd-, and Vice-President of Sales 81 Marketing for Erico Fastening Systems- Steve also spent three years at Price Waterhouse in Tampa as a member of the management consulting group.

Originally from Tampa, Steve has a bachelor's degree in accounting from Tulane University and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant and an active member of the AICPA and FICPA.

Ron Berman, Vice President of Engineering

Chris-Craft welcomed Ron to the team in August of 2018. Ron comes to Chris-Craft as an industry veteran, bringing 37 years of experience in product development, manufacturing and product management. Ron has led several design, engineering and development teams within the Brunswick Corporation’s portfolio of boat brands, including Boston Whaler, Sea Ray, Bayliner and Meridian over the past 32 years.  Most recently, Ron served as Vice President of Product Portfolio for Sea Ray Sport Yacht and L Class products.  Throughout his career, Ron has earned 8 U.S. patents for unique designs.

W. Scott Fleeman, Finance Director

Scott joined Chris-Craft in October 2010. As a Sarasota, FL Native, he grew up in and around the water. He has a love for boating, fishing, and all things outdoors. Scott has worked in the accounting field Since 2004 and held a wide variety of roles from data entry to management.

Prior to joining the Chris-Craft team, he was the controller for a commercial general contractor based in Bradenton, FL. He holds both a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of South Florida as well as a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida.

Allison Scharnow, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience

Allison Scharnow joined Chris-Craft in the summer of 2013. Due to her father’s involvement in the boating industry, Allison’s passion for boating began at a young age. She turned her passion into a career, and has continued to work in boating her whole life.

Prior to joining Chris-Craft, Allison worked as a Marketing Manager at MarineMax. Allison holds both a bachelor’s degree as well as a master’s degree in Business Administration from University of South Florida.

Aaron Kouba, Vice President of Operations

Aaron first joined the team in early 2019 as Vice President of Materials.  Aaron was responsible for Purchasing, Materials Management, Warehouse Operations, and Transportation Logistics. Aaron is now the Vice President of Operations. Aaron’s lean and six sigma implementation efforts help to ensure Chris-Craft maintains its competitive advantage in the global marine marketplace

Prior to joining Chris-Craft, Aaron has held a number of supply chain roles throughout his career in both retail and manufacturing, spending the last 13 in the marine industry. Aaron holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Iowa and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Central Florida.

Gavan Hunt, Vice President of Sales

Gavan Hunt joined Chris-Craft as Vice President of Sales in the summer of 2016. Gavan is a marine industry veteran with a lifetime of experience. As a child, his father was a marina manager, and Gavan always worked around boating. Gavan's family boat, like so many of us, was a Chris-Craft! 

Gavan most recently has been at Cobalt Boats, where he has held multiple positions with the company through a total of 17 years including Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Director of Dealer Development, and Regional Sales Manager. In addition to Cobalt, he held similar roles at both Chaparral Boats and Nautic Global Group.

Kathy Alder, Vice President of Human Resources 

Kathy joined Chris-Craft in 2018 with vast manufacturing and recruitment experiences. Previously, she was the Director of HR at L3 Aviation Products in Sarasota, FL. Prior to that she was with Vengroff, Williams & Associates.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in Human Resource Management, a Masters of Business Administration, SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) Certified, and is a CPM (Certified Project Manager).