15 years navigating the world of yachting.

Career journey

A decade and a half at sea.

1. Early Career

   Cruise Ships & Maritime Foundations

   

   My professional life began at sea, working aboard cruise ships where I developed a deep appreciation for luxury hospitality, client service, and the operational complexity of the maritime world. These years gave me an unshakeable foundation and a genuine love for life on the water.

   • Luxury hospitality
   • Client service
   • Maritime operations

2. Transition

   Into Yacht Brokerage

   

   Moving into yacht brokerage, I was fortunate to have a mentor who believed in passing on everything he knew. Together we drove from marina to marina across Italy, the South of France, and Mallorca — learning yachts inside and out, from the engine room up.

   I carried out detailed yacht inspections on behalf of clients, mostly Australian buyers, represented them during yacht surveys, and prepared all marketing materials and online listings for the vessels we represented. When clients flew to Europe, I organised their entire visit — coordinating travel, hosting them, and ensuring every detail of their journey was seamless.

   I set up a yacht’s participation at the Miami Boat Show independently early in my career, conducted boat tours, kept clients informed on the condition and progress of their prospective vessel, and arranged everything from restaurant reservations to helicopter rides. It was the period in my career where I gained the deepest technical knowledge of the yacht product itself — and where I truly fell in love with the craft of brokerage.

   • Yacht inspections & surveys
   • Client representation
   • Marketing & listings
   • Client travel & hosting

3. 10 Years

   YATCO — Building the Industry’s Digital Backbone

   

   I joined YATCO when it was a tight-knit team of fewer than 20 people — developers included — covering an enormous volume of work. In that environment, wearing multiple hats was not optional, it was essential. I wrote industry articles, sold memberships, built template-based websites for clients, trained users on the platform, and handled support queries as they came in.

   When YATCO launched an entirely new platform, I project-managed key parts of the rollout, ran extensive QA and reported issues to the development team, migrated clients from the old platform to the new one, and created the step-by-step user manual and every tutorial from scratch, entirely on my own. I also contributed to the development of the YATCO Charter platform and the Builders platform, and ran market research.

   I developed partnerships with associations, local boat shows, and yachting events — work that deepened my connection to the Turkish yachting market and sparked a strong and lasting love for it. As the company grew to over 80 people following multiple acquisitions, I was at the heart of onboarding the new teams and training staff on the platform, its workflows, and how to handle client issues effectively.

   In my last three years I focused on sales and account management — staying close to hundreds of clients, finding new prospects, selling memberships, and securing sponsors for our Business Lounge events. But my greatest asset to YATCO was never a system or a process — it was the relationships I built with clients. They knew they could rely on me personally. They were never just a number.

   • Sales & account management
   • Platform launch & QA
   • Client migration & training
   • Charter & Builders platforms
   • Event sponsorship
   • Partnerships

4. Global

   Yacht Shows Around the World

   

   Throughout my career I have attended and represented at the world’s most prestigious yacht shows — Monaco, Cannes, Palma, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, Düsseldorf, Antigua, Nice, the Türkiye charter shows and more. These events are where the industry comes alive, and being present has been central to building the relationships and knowledge that define my career.

   Yachting events are what keep my love for the industry alive — you get to meet people in person, feel the energy, and nourish that feeling to keep growing.

   • Brand representation
   • Networking
   • Business Lounge events