“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team."
Meet The Team behind the Yacht-Match Concept
Part 1:
In an industry where everyone is jostling to offer you the same services, we believe focusing on the people behind those services and the ways in which they provide them is what really makes the difference. Let us introduce you to the specialists behind Yacht-Match. We are a cohesive team who will ensure that your yachting experience will not only meet, but exceed your expectations!
Co-Founder
https://www.yacht-match.com/our-story/
I have had the chance to travel and explore early in life and always stayed curious to explore the world. I have always been drawn to the sea and water sports have been a big part of my life.
I consider myself a cosmopolitan and I connect with people easily, partly because of my family background and partly because of my extensive traveling, working and studying abroad.
While I was studying business and later working in procurement and strategy, I realized that I wanted to find my way back to the world of traveling and water sports.
What is a better way than to join the leisure marine industry?
I was fortunate enough to be given a position to manage the yacht sales and develop the business model for an expansive and ambitious Scandinavian company, that grew to be one of the leaders in the charter ownership market as a global operator.
From there it was a natural progression of meeting equal minded professionals in this industry that shared the same passion. We formed the concept around Yacht-Match because it was a response to a standard and mass-driven commercial movement, that was taken place and we wanted to combine our professional experience from different parts of the industry with our vision to put the boat owner first and to guide and advise in a way that is a value drive for both the owner and our partners working for us.
I love to connect with the stories, background, and dreams that our clients share with us. It is our mission to succeed in making it easy for them to achieve the dreams and to enjoy the journey together. We see ourselves as partner in this, rather than just another service provider. We do what is best for the client and take on a partner role as their consultants.
Meeting families and people from all over the world and following them on their journey past choosing us as their partner is really a treat for us. I have just finished a face time call with a family from Texas that just took their maiden voyage on their live-aboard catamaran from St Martin to Granada. The excitement is contagious!
Another great part of this is that we attract and connect with partners that share the same core values. Together we are stronger, and we progressively learn from each other. There are a lot of passionate partners still out there with mind for service and for creating a key value chain in offering the total one-stop service point for our mutual boat owners and clients.
Every role and responsibility brings a change to learn, adapt and develop. Many of the situations and opportunities I have had in the yachting industry and before entering this industry have thought me that you only build your transferable skills which you use as soon as you move onto the next role in your career journey.
Yacht-Match started off as a passionate project that we wanted to be meaningful and to add value to an already saturated market of services providers. I can proudly say that we managed to do that despite being faced with the most challenging chain of events in the industry for the past 20 years (ref: Syrian civil war and migration in Europe, Hurricane Irma, Covid pandemic, and now the 2022 invasion of Ukraine).
Hence, Yacht-Match, I must argue, is my proudest creation and I am very thankful for all our boat owners that entrusted us with their dreams and for all of our partners that continue to grow with us.
If there is another professional accomplishment that is worth mentioning and that to some extent also provides accreditation, is probably my time as the sale manager for a small charter company that helped to grow to a global charter company. I am thankful for the chance to learn so much from the years there and that really gave me a change to examine the industry, understand the boat owners’ behaviors and needs, and also establish the valuable connections with the partners and colleagues that I am currently working with in Yacht-Match.
For the numbers nerd: the company had a fleet of 67 yachts and by the time I left the fleet grew to over 240 yachts! Also I supported the growth of the Partner Program, developed a new Ownership Program and I have been supporting more than hundred Scandinavian families to become proud boat owners in a charter fleet.
Contact me viktor@yacht-match.se
Co-Founder
I have got experience and knowledge in all facets of the leisure marine market: brokerage (I am a certified yacht broker) – dealership – dealer manager – charter market manager – marketing and sales consultant – yacht purchase and ownership consultant.
My career experience when I was working for a brokerage and dealer company, also as a charter market manager and a dealer area manager for a top three shipyard have given me an insight and perspective to able to understand how clients think what is important for shipyards, how dealers act, what brokers do.
My passion is advising clients on how to make the right decisions in terms of the yacht ownership, equipment to make their sailing experience pleasurable and safe. My motto in career life is ‘Sorting out solutions for clients’ . I am also driven by adversity and I believe in demonstrating to clients that things work even when people say they won’t.
My biggest professional accomplishment is that Yacht-Match is still around, despite the head winds we got from the market.
Contact me dirk@yacht-match.se
Sales and Marketing Manager
After some years of gaining experience within the sector, attending various boat shows and connecting with people within the industry I moved to Mallorca, Spain. In 2006 I founded my own yacht charter agency Morecruise, which became one of the first charter agencies that came to the Russian speaking market. I have been successfully managing this company for 15 years, which has been exciting and full of experiences. We have sold over 2000 charter weeks and organized numerous private corporate events and regattas. The years of pandemic made a massive impact on the travel sector, but because of the high demand in individual boat trips, most of the yacht charter companies recovered incredibly fast. For us it was different. The pandemic crisis followed by the inconceivable war of Russia against the Ukraine seriously affected most of my clients (85% Russian speaking), some by the sudden changes in their living circumstances and others by the sanctions against Russia.
As we know, crisis forces commonality of purpose on one another and its an opportunity for us to grow. I tried to use the moment for myself and gather experience in other areas of our industry like the yacht sales. It is expected that one day you may give advice or just sell a boat when your regular clients or their contacts eventually start asking you about how to buy a yacht. Sales has never been my core skill but the willingness to develop the skill got me into Yacht-Match.
My background is truly unique because I have spent nearly 20 years now working in the yachting sector and growing a company on my own. I started from zero. And as we know, there is no university degree in yachting, yacht sales or yacht charters. When I started in 2002, there were even no special back-office programs or booking systems. Everything was done manually and we had to learn all by ourselves and sometimes invent and optimize our working processes. I came to this field after having studied and graduated from the Humboldt University in Berlin, I studied intercultural communication there, which is also a broad field and one thing you learn most is to be open-minded and creative and to search for solutions for every problem. In total, I have lived and worked in 3 different countries, which makes you sensitive to different cultures and also gives you another perspective in terms of connecting with people. I think, this is a skill that is very powerful in sales.
I love working in yachting because we create the most pleasurable and memorable moments in our clients’ lives. People dream about their perfect yacht vacations where they can spend time with friends and loved ones or about having an own yacht one day and we can help them to make this dream come true. Or at least make sure that the yacht holidays or their yacht purchase process do not emerge as a continuous troubleshooting. So we make our clients happy. I like to build up a personal relation to each client and I love it when they come back after a year and book another charter week, for example, or in case of consulting recommend you to someone.  
I also love to travel and getting to know places and cultures. I am not only speaking about different kinds of yachting events in this industry. It is also the everyday work that you do. For example, each time that I write something about a sailing region for our website or blog, I am very passionate about it, also about the marketing campaigns that you create for clients when you put your heart and love into it. It feels very satisfactory, when a campaign is well received by customers, and you have reached the customer’s authentic wishes.
If you ask for the professional and personal accomplishments: for me professional and personal go together. One of my many accomplishments is that I was able to grow my own business and combine it with my private life and having a family with 2 children. I started my business at the young age of only 24 and just one year after I became a mother. I saw my company grow along as my kids were growing. Finding this balance was the most difficult part.
I think when you have the heart to start up an own business, the attributes you most probably need to bring are passion for what you want to offer, patience and the ability to work hard for your goal. You depend on your own work in a very direct way and it also requires having some entrepreneurship in your blood stream. Without a doubt, I work best when I can design my working environment and plan my time and tasks independently. Being part of a team means: working together towards a common goal, respecting, supporting, and complementing each other.  
I have a favorite quote by Federico Fellini who said, “A different language is a different vision of life.” I just love to explore as many facets as I can. I find it fascinating. I also try to educate my kids with the same open mindset that I have gained over years. I speak 5 languages, my kids already speak 4: I recognize it as my other big accomplishment.      
Contact me: daria@yacht-match.com
Marketing Director
I am also an international commercial mediator and I have a reputation for getting people to the table and engaging them in successful negotiation and good decision-making.
My personal style is to focus on generating good decisions and I have an enviable track record as a guide and catalyst for reaching agreement between even the most ‘individual’ of individuals. I believe that listening, transparency, and a curious & open minded approach are the fundaments to build ultimate relationship with a client, which is a part of the Yacht-Match vision and mission.
I love solving problems through creative, engaging GTM strategies and content. Some of our best content alleviates our prospect and customers’ pain points. But why stop at just being helpful? Why not take it a step further and make it an unexpectedly delightful experience.
I hold MA degree in Psychology and Criminology. I am also a NLP Practitioner, Enterprise Coach , and a Certified Commercial Mediator.
Contact me: agnes@yacht-match.com
Pre-Sales Coordinator
I always had a passion for languages, so naturally when I moved to Sweden, the first thing that I did was to learn Swedish. In addition to that, I also have a very good understanding of Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian. I am currently learning Russian and Spanish. I believe that we should always improve ourselves through out the lifetime.
On top of that, I am also a swimmer and a swimming instructor, so needless to say that I am drawn to the water environment. Yacht-Match International has given me the opportunity to always be around water, to travel the world, explore and meet new people.
My passion for learning and personal development has always motivated me to obtain different qualifications, such as: – Entrepreneurship, Komvux Malmö, – Leadership and Organization, Komvux Malmö , Leadership in Sports & Health, UmeÃ¥ University, Introduction to Tourism Studies, University of Dalarna.
I am currently studying E-Commerce at IHM Business School in Malmo, Sweden. Working for a multilingual and diverse organization like Yacht-Match has always been an idea of the dream job, and has opened a path to my career development and progression: including Web Design, SEO, CRM automations and segmentations, Demand Generation and Social Media Campaigns.
Contact me: tijana@yacht-match.com
