Vincent Valdes, President and CEO
Vincent Valdes is responsible for strategic planning, product development, marketing, and operations.

Vince Valdes is the son of Richard Valdes, the original founder of Columbia Yachts, who built the company into an industry-dominating firm. Vince Valdes' upbringing developed a passion for sailing and boat building. His father's enthusiasm allowed him to develop his knowledge of the art of boat building and business management from a very early age. As Vince Valdes grew up, he worked with his father in his various boat-building firms at boat shows, running product demonstrations, and teaching new owners the ways of their purchase.

Sailing and boat building are integral to Vince Valdes' life story. During his youth, he was rigger/commissioner for Lancer Yachts (another of Richard Valdes' successful sailboat ventures). Later, he worked with Mediterranean Yachts teaching clients piloting and seamanship skills.

Mr. Valdes regularly serves as a skipper or crewmember on a variety of cruising and racing sailboats, and most recently sailed the 2001 Trans Pacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu aboard "Bull," winning first in class and first overall.
He has completed "bow to stern" restorations on three of his own sailboats, two of which were Columbia 5.5 meters. He is an active member of the Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

Vince Valdes felt that a strong background in finance and the careful planning and assessment skills that accompany the finance profession would be crucial to any future personal business venture. With this in mind, he honed his skills during the past 10 years in the structured finance industry at Bankers Trust, Deutsche Bank, and most recently at KPMG.

Mr. Valdes holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California at Los Angeles.

Justin Wallin Vice President and COO
Justin Wallin supports strategic planning, finance, marketing, public affairs, and operations efforts. Mr. Wallin holds a seat on the Board of Directors and brings to Columbia Yachts a background that includes international, high tech, and political experience.

Mr. Wallin works with a Fortune 250 firm providing strategic direction, planning, and implementation. He received his Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California. Involved with sailing since childhood, Justin Wallin's family life always included a sailing vessel.

Richard "Dick" Valdes, Principal Director
Dick Valdes will initially oversee manufacturing operations. He is the founding investor in the Columbia Yacht Corporation and brings unparalleled experience and skills to the company. He is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mediterranean Yacht Corporation. Mediterranean Yachts manufactures a line of luxury sport fishers. Two 38’ models and a 54’ model ranging in price from $250,000 to $1,000,000 are sold factory direct to the consumer and have been shipped to more than 22 countries in the last 15 years.

Dick Valdes founded the original Columbia Yachts in 1958, and built the company into the world’s largest fiberglass sailboat manufacturer by the late 1960s. He sold the company to Whittaker (listed on the NYSE) at that time, but retained his position as President of Columbia Yacht Corporation and was instrumental in the development of the Whittaker Marine Group, which ultimately included Bertram Yachts, Trojan Yachts, Riva (Italy), Desco Marine (Florida), Kettenburg (San Diego), and Balboa Marine (Newport Beach). Total sales of the Whittaker Marine Group reached between $250 to $300 million in the early 1970s during Valdes’ tenure.

In 1974, following his departure from Whitaker Marine Group, Dick Valdes established the Lancer Yacht Corporation, which manufactured a line of sailing yachts and high-speed motorsailers ranging in size from 25’ to 65’ (14 models). Lancer Yachts was sold to Bally (listed on the NYSE) in 1983.

Dick Valdes has established a reputation for market intuition, timeless designs and best of breed engineering/production practices. Under his direction, Columbia developed and perfected the one-piece unitized fiberglass interior production method for large sailboats and pioneered the use of balsa sandwich construction in large boats. Dick Valdes’ engineering and production methods allow him to build vessels of superior quality that can be sold at a lesser cost to the consumer than the competition, while reaping far higher margins than the competition.

William Lennartz, Director
William Lennartz is currently President and CEO of California Linear Devices,Inc. in Carlsbad, CA. CLD designs, manufactures, and sells linear motors to a worldwide billion-dollar marketplace. Previous to CLD, he was President and CEO of Avcon, Inc. in Woodland Hills, CA, where the linear motor was developed. CLD purchased the patent and all rights to the linear motor from Avcon in July, 1998.

During the school year of 2000/2001, Mr. Lennartz was invited to serve as a graduate Professor with the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at The University of Southern California. He taught two graduate courses: “The Mindset of a CEO/Founder” and “Growing an Emerging Business: Doubling In Size Every Two Years.”

Mr. Lennartz was founder, president and CEO of Sciteq Electronics in San Diego, CA from 1992-1996. Sciteq grew to a $5 million frequency synthesizer company in the telecommunications industry and was successfully sold in 1996 to Osicom Technologies.

In 1991, Mr. Lennartz became president and CEO of Hixson Metal Finishing in Newport Beach, CA at a time when the company was leaderless and losing money. He built it into a profitable firm with $6.5 million in revenues and turned it back over to the management team to operate for the owner.

In 1977, Mr. Lennartz founded Computer Power Systems Corp. in Carson, CA. CPS was a manufacturer of electrical filtering and distribution equipment for the computer room and grew from 0 to $30 million. It was sold in 1984 to Emerson Electric Company. He operated the division for Emerson for the next four years and quadrupled the profitability, making CPS the top performing acquisition for Emerson. It was also the top “Best Cost Producer” division of all of Emerson’s 40 divisions.

In 1968, Mr. Lennartz founded his first company, Lencor International in Anaheim, CA. Lencor became a major computer disk pack manufacturer and the company grew to $20 million of annual revenue. In 1977, the company successfully merged into Memorex Corporation.

In 1963, Mr. Lennartz graduated from the Business School at the University of Colorado with a BS Degree in Finance and worked with the IBM Corporation in Los Angeles as an Account Manager for five years.

Mr. Lennartz was a member of the Young President’s Organization for 18 years and served for four years on its International Board of Directors. In 1987, he was Senior Vice President of North America, presiding over 4,000 members. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the San Pedro, California YMCA and was a founding Trustee and Officer of the Palos Verdes Education Foundation, which was formed to raise capital to assist the public school district on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The Foundation has since raised over $6 million for the local school district.

Mr. Lennartz was also active in the management of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He served on the Licensing and Merchandising Commission, which negotiated the contracts with ABC and 30 Corporate Sponsors raising over $700 million. In addition, he was a Commissioner-At-Large and oversaw the four Olympic sports in Long Beach: fencing, volleyball, archery, and yachting. The final profit on the 1984 Games was $220 million and was distributed to the three charities.

Mr. Lennartz was a founding member of The School of Entrepreneurship of The University of Southern California’s School of Business, recently ranked the number one entrepreneural school in the nation by Success Magazine. He served on the institution’s Advisory Board from 1974 to 1984. He was also a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the School of Business at The University of Colorado and is active as a guest lecturer in both programs.

Mr. Lennartz has served on the boards of Arcus, Inc., Spectron Development Labs, Christie Electric, Statordyne, Avcon, Formulabs, General Telephone’s Entrepreneurial Advisory Board, and a Review Board of the U.S. Postal Service. He currently is a member of the Board of Acom Computer. He also serves as Treasurer and Director of The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, whose goals are to distribute information and create awareness about Dystonia (or Spasmodic Torticolis) and to raise research funds to find a cure.

return to top