Antony Sheriff

Antony Sheriff (born 1963 in Switzerland) is an American and Italian businessman and is the executive chairman of luxury motor yacht manufacturer, Princess Yachts.

Early life and education

Sheriff attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, obtaining both a B.A. in Economics and a B.S. in Engineering before going on to work at Chrysler. He then obtained his M.S. in Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management while contributing to “The Machine that Changed the World” (Financial Times “Book of the Year” in 1990).

Early career

Following his graduation from M.I.T., Sheriff worked for McKinsey and Company as a Strategic Management Consultant. In 1995, he joined Fiat Auto in Italy and soon after became Executive Director of Product Development for all Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo cars and commercial vehicles.[1][2]

Sheriff was promoted to the position of Vice President of Marketing for Fiat in 2002, shortly before moving to McLaren Automotive in Britain as Managing Director in January 2003.[3]

McLaren Automotive

McLaren hired Sheriff to build McLaren into a road car brand and Sheriff was responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s road car business.[4] Initially, he launched the SLR into production in partnership with Mercedes-Benz and turned McLaren Automotive into a profitable company after developing and launching the SLR Roadster and SLR Stirling Moss.[5]

After the launch of the SLR, Sheriff built McLaren into a standalone luxury sports car company with three core products: P11 (MP4-12C and 650S), P12 (P1) and P13 (Sports Series). Under his leadership, McLaren Automotive also built a dedicated production facility and a global distribution network with 51 dealers in 26 countries.[6]

Launch of the MP4-12C and P1

During Sheriff’s tenure, McLaren successfully launched two road car models and began the development of a third. The first car, the MP4-12C, was launched to critical acclaim and had1700 orders before it went on display at dealerships.[7] In its first full year in production, McLaren Automotive sold 1,587 MP4-12C’s with a turnover of £267 million and near-break even profitability.

At the end of 2012, McLaren launched the MP4-12C Spider and Sheriff announced McLaren would be releasing the P1, a $1 million hybrid supercar, in 2013. The car was launched at the Paris Motor Show in September 2012 and sold out its limited 375 car production run.

Two other cars were conceived under Sheriff’s leadership, but launched after his departure: The 650S (an evolution of the MP4-12C) in 2014 and the P13 Sports Series launched in 2015.

Sheriff resigned as Managing Director of McLaren in 2013 and is now advising and investing in a number of projects in the international automotive industry.

Awards and recognition

The MP4-12C won several honors, including “GT Car of the Year” and “Cabrio of the Year” from Top Gear, and the P1 won the “Hypercar of the Year”, also from Top Gear.[8][9] In addition, McLaren Automotive was awarded the Walpole award for the “Best British Luxury Brand” in 2011.

While at Fiat Auto, cars Sheriff conceived won “Car of the Year” (Alfa Romeo 147 and Fiat Panda).

Princess Yachts

Sheriff joined British luxury yacht manufacturer Princess Yachts in January 2016, following a decade as Managing Director with luxury car manufacturer McLaren Automotive.

Joining the business in 2016, Sheriff is helping grow Princess into a truly iconic British brand, one committed to building the most innovative products and delivering an exceptional experience to Princess customers.

In his Forbes interview in 2017, Sheriff equated the future of the luxury yachting industry with that of the supercar industry. 'We need to get better at making boating less intimidating. What fueled the growth of the supercar market is that it became easier.'[10] With Sheriff's background at McLaren, Princess are working towards streamlining the process of owning and running a luxury yacht to achieve exactly that.

References

  1. ↑ "Antony Sheriff, CEO, McLaren Automotive: What future for cars?". University of Cambridge.
  2. ↑ Cropley, Steve. "Who is McLaren's MD Antony Sheriff?". Autocar.
  3. ↑ "Personnel digest". Automotive News.
  4. ↑ Wasef, Basem. "Managing McLaren: Autoweek talks with Antony Sheriff of McLaren Automotive". Autoweek.
  5. ↑ "Personnel digest". Automotive News.
  6. ↑ Green, Gavin. "Car Q&A: Antony Sheriff. British Airways Business Life". British Airways - Business Life.
  7. ↑ "McLaren offers $500,000 race model of Ferrari-rivaling supercar". Automotive News Europe.
  8. ↑ "Top Gear Awards: McLaren 12C Spider". Top Gear.
  9. ↑ "Engineering Awards for MP4-12C Usher in New Roles for McLaren Automotive Board Members". McLaren Automotive. Archived from the original on 2015-02-09.
  10. ↑ Afacan, Dominique. "Great British Superyachts: Antony Sheriff On Princess Yachts". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-03-19.

Princess Yachts website

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