SEADREAM: It’s All About Teamwork
Meet Our Management Team, Atle and Bob
As you are aware, SEADREAM YACHT CLUB believes in teamwork and close cooperation--- from our onboard staff to our shore side staff---from top management through our total operation. In that vein, this message to you is coming from both of us---Atle Brynestad and Bob Lepisto.
We’ve each had the pleasurable occasion of meeting many of you aboard SEADREAM over the past seven years. It’s been rewarding not only for us, but also our families and children who have created many new friendships with fellow SeaDreamers. If we haven’t met yet, we do hope to greet you aboard soon.
Early in January this year we announced that I, Atle Brynestad, Chairman and Owner of SEADREAM, was adding an additional, highly important job to my responsibilities---that of Chief Executive Officer. And, as the second member of this team I, Bob Lepisto, Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing and sales, was adding to my responsibilities by taking on the position of President of SEADREAM.
We both want you to know how pleased and honored we are to assume these new responsibilities and that we appreciate your loyalty to SEADREAM. Together we have dedicated ourselves to the continuous enhancement and development of the SEADREAM experience so that we may always exceed your expectations.
From your Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, along with your new President, we promise to build on our past success, at the same time looking to the future with the goal of always improving upon SEADREAM so that it remains a cut above the rest. That is our commitment to you.
For those who may be unfamiliar with our backgrounds, please find a brief highlight of our backgrounds below. We look forward to welcoming you back aboard SEADREAM soon.
Sincerely,
Atle Brynestad Bob Lepisto
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer President
Atle Brynestad
and his Norwegian Seagoing Heritage
Atle Brynestad is an entrepreneurial and highly successful Norwegian businessman who has long had a fascination with ships and the sea, and more specifically with luxury sea holidays.
“My love of the sea and the ships that sail on them is part of my Norwegian birthright---one that I am most proud of” he says. When Atle was 16, following his early schooling in Norway, he purchased an old knitting machine and began turning out woolen sweaters. “I did every thing myself. I designed the sweaters, knitted them and then went out and sold them,” he recalls.
By the time he was 19 he had sixteen employees and his small company was turning a modest profit which he placed back into the operation. He was a success. He then pursued higher education with the same zeal he had shown in the development of his sweater business and soon he had earned an advanced university degree.
From that point on, Atle took off. He expanded his business interests dramatically and with his love of the sea, early in his career he invested in Royal Viking Line; at that time the leader in seagoing leisure holidays. That hooked him and in 1987 he founded Seabourn Cruise Line and was its Chairman during the ten years of that company’s greatest success. When Seabourn and Cunard were merged in 1998, Atle became Chairman of Cunard Line Ltd., a position he resigned from in 2000. He also served as a board member of Carnival Corp. The following year he founded SEADREAM YACHT CLUB and was instrumental in conceiving the SEADREAM yachting concept that remains successful today. Atle Brynestad is a man who loves what he does.
Bob Lepisto:
Dedicated, Hardworking and the ultimate SeaDreamer.
Bob Lepisto, President of SEADREAM YACHT CLUB, was part of the original SEADREAM team assembled in September 2001. In large part, responsible for the launch and development of the company under the direction of Atle Brynestad, Owner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SEADREAM. Before being named President in January this year, Bob was SEADREAM’s Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing and Sales. In his role as President he will continue his responsibilities in marketing and sales.
Prior to joining SEADREAM, Bob was Vice President of Sales, for the Americas at Cunard Line Ltd. and was responsible for both Cunard Line and Seabourn Cruise Line; operating under the Carnival Corp. banner. Lepisto served as President of the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) from 1994 to 1999. He had joined ICTA following a 22-year career as a sales executive with Continental Airlines.
A few years ago he was voted one of Travel Agent Magazine’s “People of the Year” and was also honored by Leisure Travel Magazine as one of the “25 Most Influential Travel Executives” in 1999 and 2000. Bob is a friendly, hardworking guy. Say hello to him next time you see him aboard one of the SEADREAM yachts.