Malibu Boats' chief growth officer, Eric Lindquist, is running the Finnish builder as interim CEO while a permanent replacement is found, as Saxdor announces its first US-built boat.
Erna Rusi has left Saxdor Yachts. The Finnish builder announced on 16 October that it had reached a mutual agreement with Rusi to part ways, almost exactly five years after she took over. Saxdor named her as CEO effective 20 October 2021.
Saxdor is now searching for a new chief executive. In the meantime the job goes to Eric Lindquist, chief growth officer of Malibu Boats, the Tennessee group that bought Saxdor in March.
Seven months after the sale
Malibu announced the acquisition on 2 March, and its deal announcement said Saxdor's management and operational teams would join the group and keep driving the brand's growth. Saxdor said the following day that its management team would remain in place.
Rusi went further. Speaking to German boating magazine float from Saxdor's Polish shipyard the day after the deal was announced, she said she would continue as CEO and added: "I have committed to the next three years, as has the rest of the leadership team". She said founder and chief designer Sakari Mattila had made the same three-year commitment, and that reporting lines and the future board structure were still to be decided.
Saxdor's statement gives no reason for her departure beyond the mutual agreement. It thanks Rusi for her leadership and credits her with taking Saxdor from "an ambitious young shipyard" to a company with greatly expanded production capacity and a global presence.
What Rusi built
Rusi arrived from a corporate career that included senior roles at Nordic telco Telia, and took over from Ludvig Liljequist at a company founded only in 2019. By Saxdor's own figures, revenue grew from €109 million in 2024 to more than €180 million in 2025. At the time of the sale, Malibu said Saxdor had delivered more than 2,000 boats and employed over 800 people across its engineering and production sites in Finland and Poland, with a dealer network spanning more than 50 countries.
Malibu paid about €150 million (US$175 million), with up to €72 million more payable to Saxdor's former shareholders if the business meets operating and financial growth targets across 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The range Rusi oversaw climbed steadily in size, from the 6m Saxdor 200 Sport to the 460 GTC flagship launched at boot Düsseldorf this year. Mattila, the designer behind that range, received the Judges' Special Award at the 2026 Motor Boat Awards in January, an award Rusi accepted on his behalf.
US production begins in Florida
Lindquist takes the helm as Saxdor begins building boats in the United States. In a separate announcement ahead of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (28 October to 1 November), Saxdor said the first 320 GTO built at Malibu's Fort Pierce, Florida, plant was finished, serial production was under way and the 270 GTO would follow shortly. Saxdor plans to add more models to US production while continuing to build boats in Poland and at Larsmo, Finland.
That ramp-up has cost money. On Malibu's fourth-quarter results call in August, chief financial officer David Black said Saxdor brought in US$61.2 million from 180 boats between April and June, ahead of forecast, but its adjusted EBITDA margin came in below Malibu's guidance of 10 to 11 per cent. He put that down to two things: resources added early to speed up Fort Pierce production, and higher input costs. Malibu expects Saxdor's margin to improve through its 2027 financial year as US production scales and Saxdor is brought into the group's purchasing.
North America is the big prize. Malibu said at the time of the sale that the region accounted for about a third of Saxdor's revenue, against roughly half from Europe.
Brand autonomy
Lindquist's statement leans on the same promise made in March. "We are committed to preserving Saxdor's autonomy and ensuring that it continues to operate and grow as a standalone global brand," he said, adding that the priority now is "to find the right leader to guide Saxdor into its next chapter."
The company says its focus remains innovation, international expansion and its dealer network. In New Zealand, Saxdor is sold through Sports Marine, which has showrooms at Westhaven in Auckland and in Christchurch.
No timeline has been given for appointing a permanent chief executive.
