Margarita Amam

“What my grandfather taught me was that whatever you do, do it 100 per cent or don’t do it at all,” begins Margarita Amam. “This is the approach that I’ve always taken, to do things to the utmost best I can with the means given, and then also be creative.” As founder of IMS (Interior Management Systems), Amam is proof that yachting opens up a world of possibilities for people from all sorts of backgrounds – even if, like many industries, it is still maturing.

Born to a Muslim Pakistani father and a Greek mother, and brought up in Germany, Amam’s ride hasn’t been easy. Her parents were involved in a car accident when she was young, and ensuing medical issues meant they lost their family business, a restaurant. As the middle child, Amam started working when she was 12 to help support the family, first as a potwasher and then serving and bartending while she was still at school, and it was through hospitality that she got her introduction to yachting. “I’d built a career in hospitality,” she says, “and I was asked to open a bar and restaurant from New York to Vegesack – the northern quarter of Bremen.” Home to iconic superyacht builders Lürssen and Abeking & Rasmussen, Bremen has a year-round turnaround of build captains and teams, technical representatives and the like. “The build teams would stop by all the time for lunches, dinners, cocktail parties, and they started offering me jobs on board. I looked into it further and then, after initially hesitating, took my first job on board.”

That was in 2007, and Amam spent seven years working her way up the ladder to senior interior management. It was not always plain sailing, however, and Amam’s experiences speak to an industry in flux, growing quickly and trying to mature quickly at the same time. “When you work in a hotel and restaurant you’re accepted because your track record speaks for itself and no one judges you for your gender or your nationality – you’re judged on merit,” she says. “In yachting, even though I had the credentials and even though I proved to certain crew what I could do before being made chief stew, they still didn’t accept me. I don’t blame the crew, however,” Amam adds. “They were enabled to act this way because they were not taught better. I wasn’t angry at the crew, but at the management who did nothing.”

Amam has since become a vocal advocate for change, and for diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) in the superyacht industry. And it’s not just a reflection on her own experiences – the next generation of superyacht owners are already realising the importance of DEI in their own businesses. Indeed a 2020 report from management consultants McKinsey confirmed what many have known for a long time – that dramatically improving diversity at all levels from shop floor to executive team has a dramatic effect on the bottom line. “If McKinsey says that with having women in your work groups you increase your financial performance by 21 per cent, and if you add other cultures, by 34 per cent, why would you give away this margin?” she asks. “If I can’t appeal to hearts then I can appeal to pockets. I think in this industry people cannot be afraid of change, although owners are not the problem – they don’t care who or what you are, they care about what skills you bring.”

It is Amam’s skills, vision and tenacity that are carrying her to greater heights. She set up IMS in 2014 having started to develop an app called Crystal to improve interior management as well as providing a repository of knowledge on how to clean, care for and curate a vast array of luxury interior finishes and materials. “I never thought I should make a business out of it,” she admits. “I never thought this big, and I was actually scared of it.” With the support of her then partner, she landed her first contract and hasn’t looked back since. “After that first one I felt that I’m strong enough, that now I can do this on my own. Because I want to do this on my own.”

Now entering its eighth year of operation, IMS has consulted on some of the largest yachts in the fleet, while Crystal is being used both on yachts and on land. It’s a long way from the 12-year-old potwasher helping out the family, but it’s not only a story of individual determination, it’s also a story of hope – and it is to this end that Amam also sees hope for the future of DEI across the industry. “Within my seven or eight years on board I noticed that crew got better and adjusted the culture on board even without help from management,” she says. “I’ve seen crew go through growing pains and find more balance, and I’ve met captains who like to have a diverse crew because it keeps everyone more in balance. And I think,” she concludes, “for anyone who has a discussion or a conversation about these things, don’t be afraid to misstep in your wording. It’s much better to let the conversation roll, and not poke holes in it but find common ground.”

It’s that common ground that the superyacht industry as a whole is starting to explore with ever greater vigour, and it is thanks to the voices of DEI champions like Amam, and other organisations such as Legasea, that the superyacht industry is making such positive strides toward its coming-of -age.