Leadership Pathway
Dealer Week | Dec 6 - 9, 2026 | Tampa Convention Center
Leadership Training that Runs a Better Business
In a fast-changing marine retail market, strong leadership isn’t optional. It’s essential. These sessions are designed to help you guide your team, your operations, and invest into your future workforce.
Invest in Your Doers, Leaders, and Outperformers
General managers, service managers, owners and future leaders who want to run better teams and stronger businesses. If you’ve been investing in your workforce and figuring out leadership as you go, this is your chance to build confidence, gain clarity, and leave with a better plan to lead dealership teams.
Every session in the Leadership Pathway is grounded in the realities of running a marine dealership today.
Kaihan Krippendorff
Speaker
Build Out Your New Marine Retail Playbook
Kaihan helps companies navigate disruption, build competitive advantage and grow. He's the founder of Outthinker Networks, a global think tank focused on strategy, innovation, growth and transformation, and the author of six books, including "Outthink the Competition," "Driving Innovation from Within" and "Proximity." He holds doctorates in economics and business, along with engineering degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, Columbia Business School and London Business School.
Tony Gonzalez
Speaker
Develop the Constitution to Change
Tony is a Colorado native who loves being outdoors, spending his free time camping, biking, dirt biking, snowshoeing, skiing and snowmobiling with his wife Amy and their two sons. He began his career in the powersports industry in 2004 and quickly became a sales trainer and moderator, and is now considered one of the best 20-Club moderators in the industry. Tony is a dedicated advocate for dealers, and believes his greatest accomplishment has been putting dealers first again and treating them as family rather than clients.
Todd Smith
Speaker
Shift How Your Dealership Operates with AI: The Decision Intelligence Playbook
Todd is a serial entrepreneur, five-time Inc. 500/5000 honoree and respected automotive retail technology leader who is increasingly sought out by other industries, including marine. He's CEO and Founder of QoreAI, which transforms fragmented dealership data into unified intelligence layers to drive competitive advantage. Todd is also the author of "The Intelligent Dealership: How AI and Data Transform Automotive Retail" (2026), and is dedicated to delivering actionable strategies that dealership leaders can implement immediately.
Fleming Ford
Speaker
The Owner’s Secret to Outperforming Amid Uncertainty
Fleming is Director of Strategic Growth at NCM Associates, where she partners with dealer groups to build the leadership, talent and organizational systems needed for sustainable growth and long-term success. Her work brings together leadership development, succession planning, talent strategy and operational execution to help organizations improve accountability, performance and profitability, and she moderates NCM's Human Capital and Women in Leadership 20 Groups.
Dave Newell
Speaker
Bailing Water: How Service and Parts Departments Save a Sinking Dealership
Dave is on a mission to align the misaligned. That mission began with his first consulting engagement, helping a leadership team get everyone working together and hitting their targets. As founder of The Five Facets of Business, he helps entrepreneurial leaders scale their businesses using this proven operating system, and has consulted with more than 250 businesses and 1,000-plus leaders, helping build companies that run in alignment.
Leadership Pathway Host
Bernie DeGraw
Bernie DeGraw is a lifelong educator and natural leader with a distinguished career spanning education, business and industry development.
Bernie currently holds the position of Senior Education Developer at the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA), where he plays a pivotal role in advancing professional development within the industry, and is a marine dealership co-owner.
Bernie has cultivated deep expertise in coaching, leadership and front-line operations. His career includes experience as a guidance counselor, director of guidance, and dealership co-owner, where he seamlessly filled roles such as salesperson, service manager and service advisor.
Throughout his career, Bernie has directed multiple college programs at prestigious institutions, including the University of Connecticut, the University of Vermont, the University of Michigan, the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas at Austin. His ability to develop and implement impactful educational initiatives has helped shape countless students and professionals.
An influential voice in the boating industry, Bernie serves as the past president and remains a dedicated board member of the Boating Industry Association of Central New York.