Now in his 24th year at Princess Yachts and third as CEO, Will Green has helped turn around the British builder’s fortunes while overseeing a surprise move into centre-console outboard boats and a return to the 100ft-plus superyacht sector.
Interview: John Higginson; Photos: Princess

Will Green, CEO, Princess Yachts

Formerly Head of UK Sales at Aston Martin, Will Green joined Princess in January 2003 as Assistant Sales Director and later became Sales Director. A member of the company’s Board of Directors since September 2004, Green was promoted to Chief Commercial Officer in December 2021 then succeeded Antony Sheriff as CEO in August 2023, five months after KPS Capital Partners completed its acquisition of the Plymouth-based shipyard.

Can you talk about the role that David King, who founded Princess in 1965, has played in your career?

David King is still my mentor and is still Princess’s longest serving employee, although it feels strange to call him an employee. He’s in his early 80s, but he’s super sharp and still heliskiing! He’s an amazing guy.

When I first joined Princess and got involved in product development, David gave me some advice. He told me to go on your competitors’ products and look for the things you think they do well, then go on your own product and look for the things you’re not quite happy with.

David King, who founded Princess in 1965

If you can learn from those two lessons, then every time you develop a new boat, it’ll be a better boat. It’s a very simple, logical thing to do. He’s a thoughtful man.

What were other lessons from him you took onboard in your career, especially as you were promoted to CCO then CEO in recent years?

He’s a very good businessman. There are a lot of brands in the business, but I think he’s one of the best in the industry at the art of making sustainable profits by making boats.

If you reflect on the ‘founding fathers’ of the five core brands [founded in the 1960s] – Paolo Vitelli (Azimut), Robert Braithwaite (Sunseeker), Norberto Ferretti (Ferretti Yachts), David King (Princess) and Sam Newington (Fairline) – Dave is the only one still working for his original brand.

David King at the Princess headquarters in Plymouth

When I joined Princess in 2003, the company had never lost money, and it had been through plenty of cycles. He’s very shrewd, so I’d be glad if I could learn half of the lessons he learned over those years.

Among the reasons he’s still involved at Princess is to help the new team in charge. He also helps from a design perspective, as he often challenges people with his experience of what has worked or not worked before and why, as well as other things to consider. He gives himself no credit for the company he’s developed and the lessons he’s learned, but he’s an inspiration.

Do you still lean on him for advice?

Yes, absolutely, every week. He still comes in one day a week. However, although our Board of Directors is a relatively new line-up, there’s well over a century of Princess experience between the seven of us.

Green collects a trophy for the Princess F58 at the Motor Boat Awards in January 2026

James Smale (COO) has been with Princess since starting as an apprentice in 1997. Annie Reed (CCO) has been here since 2001. Andy Lawrence (Executive Director Design & Development) joined Princess just before me, so we’ve both done 23 years or so.

Adrian Bratt (Chief People Officer & General Counsel) has done nine years, and Simon Clare (Executive Director Marketing & Brand) is now at Princess for a second time, totalling almost eight years. We’ve all served so much time with the company that we truly understand what makes it special.

How have you handled being CEO?

I wasn’t looking to be CEO. I guess I thought maybe one day, but I’m not a person that likes to be the centre of attention. However, I care very much about the company, and I care about the people in the company.

The Princess F58 debuted in 2025

When KPS decided they wanted to change things, I thought long and hard about it. I thought we really needed to get Princess back to its core and that we didn’t really want to take the risk of bringing someone in from the outside, so that sort of pushed me over the edge to accept the CEO role.

It was also a difficult time for the company when you were offered the position.

Having never been a CEO before and with a company in quite a difficult situation and a difficult market, I thought this was a great opportunity to fail in my first CEO job! So, yes, I really had to think about it.

KPS also helped me make the decision, as they were very supportive about me putting what I felt was the right team around me, which was a fundamental to me taking the job. Also, since making the decision, I’ve never felt alone. KPS are very present, very supportive, although they’re tough, they have high expectations and they are challenging.

When you took over in August 2023, what was the situation at Princess and what were your priorities?

When KPS bought Princess in March 2023, they bought a company that was still suffering from the fallout of COVID. It affected different companies in different ways, but we’re a volume builder of high-value products, so I think it probably hit us as hard as anyone in the industry.

Princess’s headquarters at Newport Street in Plymouth

For example, a similar-revenue shipyard that annually builds 10 boats between 100-150ft only needs 20 or so engines. To build the volume of boats we’re trying to build, we need 500 engines and 300 generators. And during COVID, getting hold of anything that had a chip in it was a disaster.

We were carrying an overhead equivalent to delivering a serious volume of boats and yet we couldn’t get the components to deliver the product. And it was really galling because we didn’t expect that demand would spike through COVID!

So, in early 2023, we were still dealing with the aftermath of all that and our financial situation was not pretty. I took over a few months after KPS bought the company and had firmed up their strategy.

We completely changed the Princess management team and essentially delayered. We had a reduction in salaried staff and hourly headcount because we had to rightsize the company to the number of boats that we were able to build and components we could get our hands on.

Princess’s 60th-anniversary celebrations in 2025 started at Boot Dusseldorf

It was a difficult time because we were trying to balance customer commitment on delivery dates with the rightsizing of the business. It was a challenging turnaround. Wind the clock forward to the end of 2024 and we were profitable again.

As well as becoming profitable again, Princess’s 2024 revenue was £378 million, up £67.68 million on 2023.

We were proud of our 2024 results given the headwinds in the commercial situation in the industry, which is reflective of the geopolitical and economic turmoil in the world.

It may not be the same for every boat builder, but in our world, pretty much every customer we talk to already has a boat. So, you’re trying to convince somebody in a difficult climate to stop using the boat that they own and love, and replace it with a more expensive one. When the world is in a difficult situation, the reasons not to do that are quite compelling.

Princess display at Cannes Yachting Festival 2025

Given that backdrop, we’re quite proud of the journey we’ve been on to get the company back in balance. And since the end of 2024, that trajectory of improvement has continued.

We’re not trying to break any records. Instead, the whole mantra is to get the company back into a solid position where we’re balancing demand and supply, and generating quality profits.

Ultimately, the aim is to cover all our development costs, generate a sensible return for shareholders, and have happy customers, high levels of service and high-quality product, so we’re sustainable through future cycles.

Having specialised in sales for two decades, what have been your main challenges as CEO?

When I took the job, I told KPS there were two things I wanted help with. I hadn’t been a CEO before, so I wanted any structured support they could give me to ensure I understood what I didn’t yet know.

Princess display at Boot Dusseldorf 2026

I also went to London Business School and did a finance course because I think understanding the numbers is key. I’ve been on the board at Princess for over 20 years, so I’ve looked at balance sheets and P&L statements for a long time. However, ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’, so I was keen to fill in the gaps.

Which aspects of being CEO came more naturally to you?

I’m not an operational person, but I’ve always been in manufacturing, and I genuinely care about people, so for me that aspect was quite natural. I want to be on the shop floor anyway because I really care about the hearts and minds of people, and we have so many great people at Princess.

Many have been with us for their whole careers including some from two or three generations of families working for the company. That’s something I’m proud of.

I think we need such employees to really feel appreciated, which is one reason why we frequently present long-service awards. We have breakfast with them, say thank you, and have an hour’s session for them to give us some feedback. As they’ve been here for decades, we ask them to tell us what they think, what we’re doing wrong, what we should do differently and so on.

Green presents many long-service awards including this one for David Gillard following his 30 years with Princess

I spend a lot of time on the shop floor, and I’ve learned a lot. It’s fascinating, so that aspect is not a difficult thing to want to do.

However, we’ve had our challenges. We’ve had to make some difficult decisions in getting the company back on its feet and it has been challenging at times. Unite is a well-known union in the UK, but part of the engagement with the workforce is spending a lot of time with our works committee and with the union.

I’d say that relations have never been better, and I hope they’d agree because we’ve been through quite a journey with them and reached a position where I think they feel happy and reenergised, as do we. So, that has been interesting. Again, the first time for me.

Late last year, you surprised many when you announced the C Class of centre-console powerboats with the option of outboard engines, a first for Princess.

That’s part of what we’re doing. As well as the challenges of turning the company around, we haven’t taken our foot off the gas in developing new boats. Through this recovery process, we spent £40 million on new product alone within the last three years.

CGI of the C48 Open, which could debut in late 2026

Now that we’re back in balance, we’re able to start doing some more interesting things. For some time, we’ve wanted to introduce a dayboat-style class. We have a lot of customers who have more than one boat, and maybe their larger boat is a Princess, and their smaller boat is another brand.

While it may appear to be quite a well populated market, nobody’s really doing what we think should be done. Now we can do it ourselves and have some fun in the process.

The C48 is a boat we’ve developed with feedback from all our dealers as well as customers around the world to produce something that works everywhere. We’ve got outboards and inboard engine options, as well as the choice of an open design or enclosed saloon. It’s a chameleon for all our different markets. I think it’s going to be so successful.

How is the C Class going to distinguish itself in a market led by the fast-growing Nordic brands and other well established builders who have been in this sector for a while?

The fundamentals of a Princess are that it must work, and having a soft, dry ride is an absolute prerequisite. We looked at whether we should have a vertical stem, but we felt that wasn’t for us for those reasons.

Also, we wanted it to look like a Princess because it must reflect the appeal that our brand has globally, having spent 60 years building those brand values. Then we wanted it to reflect the levels of fit and finish quality that’s also familiar with Princess. It had to have the same level of craftsmanship.

CGI of the C48 Open with outboard engines

So, it’s not just a walkaround dayboat; it has a high-quality interior with either one or two cabins. The single-cabin version has a convertible berth forward and a proper walk-in bathroom. I’m tall so I’m the crash test dummy for ceiling heights and bed lengths. It satisfies all those boxes. We’re doing it in a Princess way, and we think that will differentiate us from the competition.

Olesinski is our traditional naval architect partner, and we’re working with them on the exterior design. However, it’s our first outboard-powered boat, so we’re working with Michael Peters, and using his patented Stepped Vee Ventilated Tunnel (SVVT) hull.

With the combination of Princess, Olesinski and Michael Peters, three strong names in the industry, customers will have the confidence to know that it’s going to be a great boat.

In 2025, during Princess’s 60th anniversary, the brand debuted the F58 at Dusseldorf and V65 at Cannes. How did these models evolve?

With the F58, if you go on the neighbouring boat, F55, and you step from one to the other, the improvements in technology, resin infusion and structural glass have enabled us to make more of the space, so it feels like a much bigger boat. Also, the F58 incorporates features and benefits that perhaps the other similar-sized boats didn’t have, so gives customers a reason to upgrade.

The V65, which shares the same platform as the F65 and S65

Meanwhile, the V65 followed the F65 (2022) and S65 (2024) to complete the 65ft model line-up, all sharing the same platform.

Since the X95 was launched in the summer of 2020, the X Class has given a new face to Princess, underlined by the X80 in 2022 and with the X90 to come. Is it still a key range for you?

Yes, it’s fundamental. It has become a staple, like the Y Class, F Class, S Class and V Class. Even the S Class (of sportbridge yachts) is not as old as it seems. It was an invention during the global financial crisis and now it’s fundamental. The X Class will be the same. It’s not a fashion, it’s a staple.

We’re now well into 40-plus units of the 95 (a platform shared between the X95 and Y95), with X95 accounting for maybe two-thirds of those, having started earlier. The X80 has also been a phenomenal success. The shared platform strategy we adopted is really working for us.

A Princess X95 at the Phuket Rendezvous in 2024

It seems obvious to have a hull work for different models, but to make it work successfully is extremely challenging. If you look at the X80 and Y80, look how different they are, then look at the S80, which has a whole different expectation of performance. The centre of flotation is completely different.

It’s almost unbelievable that our engineering development team has made those three boats work on the same fundamental hull shape and engineering systems. It’s something we’re incredibly proud of.

With the larger Princess yachts produced at the South Yard, where will you build the 106 Odyssey that you announced at the 2025 Monaco Yacht Show?

It’s a bit of a jigsaw, but we’ll build the first 106 Odyssey at South Yard. Fundamentally, though, to deliver the Odyssey programme, we will need to invest to extend the factories there. We have lots of space.

Princess revealed plans to build the 106 Odyssey

At South Yard, we still have the 18th-century Ropery building, which we use to assemble and test full-size wooden mock-ups of each deck of an upcoming model. It’s a unique asset.

As well as Boat Lagoon Yachting, which has represented Princess in Southeast Asia since 1994, your dealers in Asia also include Princess Yachts Hong Kong.

Princess is very fortunate because it’s a strong brand with probably one of the best product ranges in the business, so we attract some of the best distributors in the business.

We’re careful in selecting the right partner because it’s the other key element of the recipe: we must develop the best boats and deliver the best customer experience. Princess Yachts Hong Kong recently exhibited a newly arrived Y72 at the Hong Kong International Boat Show [in December 2025].

A Princess Y72 arrived in Hong Kong in late 2025

As well as Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, there’s also the Gulf market, where most boats go into Dubai. It’s a significant market, often for the larger boats. One of the reasons for Princess developing bigger yachts again is that we can see the success that other brands are having in boats built to class, and we feel there are Princess customers that want a bigger Princess, in that 100ft-plus range.

Saudi Arabia sounds interesting and you can’t question the commitment and the investment, but there’s not a lot of new boats, infrastructure and destinations today. Do I believe it will happen? Absolutely. If you asked me to say when, I couldn’t answer the question. Whereas in the Gulf, Dubai is happening today.

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