Mark Stothard is a director of WA companies Echo Yachts, Evolution Commercial and North Star Cruises Australia. An aircraft engineer by trade, Mark has been a part of the marine industry since the late 1970s, involved in the sales and builds of over 400 vessels up to 84 metres in length. He was a founding director of Image Marine, which became the third largest company in Australia’s aluminium shipbuilding industry. After Image Marine’s sale to Austal in 1998, Mark led its expansion through a key role in sales and marketing. After leaving Austal, he ran a consultancy business, where he wrote a tender for the Venetian Casino team for the supply of 14 x 47.5m 42.5 knot ferries for operations between Hong Kong and Macau, the largest ferry contract in the fast ferry industry. Mark is a director of cruise company North Star Cruises Australia, which owns the awarded cruise vessel, the 50 metre True North. He joined with Jurien Van Rongen to establish Evolution Commercial in 2010. The two men were also founding shareholders of superyacht builder Echo Yachts in 2014.
