Ciao Carlo

When Carlo and his partners in Italyachting set out to purchase a stake in Fraser Yachts in 1992, it was a huge step into the unknown. Globalization was almost unheard of and, if anything, American companies were taking over foreign companies, not the other way around.

Italy was in the middle of a nationwide corruption scandal, Mani pulite, which had seen rivers of dark money flowing between the powerful and the wealthy. The lack of checks and balances made yacht brokerage a prime suspect for illicit transactions and effectively shut down the brokerage business countrywide.

Italyachting, which Carlo Agliardi had set up with his long-term partners Alex Mazzoni and Antonio Pozzi and where he met his beloved second wife Loredana Deambrosis, was riding high. Carlo had just closed two deals, the first on the construction of the 43m exploration yacht Maupiti, a huge transaction for the time. Under construction by Amels, Maupiti featured dynamic positioning and diesel electric propulsion which were absolutely revolutionary in the 1990s. The second, the new construction of the 38m Christensen Fifty-one, was negotiated with Fraser Yachts’ Jane Buffington, who represented the yard.

Although the two deals launched Italyachting onto the international scene, the company’s survival was in doubt blighted by the stormy economic and political climate at home. They needed an exit strategy. It came with a move to Monaco which was developing into the yachting capital of the Mediterranean and the later establishment of United Yachting partnering with a local brokerage company.

A gifted broker, Carlo excelled as a strategist and entrepreneur and the move to Monaco provided the scope he needed to blossom. Within a year, he had negotiated the purchase of the Fort Lauderdale branch of Fraser Yachts. One brilliant move and some creative financial engineering had positioned Fraser as a market leader and the only brokerage house to have a strong presence on both sides of the Atlantic.

The move was greeted with mixed feelings by the Americans – who were these Italians taking over an American business?  But as always, Carlo thrived on a challenge. Driven, focused and not suffering fools gladly, he took the bull by the horns with a dual purpose: to channel the new opportunities created by the buoyant international market and to develop a company culture based on the strengths of its new transatlantic identity.  And he was hands on about the process. First among brokerage houses, Fraser established yacht management and charter management and crew placement divisions to promote the company as a ‘one stop shop’ to yacht owners. He was instrumental to setting up MYBA and giving it teeth, including the original drafts of the MOA and MYBA charter contracts and lobbied on the industry’s behalf.

In 1999, Carlo and Fraser Yacht’s founder, David Fraser, merged all Fraser Yachts businesses into one company called Fraser Yachts Worldwide.  Ahead of his time, Carlo saw technology as a means to unite the company and was the driving force behind the design of Fraser’s in-house CRM, fondly named FLINK, the gold standard in its day. Carlo still managed to do the odd brokerage deal himself but, most importantly, he put his vision and skills at the service of his brokers, agreeing strategy and tactics with them. He was exacting but would back his trusted team to the hilt to conclude a deal fairly and he always strived to ensure they had his support in terms of resources, good marketing, training and IT.

There were challenges, and quite a few of them. Whether he lost or won, Carlo always stood up to be counted and tried to handle differences with an even hand and without losing sight of his strategic goals. He alienated a few people on the way but also engendered the respect of his core team of brokers whom he always recognized as being instrumental to Fraser’s success. The respect was mutual.

In 2004, Carlo negotiated the sale of the company to Azimut Benetti, including a minority stake to V-Ships. It was the deal of a lifetime but at the same time bittersweet. He stayed on with Fraser, first as CEO then president until 2010 when, true to himself, Carlo focused all his energy on a new project: an organic vegetable farm in Tuscany with olive groves and vineyards. But Fraser Yachts always remained his most cherished achievement.

Fraser has more than doubled in size since Carlo left but his vision remains central to the company’s structure and its success. Carlo embraced his new role, but he truly enjoyed it when friends and former colleagues stopped by his farm in Tuscany to enjoy Lory’s splendid cooking and reminisce over dinner, with the same digs, prods and parries, and perhaps a bit too much of Carlo’s delicious Tuscan wine!!

Ciao Carlo

Carlo Agliardi, 1950-2025