Joining Burgess in 2003, today Georgina heads up Burgess’ Sustainability Programme. She is an international rower and co-authored a Discussion Paper on the Monitoring and Evaluation of UN-assisted Communication for Development Programmes, which was presented at the 11th UN InterAgency Round Table held in Washington in 2009. She became a Partner in 2018.

Georgina joined Burgess in 2003 after completing a degree in Modern European Studies and an MA in International Relations. She first worked in charter (management and retail) before taking several years out of her Burgess career to train and race full time for Great Britain as part of its hugely successful Olympic rowing squad. She subsequently worked for a solar energy start-up alongside Clinton Foundation alumni developing large-scale solar energy power plants in the Mediterranean rim and Europe.

After a temporary stint in operational management, she re-joined Burgess as a Central Agency sales broker working on campaigns for yachts, including one of her favourites of all time, the 59m Schweers-built SENSES, a true go-anywhere explorer.

In 2012, Georgina took over the management of OceanStyle by Burgess, overseeing its full integration into the Burgess brand, before working alongside Jean-Marc Poullet to launch Burgess in Asia. ‘I was the interface between Burgess HQ, our global operations and Burgess in Asia,’ she says. ‘Establishing a new division in a region that was relatively new to yachting, certainly as we in the west understand it, presented a lot of challenges, but it was a phenomenal learning experience and a great opportunity to work alongside Jean-Marc.’

The success of embedding the Burgess brand into Asia was then replicated by Georgina in Dubai and Sydney as part of a larger regional business development role. In this capacity, she worked on integrating the company’s smaller offices, such as Athens and Palma, into the global Burgess operation.

Today, Georgina’s primary role is as founder and head of Burgess’ ambitious Sustainability Programme. ‘As an industry, there is tremendous potential for change, and part of that is acknowledging the challenges that we face and doing something about them,’ she says. ‘To own that narrative helps to shift traditional mindsets, and that’s when the work can begin. We have a fantastic platform at Burgess to impact social and environmental issues, but it’s up to every one of us to make that happen. It won’t happen overnight but it’s our responsibility to get the job done.’