Birgit Schnaase is becoming the first female Chair of the DAME Award Jury!

Bill Dixon steps down after a decade of successfully leading the Jury Birgit Schnaase succeeds Bill Dixon, who expressed the wish to step down following METSTRADE last year, after completing a successful decade chairing the Jury. Birgit was then approached to take on the role, because of her very valuable insights and leadership skills on the DAME Jury since 2012. Her 22 years of experience as an engineer and interior designer working on notable yacht, aircraft and house interior design projects will be much valued as she chairs the Jury from 2017.

“I was very honoured to be asked to take this role,” Birgit states. “METSTRADE is the most important show worldwide for marine products and the DAME Awards is the only competition I know that does not just look at whether a product is beautiful. It assesses every aspect of its design, such as durability, innovation, functionality and whether it is likely to work well for the end user. This is important in a challenging world of changing customer expectation.

“I did take some time to consider the role before agreeing,” Birgit continues, “but in truth I could not say no. I have long stated that there should be more females working in the field of yacht and Superyacht building, because women massively influence buying decisions across the marine market. We need more people involved who understand female preferences, so that they can appropriately shape our products and designs. This is my mantra and I hope that the organiser’s decision to invite me to become Jury Chair for the world’s highest profile marine design competition will encourage many more women to join the sector.”

(Press release METSTRADE / Dame Awards)