Seattle-native to lead NYM based boat company

Contributed photo
Jeromie Johnston has recently been named as the new President of Lund Boats. The new president takes over for Lenn Scholz, who was recently named as the President of Boston Whaler.

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Lenn Scholz, who was the previous president of Lund Boats, was recently appointed to the same position at Boston Whaler, making way for a new president to join the community. Now in his fourth week transitioning into the role of president at Lund Boats, Jeromie Johnston is still learning the ropes of his new position at the New York Mills facility.

“Lenn and the team have been welcoming,” said Johnston. “I think the transition, maybe not seamless because I’m still learning, but it has been great. Whenever you have the opportunity to take the hand off from the previous president, that’s an opportunity that not everybody gets in this role.”

Johnston most previously worked at Tideman Marine based out of Hoorne in the Netherlands. The company is almost 10 years old and was working with United Plastic Fabricating to launch their boats into the North American market.

“That was kicked off a year and a half ago,” said Johnston. “It’s a little different space, it’s more targeted towards the work boat market, but still very much within the marine industry. My first big show was the International Work Boat Show in New Orleans, that was last November and December.”

Johnston has been staying in Detroit Lakes and his family currently lives north of Green Bay, Wisc., but will all be relocating to the NY Mills area. The family is no stranger to moving, as Johnston has lived all over the country, though new to Minnesota.

“The area is beautiful,” he said. “The amount of lakes, the atmosphere, especially joining in the summer has been excellent.”

“I’m from the Seattle area originally,” continued Johnston. “I grew up more on the salt-water boating side. I grew up around some non-Brunswick brands—Grady-White and Reinell boats—so I experienced salmon and halibut fishing. After growing up and going to school at the University of Washington, my wife and I moved to Memphis, Tennessee and we got to experience blues and barbecue, which I really hadn’t growing up in the Northwest. We had a boat, at that time it was a Chaparral, and we did some crappie and bass fishing in northern Mississippi. I’ve lived in Owensboro, Kentucky and we spent a fair amount of time living in Omaha, Nebraska as well.”

Prior to his work in the marine industry, Johnston worked for Oshkosh Corporation at one of their subsidiary companies, Pierce Manufacturing, which is the largest firetruck manufacturer in North America.

“I worked there for over a decade,” said Johnston. “I headed up strategy and business development. I led a good portion of that business of Pierce. It’s obviously not the boating industry, but Pierce is highly engineered product, sold through a dealer network, and really, they won through innovation, having the best service and sales network in North America and having a really strong team. I see a lot of similarities between Pierce and what Lund is doing, really New York Mills in general, Crestliner included.”

When Johnston isn’t busy at work, he can be found on the golf course or out on the water in his free time, pastimes he shares with his wife and children.

“Playing golf and watching my daughter play golf, I spend a lot of time doing that,” he said. “My wife never misses one of her tournaments, so she’s all over the state of Wisconsin and oftentimes different states too. I do a little bit of fly fishing and I’m excited about getting into walleye fishing as well. Getting in a Lund boat and learning the craft of walleye fishing is definitely in my future.”

Johnston said that he and his wife like to visit small towns and “authentic locales” of which he mentioned there are plenty of in this area to choose from while he gets to know the community and his team members, something which he is eager to do.

“I think my excitement is continuing the legacy that Lund has built over the last 75 years,” he said. “I think staying true to the brand, but then looking to see where else can we take the innovation of Lund? It could be new markets, development and unique products, but doing all of that while not diverging from what really makes a Lund a Lund.”

“I’m looking forward to getting to know the entire team at NY Mills and then more broadly in the community as well,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to getting to know the entire, broader community and how best Lund and the NY Mills facility can further collaborate with local leaders. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the team.”