JIM OF ALL TRADES
12/18/2007 9:07:54 AM by Sandy Lindsey
Jim Dillon of Passport Marine has made quite a fitting career for himself, considering he loves everything having to do with the water and all the adventures that come along with it.
Jim Dillon wears many nautical caps: president and CEO of Passport Marine, founder and chairman of the board of the Take a Kid Boating Foundation, avid fisherman, scuba diver and proud family man.
“Take a Kid Boating is a statewide, non-profit organization dedicated to pairing children in need with families through the life-changing experience of boating,” says Dillon. “The foundation raises public awareness of the social needs of Florida’s foster care and orphan children. While there are thousands of children awaiting adoption in the state’s foster care system, many people are not even aware they exist. I believe there’s a magical connection between kids and boats, so I founded this organization in 2006 to make sure these children are not forgotten.”
He says he loves spending time on the water with the children he helps. “Watching them transform from shy and quiet to happy, excited, inquisitive kids in the company of adults is very rewarding,” he says. “As soon as they get on the boat and start interacting with the adults, they immediately come alive!”
Dillon says the past few years have seen his business plans come to equally shining fruition. “In 2003, the president of Formula Boats, Scott Porter, asked me to contact Andy Sturner, the CEO of Aqua Marine Partners, who had then just recently purchased Hi-Lift Marina in Aventura, a Formula dealership,” he says. “We quickly became friends and soon partnered, consolidating and aligning our interests.”
In 2006, Dillon took over as president and CEO of that consolidation, Passport Marine, Inc. “The Passport team has grown from a single-location dealership focused on a single brand to a national and international exclusive distributor for a number of major manufacturers.” The company currently has seven retail locations in four states and Dillon says they have grown their retail sales nearly 1,400-percent. “This year we launched a national franchise business model that we hope will revolutionize the way people buy and sell boats,” he says. “Our model preserves the best aspects of a ‘mom-and-pop’ local dealership, including personalized service based on a long-term relationship with the customer, while delivering the many benefits associated with being a part of a national network.”
You may be asking yourself how Dillon could possibly relax and get away from his weighty responsibilities. By boating, of course. “I enjoy spending time with my children,” he says. “I love to cook. I have a voracious appetite for literature, all things political, but best of all, I love to take the family boating.”
What’s more, he’s enthralled by all aspects of the water. “I love to swim in the ocean, scuba dive…I even enjoy flying a kite off the back of a boat with the kids,” he says. “I also love to fish. When you go fishing, the first thing you do is fish for bait. Watching my daughters hook up to five or six bait fish on a single line and reel them in creates an odd sense of satisfaction — as if I did something. When all I really did was share with them what my father shared with me.”