YBAA U 2026 | Wednesday, July 15
Meet the YBAA University Presenters!
Courtney Chalmers
Courtney Chalmers is Chief Brand & Communications Officer with 25 years in the boating industry, spanning Boat Trader, YachtWorld, and boats.com.
She specializes in brand strategy and product marketing, leading global initiatives that drive growth for brokers, OEMs, and dealers while building strong industry partnerships. Throughout her career, Courtney has launched new businesses, built marketing teams, and developed programs that deliver measurable results. She has been recognized as one of Boating Industry’s Movers & Shakers, a Top 40 Under 40 honoree, and part of Women Making Waves.
Jason Dunbar
Jason Dunbar was raised in Ohio near Lake Erie and graduated from Heidelberg University. He moved to Miami in 1992, where he began his maritime career as a delivery captain and yacht broker at the Miami Beach Marina. In 1996, Jason joined Andrew Cilla at Luke Brown Yachts in Fort Lauderdale, where he specialized in yacht sales and valuations, eventually becoming a co-owner of LBY.
Following the sale of Luke Brown Yachts in 2020, Jason partnered with SAMS marine engineering surveyor Mark Geddis of Patton Marine to form Vessel Value Survey, a Condition and Value Survey firm specializing in Build Contracts and Milestone Inspections, along with Insurance, Finance, Maritime Litigation, Donation, & Importation Values. Over the past six years, VVS has expanded to include additional surveyors and continues to serve clients worldwide with trusted expertise in yacht valuation and condition assessment.
Garrett Schwartz
Since 2010, Garrett Schwartz has been at the forefront of technology in the yacht brokerage industry, helping shape many of the platforms that power today’s marine marketplace. He has collaborated with hundreds of brokerages, north American yacht broker associations, technology partners, and advertisers to bring yacht listings to a global audience.
Under his leadership, Garrett and his team have developed APIs, integrations and websites for more than 300 brokerages, alongside custom CRM systems, behavioral analytics, and document management solutions designed to streamline operations for brokerages of all sizes.
As founders of the YachtOne platform, Garrett and Domagoj are pioneering the application of artificial intelligence in yacht search and marketing—introducing AI-driven discovery tools that modernize how buyers explore inventory, improve brokerage efficiency, and transform a traditionally tedious search process into an intelligent, answer-driven experience.
Domagoj Lalk Vidović
Domagoj Lalk Vidović is a senior software engineer turned entrepreneur focused on building technology that modernizes traditional industries. After years of developing software tools and founding Second Brain, he met Garrett Schwartz and recognized an opportunity in the marine industry: to bring a more unified, intelligent technology experience to yacht brokerages. Together, they founded the YachtOne platform.
Today, YachtOne is Domagoj’s primary venture — an all-in-one operating system purpose-built for modern yacht brokerages. Combining bespoke websites designed for the AI era (optimized for discoverability across Google and AI search), an AI Search Concierge that reimagines traditional yacht search through conversational, answer-driven discovery, and an integrated backend spanning CRM, inventory, deal pipelines, API integration, and visitor analytics. YachtOne helps brokerages operate with greater efficiency and scale. Domagoj leads product and engineering as the company expands across the marine industry.
Liz Walz
A 26-year veteran of the marine industry, Liz Walz has spent the past 13 years serving and supporting marine dealer success and excellence at the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA). During this time, she has focused on developing results-based education and training products, services and systems for retail owners, managers and employees.
Liz brings passion and experience to solving dealer pain points and improving performance by developing first-class education and professional development opportunities. During her time at MRAA, her work has included key roles in the development and evolution of Dealer Week education, the MRAA Industry Summit education, the Marine Industry Certified Dealership program, the Continuous Certification curriculum, the MRAA Resource Center, Spotlight, Ask the Expert webinars, the MRAA’s Position Specific Certification program, the MRAA Succession Planning Toolkit, MRAA Mastermind Groups, the MRAA Educational Foundation, and more.
Thank You, Sponsors!
