Board of Directors

Who Manages BWI…

The Association is managed by a nine-member volunteer Board of Directors with an Executive Director providing administrative support and member committees focused on areas of interest. Here are the current officers and directors:

President

Ben Stein… is editor of Panbo.com covering the marine electronics industry. He also serves as electronics editor for Power & Motoryacht and Passamaker magazines and is a regular contributor to Soundings. After 15 years in financial services technology, he left the corporate world to pursue his passion in boating. A USCG 100 Ton Master and ABYC certified marine electrical technician, Ben has completed the Great Loop and cruised actively for many years. Ben serves as co-chair of the judging process for NMMA’s Innovation Awards.

First Vice President

Adam Quandt… serves as the editor-in-chief of Boating Industry covering all aspects and all segments of the trade side of the recreational boating industry. In addition to editorial content, he serves as the program director for all of the Boating Industry Top 100 Awards including the Top Dealers, 40 Under 40, Women Making Waves and Movers & Shakers. Though not born into the marine industry like many others, he’s quickly developed a passion for all things boating over the last five years. When not working, Adam can be found out on the water when Minnesota weather allows or out snowboarding in the winter months. 

Second Vice President

Steve Davis … started sailing at seven years old in northwest Michigan. Raising his 15-month old son as a single parent in Lake Tahoe, he began sailing the J24 race circuit beginning with the Nationals in Miami and culminating at the World Championships in San Francisco. He became a USCG licensed 100-ton master (sail and power) in Tahoe and served as a charter captain in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands as well as a delivery captain along the Pacific coast. His publishing work began as writer and editor for K-12 educational textbooks and moved to boating as managing editor of Dockwalk, a superyacht captain and crew publication before stepping up to editor-in-chief of Southern Boating magazine. He has served as a judge for the BWI writing contest for the last five years.

Board of Directors

Ron Ballanti

Ron Ballanti… is a freelance writer and photographer and president of Strike Zone Communications, a marketing communications agency based in Chatsworth, CA specializing in the boating, marine electronics, fishing and outdoor markets. He has been a regular editiorial contributor to marine publications for more than 25 years, including Boating, BoatU.S., Salt Water Sportsman, Sport Fishing, Anglers Journal, Soundings, Western Outdoor News, Pacific Coast Sportfishing and others.Ballanti has routinely chaired and judged BWI Writing Contest categories and has earned nine Writing Awards. He is currently serving on the BWI Scholarship Committee.

Alan Jones… has been a marine journalist for 27 years and during that time he’s tested more than 1,000 boats and has been the on-camera talent in more than 600 video walkthroughs. After a 24-year stint as executive editor for Boating WorldMagazine, he’s now a freelancer, writing for magazines such as Boating and Soundings Trade Only and also writing blogs for numerous websites.
Jones writes on a wide variety of topics including boats, engines, lifestyle, breaking technology, watersports, fishing, travel, humor, gear tests, the business of boating, and industry trends.
A former president of Boating Writers International, Jones has been a judge for the NMMA’s Innovation Awards on numerous occasions. A longtime Florida man, he currently lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and spends his spare time chasing redfish on the St. Johns River.

Kim Koditek… serves as the Head of Content Marketing for Boatsetter, overseeing the integrated, multi-channel content strategy and execution for both the Supply and Demand segments of the marketplace. Kim previously served as NMMA/Discover Boating’s Director of Content Marketing for three years, following her time at Boats Groups as the Content Coordinator and then Digital Editor, managing the editorial and video content for its three online marketplaces: boats.com, Boat Trader and YachtWorld. A millennial, she has been an active BWI member since 2016 when she first joined the marine industry as a working professional, and served as one of the 2019 Miami International Boat Show Innovation Awards judges.

A lifelong boater and current Virginia Beach resident, Kim can be found cruising Virginia’s coastal waters on her Yamaha WaveRunner or wakeboarding behind her family’s Sea Ray on Lake Anna, Va.

Pete McDonald… 

Currently, Pete is the executive editor of Boating Magazine, having twice served long stints on staff. He started at Boating in 1998 and worked there until 2009, then spent two years freelancing before rejoining the Boating staff in 2011. As a freelancer, he wrote for over a dozen top titles and also published a fly fishing book called The Blitz: Fly Fishing the Atlantic Migration in 2011.

Pete has been active in BWI since 1999, serving as an Innovation Award Judge at the Miami International Boat Show, and volunteering as a writing contest judge almost every year. In addition, he has won 17 BWI writing awards over the years.

Lenny Rudow… has been a writer and editor in the marine field for over two decades, and has authored seven books. He is currently the Angler in Chief at Rudow’s FishTalk Magazine, is Electronics and Fishing Editor for BoatU.S. Magazine, and is a contributing editor to several other publications. His writing has resulted in 45 BWI writing contest and two OWAA Excellence in Craft awards. Volunteer positions have included NMMA Innovations Award judging and serving as the president of the Maryland Freshwater Foundation. Rudow is an alumnus of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology, and The Sea School. He boats and fishes as often as possible on the Chesapeake Bay and in the Atlantic Ocean.

Immediate Past President

Brady Kay

Brady Kay…  is the executive editor of Pontoon & Deck Boat magazine and has been at the helm of this publication for nearly 20 years. During his tenure, Brady has tested and reviewed countless pontoon and deck boats, traveled to all 50 states for feature profiles and has taken thousands of photos. He also currently oversees Houseboat magazine and Great Lakes Boating magazine, sister publications at Harris Publishing, and has also contributed to Boating Sportsman and RiverJet magazines, which primarily focused on the aluminum boat market. Brady has been on the judging panel for the NMMA Innovation Awards several times and has earned writing and photography awards from Apex Awards for Publication Excellence and BWI. When not working, Brady can be found onboard his pontoon boat with his wife and three children.

Executive Director, Secretary, and Treasurer

Zuzana Prochazka… is a freelance boating/travel journalist and photographer as well founder of Zescapes, an operator of bareboat flotilla vacations at exotic destinations around the world. She serves as charter editor for SAIL magazineand is a regular contributor of technical and destination articles for Marine Electronics Journal, Southern Boating, Multihull Sailor, Spinsheet, Boats.com, Pacific Yachting, Yachting Times and others Her work has also appeared in Passagemaker and Canadian Boating magazines as well as on various online publications including Boats.com.

A USCG 100 Ton Master, Zuzana has cruised, and chartered in many parts of the world and serves as an international presenter on charter destinations and technical topics. She is the Chair of the New Product Awards committee, judging innovative boats and gear, a former BWI board president.