I started looking at what I was paying the brokers and
thought, maybe I should get into that business as well," Hudson muses.
Realizing he didn’t really know the brokerage business, he
bought a two-year-old company called International Yacht Collection. Eight
years later, IYC has 45 employees and offices in St. Maarten, Monaco, Nassau,
Newport and Palm Beach. In May, he sold the company to Trinity Yachts for an
undisclosed sum.
Top: The galley and dining area. Bottom: A family portrait. (Click images to enlarge)
While the physical trappings of his lifestyle suggest
considerable affluence, Hudson is an affable, approachable guy with a
ready smile and the beginnings of a mid-life goatee. He walks with a limp, the
result of a serious hunting accident two years ago. His father, Harris "Whit"
Hudson, ad he are very close, through their business ventures as well as
their family time. He is the nephew of Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami
Dolphins and an accomplished businessman with a legendary Midas touch. He says
his father and his uncle have proved great role models.
"I’ve always been around business leaders—my father, my
uncle—all my business career," he says. "I’ve concluded you can’t stand
still. You’ve got to continue to build. Either you go out and acquire or
somebody comes in and acquires you."
The sale of IYC to Trinity was unplanned and unexpected,
but fortuitous, Hudson says. Had the sale not happened, the next logical
expansion of the business would have been to get into yachtbuilding. A deeper
commitment, though, would have put him on the road more than he would have
liked, away from his wife and young children.
"They were looking to vertically integrate downward, and I was
looking to vertically integrate upward," he says of Trinity Yachts.
The Trinity deal will allow him to focus on building other
businesses—an activity he loves. Towering above all else, though, is a
commitment to his family, both immediate and extended. His marriage and
fatherhood and the hunting accident helped him sort out his priorities. Prior to
the Trinity sale, Hudson had been roughly splitting his time between IYC and
the family real estate holding company, Hudson Capital Group. His plan had been
to dial back a bit and smell the roses on the Lazzara with his wife of
three-and-a-half years, Jeannie, and his children, ages one and two.
As a bachelor he owned a number of small, fast boats including
several center-console runabouts, but those boats weren’t appropriate for the
kind of boating experience he wants his family to share. He loves to go fast,
but he needed something with more amenities.
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