When Michael Campbell steps down at the end of this month as president of the Northwest Marine Trade Association, he plans to step straight onto his boat, the Beneteau 411, Butterscotch. A couple of months sailing seems an appropriate reward for 10 years at the helm of the NMTA.

It’s been a particularly productive 10 years. When Campbell joined the NMTA in 1999, the organization was grappling with a $1 million debt and declining membership. Under his leadership, debt was eliminated, membership grew at a steady 4 percent per year and the Seattle Boat Show doubled in size. Equally significant was a shift in attitudes.

“What Michael did for the NMTA was to change the way we as members think about what our association does for us,” said Bill Baker, owner of Bakes Marine Center and a former NMTA board chair.

These days, the organization is about far more than just putting on a boat show.

“We want to get together and ask, ‘Can we save money on our healthcare, can we communicate better about challenges in the industry, can we fight city hall or work with the legislature?’” said Campbell. “Can we share best management practices? … and how do we actually grow this industry? Because—it’s the worst cliché—but a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Such thinking is characteristic of Campbell, according to Steve Greaves, chairman of the Washington Boating Alliance. “He takes a problem and wrestles with it, and finds a solution, and then pushes that solution,” said Greaves. “There aren’t many people like that.”

It’s an attitude that characterizes Campbell’s earlier career, too. A former professional racecar driver, he moved into sports promotions and for six years was president of the Sports and Events Council of Seattle/King County. That was “the most exciting time for the business of sports in Seattle’s history,” Campbell said: the city was trying to save the Mariners, Sonics and Seahawks, and was on the verge of agreeing to replace the Kingdome with Qwest Field and Safeco Field.

Campbell enjoyed wrestling solutions out of that quagmire of controversial issues. The biggest challenge, he said, was “building a consensus among voters, because ultimately it went to the ballot box.”

Campbell is credited for doubling the size of the Seattle Boat Show and fostering collaboration within the boating industry.

Building consensus was a cornerstone of the work he undertook next at the NMTA. In particular, he led the effort to calm the long-held animosity between the NMTA and rival organization the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association, which resulted in joint marketing of the Seattle Boat Show and Boats Afloat Show in 2004.

Campbell had hoped the two organizations might merge, which didn’t happen. While cooperation between them “never came as close as my vision,” Campbell said, he nonetheless considers bringing the industry closer together as his best accomplishment as president.

The NMTA’s participation in the national Grow Boating Program works on the same principle. Campbell has asked enough questions of enough business owners to know that competitors in the marine industry have much in common. Promoting boating benefits everyone, and a small surcharge on exhibit space at the Seattle Boat Show for NMTA members has provided the budget for advertising, events and promotions since 2003.

Some of the initiatives have been fantastically wacky. For one boat show, the NMTA flew in a New York lawyer who promised to build a Chris-Craft replica in Lego bricks—provided he was given 200,000 bricks to play with. At another, visitors offered to stand at the show in water skis 24 hours a day, on the agreement that whoever stood the longest would win a ski boat.

The latest promotion is one Campbell, 63, describes as “as good a push as anyone’s come up with in the country, so far as I know.” This summer, 12 local families will win the use of a Cobalt 222 powerboat for a week by entering a contest hosted by the “Evening Magazine” television show. Entering the contest requires filling out a form on SeattleBoatShow.com, which helps drive traffic to a site that is being grown into an effective sales tool for NMTA members.

Working to present boating as “something that’s attractive, that’s aspirational, that’s rewarding” comes naturally to Campbell. Hearing him enthuse about his weekend sail to Port Madison with children and grandchildren aboard, it’s clear that when he says, “Life just gets better on a boat,” he really means it.

After leaving the NMTA at the end of June, Campbell plans to do some sailing on his boat, Butterscotch. Photo by Emily Mansfield.

Of course, inspiring people to get into boating is only part of the job; standing up for members’ interests is just as important. One of the first things Campbell did after joining the NMTA was to hire Cliff Webster as lobbyist for the marine industry in Olympia. Webster credits Campbell for understanding both that trade association members want their leaders to get involved in government affairs on their behalf, and that change requires a voice from the marine industry itself as well as the lobbyists.

“As president of a trade association, you are the eyes, ears and voice of the industry,” Webster said. “(Campbell) has clearly been outstanding in this role.”

Key legislative issues during Campbell’s tenure have included making boater education mandatory, negotiating between the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and Department of Ecology over boatyard stormwater regulations, and pushing for a state office of boating.

“There’s work still to be done,” Campbell insists. “But if there wasn’t work still to be done, then why would it be fun for George or any other of the people working here?”

George Harris, the NMTA’s boat show director and vice president since 1999, will take over as NMTA president July 1. Campbell is upbeat about his successor.

“He’s the Rock of Gibraltar. He’s been with me all 10 years, and without him we’d be nowhere. He really makes things happen.”

And Campbell? He has several options open to him, but remains vague over which he’ll chose. “I’ll stay here, keep working … I love working. I want to make a difference,” he said.

Ten years is the longest Campbell has spent in one job, and he said it feels like time to move on.

“When I was young my dad told me, ‘Always leave a party when you’re having a good time.’ And it sounded like the stupidest thing I’d ever heard … But there’s of course so much truth to it.”

Emily Mansfield is a freelance writer and the former editor of Pacific Yachting PNW magazine.