Halley And Miller Out Of Mercury Racing – Speed on the Water
Mercury Racing general manager Stuart Halley and director of customer experience Steve Miller were released yesterday from the Fond du Lac, Wis., high-performance marine engine and accessories company. Halley confirmed that he and Miller are no longer with the company this morning.
“They decided to make the business more efficient and eliminate positions they don’t need,” said Halley. “This is a business. If you are going to run a company you have to run it as efficiently as you can.”
Stuart Halley (center) became the general manager of the company in 2018. Photo by Cole McGowan copyright Powerboat P1.
The move, according to multiple sources, is part of a reorganization at Mercury Marine and Brunswick, its publicly traded parent company. For decades, Mercury Racing ran as a separate business unit rather than a division of Mercury Marine. With the ongoing reorganization of Mercury Marine and Mercury Racing, that structure has changed and made the positions of Halley and Miller redundant.
“Quite honestly, I am in a great position,” said Halley. “I am 61 years old and was getting toward retirement age anyway. I have a great family no debt and a new car I enjoy. My wife has been incredibly supportive. And I slept in today for the first time in a while.”
Though Mercury Marine did not address the departures of Halley and Miller this morning, the company did issue a release announcing that Mercury Racing director of engineering Jeff Broman has been named director of the “Mercury Racing category.”
“Jeff has been a leader at Mercury for 20 years, most recently serving as the director of engineering for Racing,” the release stated. “Jeff will oversee Mercury Racing’s product portfolio while leveraging the award-winning capabilities afforded by Mercury’s global scale and expertise in R&D, sales, PD&E, marketing and more. This change in structure is reflective of our continued commitment to the Mercury Racing brand, our passionate and dedicated customers and our commitment to continuing to provide award-winning products and services to the racing and high-performance market around the world.”
A longtime Mercury Marine employ/group leader who started with the company as an engineer, Halley took on the role of general manager at Mercury Racing in 2018. (He replaced outgoing general manager Erik Christianson, the current president of Cigarette Racing Team.)
Steve Miller (center) was celebrating his 30th year as a Mercury Marine/Mercury Racing employee.
Miller worked in sales and marketing for Mercury Marine for almost 22 years before moving to Mercury Racing in 2015 to lead those efforts. This year is his 30th as an employee of the Brunswick-held companies. (Miller could not be reached for comment when this story went live.)
Halley learned of his ousting yesterday morning, as did Miller. The news didn’t stay long within the Mercury Racing walls, and by the afternoon he had received dozens of calls from industry colleagues, customers and friends from around the world.
“Overall, I had a great 30 years at Mercury,” he said. “There are not a lot of people who get the privilege to do what I got to do. I got to play in the sandbox and help create amazing products people love. How many people can say that?”
Mercury Racing is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
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