Making waves
A dream job rarely falls in your lap, as Ellie Malouf, head of luxury yacht chartering outfit Ahoy Club, well knows. Along with her sister and mother, she leads a global family business, grown with vision, love and very hard work. By Natalie Reilly.
Ellie’s mother, Larissa, is head of strategy, while her younger sister, Lara, who is 19 this month, works part-time as a charter assistant while finishing her studies at university.
It’s a balance the three women take in their stride. “Lara’s main focus is the Australian market,” says Ellie, who holds a business management degree. “Mum is more about the big picture stuff.” Indeed, Larissa is currently overseeing the refurbishment of their latest acquisition – the $60 million, 72-metre superyacht Coral Ocean, which comes complete with a sunken pool on deck, and a self-contained gym and spa.
Ellie speaks assuredly about the company breaking new ground in an industry predominantly made up of middle-aged men. “Before Ahoy Club, if you wanted to buy or charter a luxury yacht you didn’t know who to call or who to trust,” she says. “Now you’ve got over 3,500 in one place – you can hire or buy a yacht from anywhere in the world. We’ve made it a lot more accessible and transparent. It used to take months to secure a booking, but with us, it can now take a day.”
Ellie’s cool determination might have something to do with her father, Ian Malouf, who established the highly successful waste management business Bingo Industries and is still managing director of Ahoy Club. “We are a lot alike,” says Ellie, who gets up early every weekday morning to exercise ahead of what can sometimes add up to an 18-hour day spent meeting clients and liaising with people on the other side of the world. “We both have that entrepreneurial spirit, the same sort of mind for business; it’s in our DNA.” Growing up watching her father had an enormous influence on her, as did her environment.
The family has always loved the water, and Ellie remembers a childhood spent sailing around the Mediterranean and, closer to home, the Sydney Harbour, playing competitive water sports with her brothers Ed, 22, and teenaged twins Jack and Max.
In 2015, the family sold their 22-metre yacht and stepped onto a 54-metre Baglietto (the famed Italian superyacht builders), branding her Mischief, their first boat to sail the Mediterranean. The vessel also ended up hosting an intimate soirée as part of Vogue Australia’s 60th anniversary celebrations in Sydney last year, welcoming onboard British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful alongside some of Australia’s most eminent designers as they took in the sights.
It is characteristic of the type of once-in-a-lifetime moments Malouf knows are shared on all the yachts. “The experiences on board are second to no other holiday,” says Ellie, “but we did see a lot of gaps in the pre- and post-charter experience, as well as the owner’s experience” – opportunities she then fed into the business.
Although the industry is about luxury of the top order, Ellie is never complacent and recognises that she’s privileged in her role to be working as well as pursuing a passion. “I’m extremely lucky I get to do what I love every day surrounded by the people I love,” she says.
The family still discusses things together, too. “We test ideas around the dinner table, see these ideas come to life and watch the business grow together,” she says. “It’s basically 24/7 commitment, though I will squeeze in a glass of bubbles from time to time.”
For more information on Ahoy Club, go to www.ahoyclub.com.
“We test ideas around the dinner table, see these ideas come to life and watch the business grow together”