President, Tigé Boats

Job titles record what Tigé gave Gutierrez. The boats on the water and the suppliers he brought into the boating industry record what he gave back.

Gutierrez joined Tigé Boats in 2004 as an entry-level Graphic Designer, but his connection to the company started with a genuine passion for wake boats. After graduating college, he chose a position at Tigé over a higher-paying opportunity at an agency because he wanted to build his career around the boats and an industry he was passionate about.

That decision set the course for more than two decades of leadership at Tigé. Gutierrez went on to lead marketing and product design, became Tigé’ s Chief Operating Officer in 2018 and was named President in 2020. Gutierrez’ s secret to success? Getting real.“ For me,‘ get real’ means being completely honest about where you are, where you’ re positioned, what you’ re doing well and where you’ re simply not good enough,” he says.“ You have to start with where you actually are.”

What truly sets Gutierrez apart as a leader is that he never settles. He is not someone who looks at a successful product or process and decides it is good enough. He is always asking what could be better, what could be different and what Tigé could do next.

Gutierrez’ s ambitious nature gives him the instinct to move before the category does. When GatorStep Nonskid, Wet Sounds Audio and Audison Pro-Audio were still unproven in towboats, Gutierrez gave each of them their first OEM contract. Other towboat manufacturers waited for someone else to take that risk first.

Today, all three vendors are spec’ d across the segment, including on boats that compete directly with Tigé. Those early orders gave three suppliers the volume and credibility to build real businesses in the marine industry and raised the equipment standard for every buyer in the category.

Ask what would be different if Daniel had taken the agency job in 2004, and the answer runs well past Tigé’ s own product line.

“ I’ m extremely competitive. I like to win, and I’ m proud that our team does, too,” Gutierrez says.“ But you don’ t earn the right to win by talking about it. You earn it by doing the work, building better products, improving execution, developing great people and attacking the gaps between where you are and where you want to be.”

Gutierrez has advanced the boating industry by helping make the excitement of wakesurfing and modern towboat technology accessible to more people. One of his most significant contributions was in 2019, when he led the creation and launch of ATX Surf Boats, Tigé’ s sister brand, built to give more people the opportunity to get into the sport at a more accessible price point.

He saw an opportunity to bring more boaters into wakesurfing without giving up the performance, technology and experience that make the sport exciting. Tigé has since built thousands of ATX Surf Boats.

“ With ATX, the challenge was delivering the performance, quality and experience people expect from us at a more accessible price point,” Gutierrez explains.“ That forced our entire team to think differently, from design and engineering to manufacturing, sourcing, sales and marketing. We had to determine where we could create efficiencies without compromising the things that actually matter to the customer.”

The Ultré ZX challenged the team from the opposite direction. Instead of asking how they could make a great towboat more accessible, they asked what they could create if they pushed further into performance, technology and luxury. Tigé wasn’ t interested in simply adding features and building a more expensive boat. The team wanted to create things that hadn’ t been done before and deliver an experience that genuinely moved the category forward.

“ I’ m extremely proud of both because neither happened because of one person or one great idea; they required people across this company to challenge assumptions, solve difficult problems and execute together,” Gutierrez says.“ ATX and the Ultré line serve very different customers, but the philosophy behind them is the same: understand the opportunity, know what matters to the customer, and build a product that earns its place in the market.”

Gutierrez has served as a great mentor during his time at Tigé. An example of his mentorship can be seen with Clint Howell, who joined Tigé as an entry-level engineer in 2016. Gutierrez handed him higher-level projects well before his title said he was ready for them, and Clint was promoted to senior engineer in 2022. He is now Director of Product Engineering at Syntec, a supplier serving the towboat industry, where the experience he built at Tigé benefits the entire segment.

Gutierrez’ s mentorship has never been about keeping good people in place. It has been about making sure they are ready for whatever comes next, at Tigé or somewhere else in the industry.

“ Every person in our company has taken a very hard look at ourselves over the last few years,” Gutierrez says.“ We’ ve been honest about where we needed to improve, made some difficult decisions, empowered some very exceptional people and gotten better because of it. I’ m proud of the progress, but the goal isn’ t to convince ourselves we’ re great. The goal is to keep doing the things that make us great.”