Eddie Smith Jr. preserves Grady-White Boats as a perpetual trust to ensure long-term stability and charitable impact.
Eddie Smith Jr. has transitioned the ownership of Grady-White Boats into a perpetual purpose trust to ensure the company remains independent and its future profits benefit charitable causes. After 58 years of ownership, Smith could have sold the North Carolina boatbuilder for more than $400 million, but he chose to preserve the company's culture and protect the jobs of its employees. Inspired by the structure used by Patagonia, Smith placed the voting stock into the Grady-White Boats Perpetual Purpose Trust and the non-voting shares into a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. This arrangement ensures that the company will never be sold, while the nonprofit receives future profits for conservation, education, and healthcare. While Patagonia's charitable focus is more liberal, Smith's broader charitable goals reflect his conservative leanings. Under this new structure, President Kris Carroll will continue to lead daily operations in Greenville, while Smith assumes the role of CEO emeritus.