Gary Murphy, former president of Brendan Vacations, has joined river cruise operator AMA Waterways.

Murphy is AMA's vice president of national accounts, based at the company’s headquarters in Chatsworth, Calif. He reports to Kristin Karst, AMA's executive vice president and co-owner.

The move comes two months after Murphy's announcement that he would be leaving Brendan, a company his father Jimmy Murphy helped found 40 years ago, to join his father at AMA Waterways.

Gary Murphy had been president at Brendan since taking over that role from his father in 2000. On June 12, Jimmy Murphy officially retired from Brendan to focus full-time on AMA Waterways, where he serves as chairman.

AMA Waterways was co-founded by Jimmy Murphy, Karst and Rudi Schreiner, president of AMA.

AMA Waterways has been on a hiring spree of late. Following the collapse of Peter Deilmann's river cruise business, AMA in August tapped former Deilmann executive Ron Santangelo to be vice president of business development.

In September, AMA named Bruce Rosenberg, formerly of Pleasant Holidays, vice president of marketing.

AMA Waterways has a fleet of six river cruise ships in Europe, with a seventh slated to launch next year.