Seven of the most well-known premium and luxury brands in the cruise industry have hired new leaders or promoted others in the past four months.
For some, the new leadership is part of a restructuring. For others, it is part of a succession plan. In any case, high-level executives in the trade say they see this crop of new presidents as a sign of investment in the future as cruise lines rapidly grow their business and fleets.
"The cruise industry is currently undergoing notable leadership changes as it transitions from a post-pandemic recovery to a new era of growth," said Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion. "New leadership brings new ideas."
Seven cruise lines have hired new leaders since Thanksgiving: Holland America Line, Lindblad Expeditions, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Seabourn Cruises and Viking. Azamara and Explora Journeys did so earlier in 2024.
The appointment of new brand-level presidents in the past year marks the second wave of sweeping leadership changes since the pandemic. Longtime CEOs at the Big Three began to retire in 2022 once their cruise lines resumed sailing after the pause in operations. Within 18 months, new CEOs, largely with finance backgrounds, began leading Royal Caribbean Group, Carnival Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings. Since then, all three companies have enjoyed a post-pandemic boost in business that led to record-breaking bookings and multiple ship orders.
The latest generation of leaders will now have to figure out how to maintain their companies' successes for the long term, which means choosing the proper leadership, said Mike Estill, COO of the Western Association of Travel Agencies. That may include trial and error, he said.
"There's going to be a lot of managerial churn over the next five years as these companies try to figure out what the management structure at the cruise lines looks like for the next 30 years," he said.
NCLH's shake-up
One of the most significant brand-level changes upended the leadership structure at NCLH's upscale brands. In February, former Regent Seven Seas president Jason Montague left retirement to oversee Oceania and Regent as NCLH's chief luxury officer. Shortly after, Oceania president Frank A. Del Rio and Andrea DeMarco, president of Regent, departed.
Montague said he stepped into the role to help both brands take advantage of opportunities, such as promoting the small-ship brands in an industry focused on building bigger ships. Another opportunity, he said, is to position the brands to take advantage of greater wealth transfer among baby boomers.
"You combine both those factors and it creates this kind of tidal wave of opportunity of how we can all capitalize on it," he said.
Changes at Carnival Corp.
In Carnival Corp.'s case, its leadership moves resembled a game of musical chairs.
In December it moved Holland America Line president Gus Antorcha to lead Princess Cruises, replacing John Padgett. To fill Antorcha's role, which also had oversight of Seabourn Cruises, the company promoted Beth Bodensteiner, a 20-year veteran of the brand who last served as HAL's chief commercial officer.
Meanwhile, the company appointed former Carnival Cruise Line executive Mark Tamis to lead Seabourn, replacing Natalya Leahy who had left to take the CEO spot at Lindblad Expeditions. These moves are part of a strategy to build a bench for future successors, said Jan Swartz, Carnival Corp.'s outgoing executive vice president of strategic operations.
"One of the ways that we internally can leverage our scale is by moving people between brands as a means of creating new leadership development opportunities for top talent as well as sharing ideas across the brands in a more organic way," she said.
Viking, long led by founder and chairman Torstein Hagen, added a new leadership position, president, to which it appointed Leah Talactac while she concurrently serves as CFO. Pointing to her financial acumen, Hagen said Talactac is "well-positioned to help lead Viking in our next chapter."
Explora Journeys appointed Aman hotelier Anna Nash as its president in September following the departure of CEO Michael Ungerer. In May, Azamara took on former Celebrity Cruises sales executive Dondra Ritzenthaler as president.
Beth Butzlaff, senior vice president of partner relations at Ensemble, said most of the appointments involve leaders who have been in the industry or at their brands for a long time and can bring a new vision to help lines differentiate themselves.
"The only thing that doesn't change in the travel industry is that change is 100% guaranteed," she said.