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 Now
that he’s president and COO of Norwegian Cruise Line, Andy Stuart vowed to
continue working to strengthen the company’s relationship with travel agents.
“Absolutely, there’s no question that commitment only gets stronger with me in
this new role,” Stuart told TravelPulse shortly after his promotion was
announced.
In fact, the company is closing in on its goal of increasing the size of its
overall sales force by 40 percent by mid-April, an expansion that will almost
double the number of sales representatives in the field so they can interact
with more travel agents in person.
“We had not expanded the sales team and in fact changed the balance between the
sales force on the road having face-to-face meetings with travel agents and the
sales team in the office in Miami,” Stuart said. “It was very, very clear that
our travel partners enjoy, need and benefit from face-to-face meetings with our
sales team. So we really had to get that mix right.”
A number of offers to sales people were made this week. “We are tracking toward
hitting our deadline of mid-April,” he said. “I believe we’ll have tremendous
coverage and travel agents will see so much more of us.”
He noted that the commitment to travel agents is shared by Frank Del Rio, the
CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH), the parent company of Norwegian
Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Increasing the size of the sales staff was “a change we absolutely had to make,”
Stuart said. “I was thrilled Frank was so keen to make that investment. It’s one
of the first things he wanted to invest in in his new role.”
The integration of the three cruise lines under NCLH has been “going extremely
well,” Stuart said. “Frank is putting together an absolute A-team, a great mix
of people who are going to hit the ground running. Frank is not a person who
sits still very long. He makes decisions and wants his people to make decisions.
I believe our travel partners will see that very, very quickly.”
And one of those fast decisions was promoting Stuart. “It was pretty recent,” he
admitted. “I’ve not had a lot of time to think about this.”
To many, it was a well-deserved and long overdue promotion, considering that
Stuart has been with Norwegian for 27 years and is synonymous with the company,
as Del Rio said in the announcement. “The key goal of this role is driving
demand, so that absolutely will be my focus,” Stuart said.
He replaces Drew Madsen, a former chain restaurant executive who joined
Norwegian as president and COO just six months ago. Stuart moves up from his
most recent position as executive vice president of sales for Norwegian Cruise
Line.
“The shift is in line with Mr. Del Rio’s management philosophy of maintaining a
flatter, leaner organizational structure by merging sales, marketing and
operating responsibilities for the Norwegian brand into one role, reporting
directly to Mr. Del Rio,” commented Timothy Conder, a financial analyst with
Wells Fargo Securities. “We believe the announcement should also bode well in
investors' minds given many had initially questioned the hiring of Drew Madsen
by former CEO Kevin Sheehan in light of Mr. Madsen’s Darden Restaurants
background. Bottom Line: Del Rio solidifying his eight direct reports with
capable experience to deliver upon his new strategic vision for NCLH.
Prestige-Norwegian integration continues to be on track, we see no concerns from
today’s announcement.”
So will there be a new senior or executive vice president of sales to replace
Stuart?
“I don’t have any plans for that at the moment. We have a tremendous sales
leadership team in Nathan (Hickman, vice president of field sales and national
accounts) and Alex (Pinelo, vice president of key accounts),” Stuart said. “They
do a superb job, so I think I can continue work very closely with those guys and
hopefully deliver a great team for our travel partners.”
Travel agent organizations applauded Stuart’s promotion.
“This is a very well-deserved promotion for Andy Stuart and a great decision by
Frank Del Rio and the board,” said John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders
Franchise Group, Leisure Group and Vacation.com. “Andy has long been an
exceptional leader for the Norwegian Cruise Line brand. He’s proven time and
again to be an enormous advocate for the travel agency community, and we expect
he’ll continue setting that tone through his excellent leadership for years to
come.”
Vicky Garcia, COO and co-owner of Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel
Representative, said the organization is excited about Stuart’s promotion.
“Andy truly represents Norwegian, is a rock star with travel agents, and always
supports the travel agent community,” she said. “He was a great choice for this
role, and we are excited to see where he takes the line.” |
