Carnival Corporation names Marie McKenzie to new global destinations services and sourcing role

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Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 09 March 2015 09 March 2015

Carnival Corporation and plc, the world's largest travel and leisure company, today announced that Marie McKenzie has been named vice president of global destinations services and sourcing, a new role and function for the company.

Carnival Corporation and plc, the world's largest travel and leisure company, today announced that Marie McKenzie has been named vice president of global destinations services and sourcing, a new role and function for the company. As part of this new function, McKenzie will lead a team of brand experts who will assume responsibility for geographical regions on behalf of all nine brands, while also maintaining their reporting lines into the leadership structure of their respective brand. Together, they will coordinate and manage processes and relationships with tour operators and port services officials around the globe.

As part of this new function, McKenzie will lead a team of brand experts who will assume responsibility for geographical regions on behalf of all nine brands, while also maintaining their reporting lines into the leadership structure of their respective brand. Together, they will coordinate and manage processes and relationships with tour operators and port services officials around the globe to deliver the best possible tour excursion and port experiences for the nearly 11 million guests who sail every year on the company's 100 ships visiting hundreds of ports across the globe.

"We are excited to have Marie take on this new role, and with her proven track record in her past 19 years at Carnival, we know she will lead this team to great success," said Alan Buckelew, chief operations officer for Carnival Corporation. "Having had global responsibilities in her previous role and partnering with the global strategy team, we know she will bring to this new role extensive knowledge of our operating companies and a deep understanding of our overall vision to work together across our nine brands to consistently exceed guest expectations."

In addition, a primary focus for McKenzie will be to leverage Carnival Corporation's collective scale and expertise to continue creating unique and exciting shore excursions and port experiences as part of the company's goal to consistently exceed guest expectations.

Buckelew added: "We strive to ensure our guests enjoy shore excursions and ports as part of our overall goal to create a great vacation experience. Our business has become increasingly global, with over 20,000 shore excursions a year offered at 725 ports around the world. With this move, we are taking steps to ensure we continue to have deep local expertise working with tour operator partners large and small who offer a wide range of options for our guests."

McKenzie will report to Josh Leibowitz, chief strategy officer for Carnival Corporation.

"Our brands already work with local tour operators and port facility officials to make sure we provide a positive experience and great portfolio of popular shore excursions that consistently earn high satisfaction marks from our guests," said Leibowitz. "With our new process our tour operators and port facility partners will now have an opportunity to participate in offering services for all nine of our brands. Most importantly, by leveraging the collective expertise of our brands, tour operators and port facility partners, we can continue to offer our guests popular and unique shore excursions and port experiences. And in some cases, we will use our collective creativity to develop exciting new excursions, or new twists to already popular excursions."

McKenzie previously served as vice president of global financial planning and analysis, where she played an integral part in interpreting and engaging all nine brands to prepare the company's executive team for the quarterly earnings guidance and position the overall strategy and financial direction of the company. She also led the process of capturing, consolidating and analyzing data from the nine brands as well as the corporation's annual planning process that was key to the execution of the company's overall long-term strategy.

McKenzie, who started her career with Carnival Corporation in 1996, has held a number of roles of increasing responsibility. This included her time with the Carnival Cruise Line brand where she served in various leadership roles, including vice president of fleet accounting where she led a team of nearly 200 people working closely with the shipboard operations team in supporting execution of the overall onboard guest experience.  

McKenzie started her career with Arthur Andersen LLP in Washington, D.C., in 1992. Originally from Jamaica, West Indies, she is a graduate of Howard University where she earned her bachelor's degree in accounting. She also attended Florida International University where she earned a master's degree in international business.

McKenzie serves on the board of directors of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida and Honey Shine Inc.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines slashes loss in 2014, EBITDA jumps 125%

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines

Published: 06 March 2015 06 March 2015

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, the UK based destinational cruise operator, has slashed its losses in 2014 and operating profit more than doubled

The company cut net loss to NOK120 million in 2014 from NOK637 million in the previous year, when impairment charges had hit the bottom line. Revenues increased to NOK1.65 billion from NOK1.47 billion in 2013.

Operating profit (EBITDA) rose to NOK146 million from NOK65 million in the previous year, Bonheur ASA, a listed holding company of the Olsen family that togerher with Ganger Rolf ASA owns Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

"The UK cruise market is still weak, however there have been some improvements during second half 2014. Bunker prices have also decreased in the quarter. The number of passenger days totaled 275 737 (292 542) for the quarter," Bonheur said. It did not give guidance for 2015.