Seabourn Names New CEO

Seabourn Cruise Line on Monday announced Pamela Conover as its new president and CEO. Conover was assigned the title of acting president after the company's late president, Deborah Natansohn, passed away from a heart attack in late October. Most recently, Conover served as senior vice president of shared services at Carnival Corp. This is Conover's third cruise line presidency, having first served as president and CEO of Athens, Greece-based Epirotiki Line until Carnival Corp. recruited her to be its vice president of strategic planning. At Carnival, she oversaw the acquisition of assets including Seabourn, Cunard and Costa Cruises as part of the company's development strategy. Her appointment comes on the heels of Seabourn's announcement to build two new, ultra-luxury liners slated for delivery in 2009 and 2010 at a cost of $250 million per vessel. Each ship will have 225 luxury suites, more than doubling Seabourn's current fleet capacity of 634 berths. "I am extremely gratified to be offered the helm at Seabourn at this exciting juncture," Conover said. "Except for the tragic circumstances I couldn't be happier about returning." Her predecessor, 53-year-old Natansohn, suffered a serious heart attack on Oct. 22 and died two days later in Fort Lauderdale. Natansohn had been president of Seabourn Cruise Line since July 2004.