Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) has made several organizational changes at the senior executive leadership level. Effective January 1, 2023: Andrea DeMarco, current chief sales and marketing officer for Regent Seven Seas Cruises, will become president of Regent, succeeding Jason Montague, while Frank A. Del Rio, current chief sales and marketing officer for Oceania Cruises, will become president, succeeding Howard Sherman.
To ensure a smooth and seamless transition, Montague and Sherman will serve as special advisors to the company.
DeMarco has nearly 20 years of diverse cruise industry experience across multiple areas of the business. She has served as chief sales and marketing officer for Regent Seven Seas Cruises since September 2021, right when the cruise line resumed operations post-pandemic. Prior to this role, DeMarco held various positions of increasing responsibility since joining the company in 2012, including most recently as SVP of investor relations, corporate communications and environmental, social and governance for NCLH from January 2020 until August 2021. She successfully represented the company to Wall Street since its initial public offering and earned numerous accolades including recognition as the No. 1 Overall Best Investor Relations Officer in the Leisure sector in the Institutional Investor All-American Executive Team rankings. Prior to her time at the Regent, DeMarco worked in charter sales and corporate financial planning roles at Royal Caribbean Group.
Frank A. Del Rio—the son of Frank J. Del Rio, president and CEO of NCLH—is an industry veteran in his own right, having started his career in the cruise industry in 2003. Del Rio has served as chief sales and marketing officer for Oceania since March 2022, where he worked side-by-side with Sherman, and as SVP, port destinations and onboard revenue from March 2015 through April 2017. From 2018 until March 2022, Del Rio pursued entrepreneurial opportunities in the private equity, finance and tech spaces, where he was involved across a spectrum of products and industries, including AI, telecommunications and 5G network solutions, medical and real estate development. Prior to the company’s acquisition of Prestige Cruises International S. de R.L. and its subsidiaries, Del Rio served as SVP, port and destination services at Prestige from 2008 until March 2015 and as VP, destination services and product development at Prestige from 2003 to 2008.
In separate news, Seatrade Cruise News has reported that NCLH is cutting its shoreside workforce by 9 percent. “This action is part of a broader and ongoing effort to improve operating efficiencies, including cost minimization initiatives, to strengthen the foundation for sustained, profitable growth,” the company said in a statement.
The report adds that several departments were “gutted.”
Last week, NCLH announced it has amended and extended the majority of its operating credit facility consisting of its senior secured revolving credit facility and senior secured term loan A facility (the “Operating Credit Facility”) on December 6, 2022. The amendment has resulted in the extension of maturities of approximately $1.4 billion of the Operating Credit Facility by one year to January 2025. The company is actively pursuing alternatives to address the remaining debt associated with the Operating Credit Facility that will otherwise mature in January 2024.
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