Celestyal Cruises Announces Promotions and Appointments in Key Markets

Photo source: Celestyal Cruises

Celestyal Cruises, the main home-porting cruise operator in Greece, on Wednesday announced internal leadership transitions following Chris Theophilides’ move from COO to CEO on July 1. Celestyal Cruises is the preeminent cruise line serving the Greek Islands and East Mediterranean.

The company has promoted Leslie Peden to Chief Commercial Officer, in its aim to ensure continuity in the midst of the roll out of its new commercial strategy and the ramping up of its global commercial presence.

Peden will oversee all global commercial activities for Celestyal, including strategic Business Development, Marketing and commercial PR.

Captain George Koumpenas will step into the role of Chief Operations Officer, where he will continue to supervise Operations activities while adding the day-to-day oversight of operations in the Piraeus central office to his responsibilities.

Captain Koumpenas has held until now the position of Vice President of the company.

New appointments, Sales team expansion

Celestyal Cruises also announced the appointment of Stewart Williams as Regional Manager, Asia Pacific and Australasia (APAC).

Williams is a commercial executive with many years of professional experience in leading positions in the travel industry in the APAC region. Overseeing and managing Celestyal Cruises’ clientele in the region is expected to help boost sales and maximize business opportunities by increasing its brand visibility both to end customers and business sector. In addition, he will also be responsible for B2B (business to business), B2C (business to consumer) and public relations.

Moreover, Beatrix Schell has been appointed as the Head of Office in Germany. Being a professional in the travel industry, with sales experience for more than 14 years, Schell will be responsible for expanding the network of Celestyal Cruises for the following regions: Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining Celestyal Cruises, Schell served as Managing Director of Genussreisen GmbH in Munich and as Director of Business Development for the DACH and Central Europe area of Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) in London.

In addition, following these changes, Celestyal Cruises has updated its Executive Committee, which now comprises Capt. George Koumpenas, Leslie Peden, Marios Theodosiou – who continues as CFO – and CEO Chris Theophilides.

“All of the activities we have undertaken since the latter part of 2018 are core to the commercial transformation we need to make to continue building our global brand,” said Celestyal Cruises CEO Chris Theophilides.

“I am confident that through the collective efforts of the entire Celestyal Cruises team we will continue to deliver our outstanding product to more and more people around the world.”