By
Rebecca Gibson |
Costa Group is to make a number of changes to its management team and organisational structure.
On 1 February Neil Palomba, who currently serves as Costa’s senior vice president of Hotel Operations and Product Development, will become the president of Costa Cruises, Genoa. He will be responsible for managing the Costa brand, as well as for the structure and design of products, sales and customer care.
Meanwhile Buhdy Sin Bok, the current senior vice president of Pacific Asia and China, has been appointed as president of Costa Asia in Shanghai. This reflects the increasing importance of Asia for the Costa Group, especially the rapidly growing Chinese market in which Costa Asia is the market leader.
Both new presidents will work in collaboration with Michael Ungerer, who heads AIDA Cruises, and report directly to the CEO of Costa Cruises.
“I would like to congratulate Neil and Buhdy on their new positions and look forward to working with them intensively on the further expansion of our company,” said Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group. “These appointments will help us strengthen our Costa and Costa Asia brands and support the development of our global activities, especially in Europe and Asia.”
In addition, the Costa Group will develop a central Marine Operations Center in Hamburg, Germany. Joining with Lufthansa Technik, the company will establish the Carnival Maritime division to create a modern and digitised unit for the operation of its fleet, which comprises 25 ships. Carnival Maritime will be led by Jens Lassen, senior vice president of Marine Operations at AIDA, who will report directly to Thamm.
“The Hamburg location offers us excellent access to technology and expertise in the maritime sector,” said Thamm. “We are certain that the close cooperation with Lufthansa Technik will enable us to transfer airline know-how to improve continuously the quality of our fleet’s operations.”