Celestyal Cruises announces today internal leadership transitions following Chris Theophilides’ move from COO to CEO on July 1st. To ensure continuity in the midst of the roll out of its new commercial strategy and the ramping up of its global commercial presence, Leslie Peden has been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer and 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
Furthermore, Celestyal Cruises is happy to announce the appointment of Mr. Stewart Williams as Regional Manager, Asia Pacific and Australasia (APAC).

Mr. Williams is commercial executive with many years of professional experience in leading positions in the travel industry in the APAC region and 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. Ms. Wan Wang, Sales and Business Development Deputy from Shanghai in China, will refer to Mr. Williams.

Mr. Williams joins Celestyal Cruises after 20 years as the Managing Director, Australasia, for the esteemed Globus Family of Brands and will report to Marios Polydorou, Director, Sales and Travel Services.

Additionally, Celestyal Cruises announces the appointment of Mrs. Beatrix Schell as the Head of Office in Germany; she has undertaken he duties since July 16th, 2018. Being a professional in the travel industry, with sales experience for more than 14 years, Ms. Schell will be responsible for expanding the network of Celestyal Cruises for the following regions: Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Ms. Schell will refer to Mr. Andrew Magowan, Vice President of Sales of Europe.

Prior to joining Celestyal Cruises, Ms. Schell served as Managing Director of Genussreisen GmbH in Munich, where she was responsible for building market share in DACH through strategic partnerships with new distribution channels, including travel agencies, travel agents, DMCs and hotels. Ms. Schell helped develop relationships with major customers, trade partners and travel agents during her tenure at Genussreisen.

In addition, Ms. Schell comes to Celestyal Cruises to offer years of experience in sales, since she has served as Director of Business Development for the DACH and Central Europe area of Gullivers Travel Associates (GTA) in London.

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 Chris Theophilides, CEO of Celestyal Cruises. “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.”