Cruise outsiders take director roles at P&O and Cunard

P&O Cruises and Cunard Line have released the names of three new directors who will join their commercial team following a restructure which will see the departure of the cruise lines’ MDs Peter Shanks and Carol Marlow.

Jeremy Tait, currently director of proposition development and insight for insurance group Direct Line will join as insight director on July 1, covering both P&O Cruises and Cunard.

Chris Edgington, previously commercial director of Coral for the Gala Coral Group, joins P&O Cruises as marketing director whilst Angus Struthers, currently senior director global communications for TripAdvisor, takes on the same role for Cunard. Both will join the business from the end of August.

Carnival UK chief commercial officer Gerard Tempest said: "These three key senior appointments will help us to evolve and strengthen our brands and customer experiences still further. Their proven blue chip backgrounds within marketing and communications will bring new focus, creativity and insight to our leadership team.

"Cunard Line and P&O Cruises are brands which have shaped British cruising over the last 175 years and are amongst the most famous cruise brands in the world. We have a unique heritage to preserve, while at the same time we need to ensure we are instrumental in developing the future of British cruising. We want strongly appealing and highly differentiated brands, without compromising their core values."

At Direct Line Tait was responsible for the creation of branded proposition strategies and delivering two new propositions: the Green Flag "one-hour promise" and the multi-product Direct Line "together" customer loyalty proposition.

As part of the Gala Coral Group executive team, Edginton had responsibility for 1,750 betting shops, a significant online business and 12,000 employees.  

At TripAdvisor Struthers built an international team across Europe and Asia and developed an overarching global PR strategy implemented with local market variations.

Prior to TripAdvisor he spent 11 years with Virgin Atlantic developing the Virgin Upper Class service and "was instrumental in driving a service-driven culture change", said the company.

Shanks and Marlow will leave in September. Sales and customer services director Giles Hawke will also leave in November to join a competitor.