Royal Caribbean International has appointed industry outsiders ”with a fresh perspective’ in two key senior sales roles.
Martin MacKinnon, previously head of sales at Kimberly Clark covering Tesco and Ireland, joins as sales director.
In his new role, he reports to associate vice president and MD for UK and Ireland Ben Bouldin.
Another cruise industry outsider, Donna Carley, will join as head of key accounts.
She is currently head of sales at Hall & Woodhouse and will take up her new position at the beginning of April.
MacKinnon replaces Stuart Byron, who has held the role of interim sales director since mid-2018, allowing him to return to his role as insights director.
Carley will be replacing Angela Hall, who is leaving the company for an ‘exciting relocation’ to New Zealand.
"We were intent on carrying out a thorough search for the role of sales director and in the end we screened over 600 candidates", said Bouldin, who played a key part in MacKinnon’s recruitment.
"In Martin I believe we’ve found a very credible individual with the passion for sales that this business demands.
"Similarly, Donna has the breadth of experience and the ambition and drive to equip her very well in the role of head of key accounts. I look forward to working with them both and welcoming them to our Royal Caribbean Sales Team."
MacKinnon said: "I can’t wait to get started at Royal Caribbean and to meet my new colleagues and our trade partners. I’ll be looking to learn from a talented team, but also to bring fresh eyes and my experience from working with Fast Moving Consumer Goods brands to help Royal to improve partnerships and become even better at providing extraordinary holidays for guests."
Carley added: "I’m really excited to be joining the Royal Caribbean team, especially as it’s such an exciting time for the brand. I’m eager to apply my extensive experience in progressive sales roles to the cruise market, where there’s so much headroom for penetration growth."
A further addition to the sales team is Lauren Mepham, previous retail manager at TUI.
Mepham, who was also TUI’s regional cruise business development manager, has become RCI regional sales manager for London South & the Channel Islands.
She replaces Harriet Fallon who has been promoted to key accounts manager for Scotland and the North East.
