Norwegian Cruise Line announced today that John McGirl has joined the company in the role of senior vice president and chief human resources officer. McGirl has responsibility for the shipboard and shoreside global human resources of Norwegian Cruise Line.

“I am extremely pleased to welcome such an accomplished human resources professional with more than 20 years of leadership with global organizations,” said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s chief executive officer.  “I am looking to John to provide leadership to both the shipboard and shoreside human resource functions at Norwegian and to continue our emphasis on creating a unique, success-oriented culture and to ensure that all of our team members, ship and shore, have the training and development needed to successfully deliver our fantastic vacation product.”

Most recently, McGirl was chief human resources officer for the Naples Community Healthcare System, a large, multi-facility healthcare organization on Florida’s gulf coast.  Prior to joining NCH, McGirl was vice president of human resources at Royal Caribbean International and prior to that at Cunard/Seabourn.  He has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management from Sheffield Hallam University, UK and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Business Administration at Sheffield Business School.  

McGirl’s experience has included building customer/guest centric organizational cultures, aligning of human resource programs and practices with strategic business needs, designing and executing programs to support mergers, integrations and expansion, along with ensuring that team members are engaged, involved and excited.  

McGirl will be working closely with George Chesney, Norwegian’s current senior vice president, human resources. Chesney, who has been with Norwegian for more than 12 years, will retire in the coming months.

“George has been instrumental in helping to take our organization from Good to Great. We thank him for his many contributions,” added Sheehan.