Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group, today announced a number of changes to strengthen the leadership team and the company’s organizational structure.

Effective February 1, 2015, the current Senior Vice President Hotel Operations & Product Development, Neil Palomba, will be appointed President of Costa Crociere, Genoa. He will be responsible for managing the Costa brand, as well as for the structure and design of products, sales and customer care at Europe’s leading cruise company.

Also effective February 1st, 2015, the company will appoint Buhdy Sin Bok, the current Senior Vice President Pacific Asia & China, as President of Costa Asia, 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.

The two newly appointed presidents will, together with Michael Ungerer, who heads AIDA Cruises, report directly to the CEO of Costa Crociere S.p.A..

“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. 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,” said Thamm.  

Development of a central Marine Operations Center for the Costa Group

A further organizational change announced today is the establishment of a central Marine Operations Center in Hamburg, Germany.

Under the name Carnival Maritime, Costa Group is creating, with the support of Lufthansa Technik, a highly modern, digitalized unit for the operation of its fleet, currently numbering 25 ships.

Carnival Maritime will be led by Jens Lassen, current Senior Vice President Marine Operations AIDA Cruises, who will also report directly to the CEO of Costa Group.

“The Hamburg location offers us excellent access to technology and expertise in the maritime sector. 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,” Thamm continued.

Marine operations, medical department, hotel maintenance and procurement are the functions rumored to be moving to Germany.