RCL senior team complete

ROYAL Caribbean Cruise Lines Australasia managing director Adam Armstrong this morning confirmed three senior appointments which complete the organisation’s “new look” local leadership team. The additions include Kathryn Valk, who is director of sales and marketing across Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Azamara in Australia & N . Valk joins RCL from her previous role as executive general manager of marketing & sales with the theme park division of Ardent Leisure Group. Her former positions also include being gm at global brand activation company Creata, as well as at Build-A-Bear Workshop. Neil Linwood has joined Royal Caribbean from his former role as managing director of CLIA Australasia, where he is being replaced by Joel Katz ( Tue).

Linwood, who will be responsible for port operations and customer services at Royal Caribbean, has 25 years of experience including senior roles with Carnival Australia as well as Pepsi and Hilton International.

The third new executive is Melinda Ryan, who has been promoted internally to head of revenue management and planning Asia Pacific.

Ryan established Royal Caribbean’s Australian revenue team when the local office opened in 2009, and will now cover all three brands, managing deployment, revenue planning and air planning.

Armstrong said he was pleased to welcome the new team in the lead up to the organisation’s biggest ever Australasian season.

“I’m confident that they will do a tremendous job in leading our brands,” he enthused.