Company Rallies Behind IWD’s Global #ChooseToChallenge Campaign
Pays Tribute to Boundary-Breaking Female Leaders Throughout the Organization
Month-Long Celebration Included Spotlight Series, Speed-Mentoring Sessions and Empowerment Talks
MIAMI, April 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (“Norwegian” or “the Company”) (NYSE: NCLH), a leading global cruise company which operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, today concludes its celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. Throughout March, the Company celebrated its extraordinary women team members worldwide through a variety of initiatives including spotlight series, speed mentoring sessions and empowerment talks.
“At Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings we are proud to celebrate the incredible achievements of the countless female leaders across our Company,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. “We believe in supporting and empowering women not just in March but every day of the year, and we are committed to maintaining a safe, diverse and inclusive workplace for all team members. This commitment is reflected across the organization from our Board of Directors which is comprised of one-third women to our shoreside manager and above leadership team which is approximately 50% female.”
Throughout March, the Company featured female leaders who have broken stereotypical barriers to hold positions traditionally held by men. Their stories and inspirational backgrounds were featured on the Company’s social media and employee channels. The dynamic leaders spotlighted this month included:
- Bernadine Vallejos-Gonzaga- Bernadine holds the position of Fire‘woman’ on board Norwegian Escape. Born and raised in Cebu City, Philippines, Bernadine entered the Fire Service in the Philippines in 2009 and in 2017 she began her career at sea. She has since completed five contracts on board Norwegian Escape. In her daily work, she walks between 10,000 – 12,000 steps a day, checking fire equipment, training new hires, preparing for safety inspections and ensuring that all areas of her ship are free of fire hazards.
- Lisa Streckfus- Lisa is the Senior Director, Fleet Surveillance in the Security Operations Department. After attending the nearly all male United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York she earned her BS degree in Marine Engineering and Third Assistant Engineer License. She sailed on merchant vessels as an Engineer and worked on her Pilot’s license during vacations. During her 10-year career with NCLH, Lisa has led several efforts, from modernizing the surveillance systems on board our ships to partnering with U.S. Customs & Border Patrol for expedited immigration processing.
- Mary Landry- Mary serves as a member of our Board of Directors and is a retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. Coast Guard. She has an impressive background in maritime operations over the course of her 35-year career with the government, including service on the White House National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy from 2013 to 2014. Additionally, Mary served active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard, holding various positions and culminating in her advancement to Rear Admiral before her retirement in 2011. Some of her career accomplishments included being Commander of the largest Coast Guard District with over 10,000 active, reserve, civilian, and auxiliary personnel under her command.
- Serena Olive- Serena is a 2 nd Officer on board Norwegian Dawn. After several years working on board with a cruise line concession partner, she discovered a fascination with the technical aspects of the ships, including the navigation, arrivals, departures and the bridge operation. To pursue this passion, she returned to her home country, Italy, and studied at the Nautical Institute of Gallipoli / Amerigo Vespucci. In 2018, she joined Norwegian Gem as a Deck Cadet. She also worked on Norwegian Star before returning to Italy for her Navigation Officer exam, which she completed in March 2020, before becoming part of the bridge team on Norwegian Dawn.
- Dimple Jethani- Dimple joined the Company in 2018 as Senior Vice President & Co-CIO, IT Operations and Governance. In her current role at NCLH, Dimple is responsible for the following areas: IT governance/Project Management Office (running the business of IT); cybersecurity; infrastructure; IT compliance, service desk support for our shoreside, ship side, and island operations; ship applications; newbuild, drydock, island and terminal technology initiatives; and automation platforms. Presently, she’s leading the Company’s Return to Service technology initiatives.
- Jhoana Suarez- Jhoana currently serves as Second Engineer on board Norwegian Getaway after joining the Company in 2016 as an Engine Cadet. As Second Engineer, she works in the Engine Control Room as watchkeeper, where she monitors and controls the operations happening throughout the engine department. She’s also responsible for performing assigned equipment maintenance. Leading up to her current role, Jhoana studied Maritime Engineering at the Maritime University of the Caribbean. She also studied English and French in the Army Languages School and later went to work on an oil tanker in her native country, Venezuela.
- Alicia Cuervo- Alicia is the Company’s Vice President, On-Shore Design, Development and Construction. In her current role she is responsible for all shoreside design development and construction projects for the Company, including the massive new PortMiami terminal. Prior to joining the Company in 2018, Alicia spent more than 20 years in the government sector of building, construction and compliance. She worked nearly 10 years with the Florida Department of Transportation and has held a number of roles in city and county government.
The Company also sponsored a Women in Leadership Symposium “Onward & Upward- The Era of the Empowered Woman” in March hosted by the Florida Diversity Council. The Symposium featured five influential female leaders as panelists including one of the Company’s exceptional senior executives, Andrea DeMarco, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and ESG.
Norwegian Cruise Line hosted speed-mentoring sessions, conversations with female leaders and encouraged team members to both share their empowerment stories and show their appreciation of team members around the globe. In addition, the team held a conversation with radio’s Danielle Monaro and Medha Gandhi of Elvis Duran and The Morning Show, a leading American syndicated weekday morning radio program and Norwegian Cruise Line partner.
Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Women Who L.E.A.D campaign recognized six game-changing women who were nominated as beacons of outstanding leadership, with extraordinary career paths. Team members were asked to nominate women that have excelled professionally and inspired others to follow in their footsteps or pave their own paths to success exemplifying Leadership, Empowerment, Advocacy and Diversity (L.E.A.D.). The extraordinary winners and their bios can be found here: Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Women Who L.E.A.D. campaign
About Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH) is a leading global cruise company which operates the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands. With a combined fleet of 28 ships with approximately 60,000 berths, these brands offer itineraries to more than 490 destinations worldwide. The Company has nine additional ships schedule for delivery through 2027, comprising of approximately 24,000 berths.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements, estimates or projections contained in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this release, including, without limitation, those regarding our business strategy, financial position, results of operations, plans, prospects, actions taken or strategies being considered with respect to our liquidity position, valuation and appraisals of our assets and objectives of management for future operations (including those regarding our environmental, social, governance and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, expected fleet additions, our voluntary suspension, our ability to weather the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the length of time we can withstand a suspension of voyages, our expectations regarding the resumption of cruise voyages and the timing for such resumption of cruise voyages, the implementation of and effectiveness of our health and safety protocols, operational position, demand for voyages, financing opportunities and extensions, and future cost mitigation and cash conservation efforts and efforts to reduce operating expenses and capital expenditures) are forward-looking statements. Many, but not all, of these statements can be found by looking for words like “expect,” “anticipate,” “goal,” “project,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” “will,” “may,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “intend,” “future” and similar words. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and may involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied in those forward-looking statements. Examples of these risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to the impact of: the spread of epidemics, pandemics and viral outbreaks and specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic, including its effect on the ability or desire of people to travel (including on cruises), which are expected to continue to adversely impact our results, operations, outlook, plans, goals, growth, reputation, cash flows, liquidity, demand for voyages and share price; our ability to comply with the CDC’s Framework for Conditional Sailing Order and any additional or future regulatory restrictions on our operations and to otherwise develop enhanced health and safety protocols to adapt to the pandemic’s unique challenges once operations resume and to otherwise safely resume our operations when conditions allow; coordination and cooperation with the CDC, the federal government and global public health authorities to take precautions to protect the health, safety and security of guests, crew and the communities visited and the implementation of any such precautions; our ability to work with lenders and others or otherwise pursue options to defer, renegotiate or refinance our existing debt profile, near-term debt amortization, newbuild related payments and other obligations and to work with credit card processors to satisfy current or potential future demands for collateral on cash advanced from customers relating to future cruises; our future need for additional financing, which may not be available on favorable terms, or at all, and may be dilutive to existing shareholders; our indebtedness and restrictions in the agreements governing our indebtedness that require us to maintain minimum levels of liquidity and otherwise limit our flexibility in operating our business, including the significant portion of assets that are collateral under these agreements; the accuracy of any appraisals of our assets as a result of the impact of COVID-19 or otherwise; our success in reducing operating expenses and capital expenditures and the impact of any such reductions; our guests’ election to take cash refunds in lieu of future cruise credits or the continuation of any trends relating to such election; trends in, or changes to, future bookings and our ability to take future reservations and receive deposits related thereto; the unavailability of ports of call; future increases in the price of, or major changes or reduction in, commercial airline services; adverse events impacting the security of travel, such as terrorist acts, armed conflict and threats thereof, acts of piracy, and other international events; adverse incidents involving cruise ships; adverse general economic and related factors, such as fluctuating or increasing levels of unemployment, underemployment and the volatility of fuel prices, declines in the securities and real estate markets, and perceptions of these conditions that decrease the level of disposable income of consumers or consumer confidence; any further impairment of our trademarks, trade names or goodwill; breaches in data security or other disturbances to our information technology and other networks or our actual or perceived failure to comply with requirements regarding data privacy and protection; changes in fuel prices and the type of fuel we are permitted to use and/or other cruise operating costs; mechanical malfunctions and repairs, delays in our shipbuilding program, maintenance and refurbishments and the consolidation of qualified shipyard facilities; the risks and increased costs associated with operating internationally; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; overcapacity in key markets or globally; our expansion into and investments in new markets; our inability to obtain adequate insurance coverage; pending or threatened litigation, investigations and enforcement actions; volatility and disruptions in the global credit and financial markets, which may adversely affect our ability to borrow and could increase our counterparty credit risks, including those under our credit facilities, derivatives, contingent obligations, insurance contracts and new ship progress payment guarantees; our inability to recruit or retain qualified personnel or the loss of key personnel or employee relations issues; our reliance on third parties to provide hotel management services for certain ships and certain other services; our inability to keep pace with developments in technology; changes involving the tax and environmental regulatory regimes in which we operate; and other factors set forth under “Risk Factors” in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, many of these risks and uncertainties are currently amplified by and will continue to be amplified by, or in the future may be amplified by, the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not possible to predict or identify all such risks. There may be additional risks that we consider immaterial or which are unknown. The above examples are not exhaustive and new risks emerge from time to time. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs, assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections regarding our present and future business strategies and the environment in which we expect to operate in the future. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in our expectations with regard thereto or any change of events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement was based, except as required by law.
Investor Relations & Media Contact
Andrea DeMarco
(305) 468-2339
InvestorRelations@nclcorp.com
Jessica John
(786) 913-2902
