Clare Ward, Director of Product and Customer Services,  joined Fred Olsen in 2012 and is proud to lead a team of fantastic individuals which cover areas of Product Development (Itineraries and tours), off ship operations, and pre and post cruise guest communications.

Her focus at Fred. Olsen has been to implement a smaller-ship strategy, throughout all parts of the business she is responsible for.

In her spare time, Clare love’s to walk (with a caravan in Thetford Forest), listen to live music (any type, any level) and eat in independently-run places. Her husband is a wine educator, so she is partial to her wine as well!

Edie Rodriguez is Americas Brand Chairman and Special Corporate Advisor for PONANT, the world’s leading luxury yacht expedition cruise line. Rodriguez has over 30 years of experience in executive roles in the cruise and travel industry and previously served as the CEO and President of Crystal Cruises, where she led the brand’s transformation during her tenure. She has also held leadership positions with brands from Carnival Corporation and RCCL Corporation.

Rodriguez is actively involved in the travel industry. She serves on Robb Report’s Private Aviation Board and Atout-France’s Advisory Board for French Tourism, and was previously on the Board of Directors for Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) and is a past member of Promotion Marketing Association. She and PONANT are also strong supporters of Tourism Cares.  Rodriguez is a strong voice and advocate in the luxury travel space, and has harnessed the power of social media and digital platforms to reach a global audience.

In recognition of her business leadership, she was named Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of The Year” in May 2017, and was selected as Luxury Daily’s “25 Luxury Women to Watch for 2017.” Rodriguez was also named a “Wave Maker” by Afar, as one of ten visionaries making travel better in 2016, and was selected as one of the ten most influential people in travel by the editors of Travelpulse.com. She was also named a “Woman of Note” by The Wall Street Journal in 2014.

Chris Coates

Group Commercial Director of the CMV Group and also a stakeholder in the business having joined the cruise industry back in 1983.

During his early career Chris has also worked for CTC Cruise Lines and Astor Cruises in various management positions.

Chris was a co-founder of Cruise & Maritime Services launched in 1996 to provide ship brokerage and general sales agency services before being acquired and merged into the new CMV Group of Companies in 2011.

Chris is based in the UK with key responsibilities covering international vessel deployment and programming, itinerary planning, pricing and yield management and all sales & marketing related commercial activities.

As an executive board member, Chris is also part of the international strategic planning, brand and fleet development team.

Mike Deegan has spent his entire working life in the shipping industry.

He joined the UK Merchant Navy straight from school, initially in the general cargo trades. As a junior officer he also served in tankers, a troop ship and passenger ships. As a senior officer he specialised in large passenger ships. Mike spent 2 years as a refit and new build superintendent, his focus mainly being on tankers undergoing deep refit and rebuild.

Whilst serving as a full-time Merchant Naval Officer, Mike also undertook a parallel career in the UK Royal Naval Reserve where he qualified as a Mine Warfare specialist. This part-time role saw him serve in a variety of UK mine sweepers and mine hunters.

After 21 years at sea, the last 10 of which were in senior positions, Mike transferred ashore in 1999 as an Operations Director where he was personally responsible for safety, security and maritime operations. He continues in this role to this day.

Mike is qualified as a lead (ship’s safety) auditor and was elected as a Fellow of the (International) Institute of Hospitality in 2018, having been a member since 2004. He was recognised by his fellow maritime colleagues when he was sworn in as one of the Younger Brethren of the Corporation of Trinity House in February 2020. He is qualified in advanced fire-fighting techniques, advanced sea survival techniques, security awareness and crowd control on passenger ships / maritime crisis management and sits on 5 x (UK) Chamber of Shipping committees.

As a senior leader in the Expedition and Destination Management team at Silversea, Arnaldo oversees all aspects of the turnaround operation including arrivals, transfers and hotel accommodations, both for classic and expedition fleet as well as leading the team responsible for some of the most bespoke and unique destination focused events and experiences delivered in special sailings such as World Cruises and Grand Voyages. He also oversees a team of content managers, researchers and consultants on all matters related to destination information and development. Arnaldo has accrued more than 19 years in the hospitality and cruise industries. He worked at Disney Cruise Line for 16 years, where he held a variety of positions shipboard, before a 10-year tenure in the head offices -- most recently as the Sr Mgr, Port Adventures, leading the research, development and daily-operation of their recreation and shore excursions areas. Prior to joining Disney Cruise Line, Arnaldo worked in hospitality at Walt Disney World and at luxury hotels in his native country of Brazil, before his first contract at sea working with Island Cruises. Arnaldo holds degrees in both Hotel Management and Accounting and lives between Orlando and Miami.

Luigi Pastena was born in Piano di Sorrento on August 5th, 1956 and graduated in “Nino Bixio Nautical Institute“ during the school session 1973-1974. The “Nino Bixio Nautical Institute“ is one of the most important nautical schools in Italy and also gave the graduation to mr.Aponte too. He started sailing in November 1974 with an American Company and during a 12 year period, he had gathered experience on tanker, ro-ro car carriers and bulk cargo vessels. He received his Master Mariner Licence in 1983 and from 1986 to 1993 he worked with ECOLMARE on board ecological boats in cooperation with the “Ministero Della Marina Mercantile Italiana“. In 1994 he joined MSC and had alternated periods on board both cargo and passenger vessels, with the rank of master and staff captain/master. On 2003 he was called by Mr. Emilio La Scala, director of cruise technical dept.at MSC Cruises, to work in the office. In 2004, due to improvements in the management, he was assigned the job of port captain. On behalf of the owner, the port captain helps to plan the itineraries from technical and operational viewpoint.

Since June 2016 he has been working in MSC cruise management UK as Vice President of the Port Operations Department, which transferred from Sorrento to London in 2016. Luigi is the head of Port Operation Team which is responsible for Port Operations including the Berth reservation, Port Costs , Fuel Budgeting,  Weathering Monitoring and all Nautical Information for the ports where Msc Cruise Vessels call throughout the year.