CLIA Leadership

CLIA Global

• Kelly Craighead – President & CEO

  Kelly Craighead is the President and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), representing a vast community of ocean-going cruise lines, as well as river cruise marketing affiliates, a highly trained and certified travel agent community, and cruise line partners ranging from ports and destinations to ship builders, developers and other maritime business services.

  Craighead comes to this role with over 20 years of executive leadership experience from both the public and private sectors, including most recently as the first-ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Travel and Tourism at the United States Department of Commerce.

  In her capacity as President and CEO of CLIA, Craighead is responsible for the development and execution of the organization’s advocacy initiatives, which are designed to support the broad international business coalition that comprises the global cruise industry. Additionally, Craighead has oversight over CLIA’s global leadership teams across the association’s five operating regions, including North America, Europe, Australasia, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

  A signature effort spearheaded under Craighead is CLIA’s storytelling initiative, which showcases the industry’s leadership in responsible tourism and its positive impact on communities around the world.

  During her time with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Craighead acted as the senior government representative for travel and tourism matters on behalf of the United States. In addition to coordinating federal government tourism policies and programs, Craighead led initiatives that generated more than $250 billion USD annually from international visitors to the United States. She also represented the United States as the key point of contact for foreign tourism ministers regarding critical travel and tourism policy matters.

  Earlier in her career, Craighead held leadership positions in the White House and traveled extensively within the United States and abroad supporting official government business and developing a wide network of international partners in government, media and business

  Prior to her appointment as President and CEO of CLIA, Craighead founded Vertimas Consulting, where she supported a variety of private sector clients, including the World Travel and Tourism Council, to provide counsel and executive leadership support, including strategic planning and business development.

  Craighead is a passionate and active member of the travel and tourism community. In 2017, she was named “Outstanding Woman in Travel and Tourism Leadership” by Women in Travel and Tourism Industries (WITTI).

• Donald Brown

  Donald Brown is Vice President, Maritime Policy at Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in Washington DC. He develops, presents, negotiates, and implements global industry positions on legislative, regulatory, and policy matters involving security, environmental stewardship and health. He leads delegations to the International Maritime Organization where he represents the global cruise industry during international treaty negotiations and other matters. He is also the designated Secretary to the CLIA Global Committees on Maritime Security Matters and Marine Environment Protection Matters.

  Prior to joining CLIA, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard at the rank of Commander. His most recent assignment was to the Office of Maritime & International Law where he provided agency-wide legal counsel to senior officials and federal interagency leaders on transnational maritime threats, with specific expertise in facilitating others to reach agency, national, and international consensus on policy matters. Previous duty assignments include U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, speechwriter and special assistant to the Coast Guard Commandant, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, Rescue Coordination Center Miami and four years of at-sea experience aboard Coast Guard Cutters ESCANABA (1st Lieutenant) and VASHON (Executive Officer).

  Donald is a 1993 graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy where he earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Government. In 2003 he graduated Cum Laude from the University of Miami School of Law where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Inter-American Law Review. He has also served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the U.S. Naval Academy for Piracy, Maritime Threats, and the Law of the Sea.

• Joshua Good

  Joshua Good is the Senior Vice President for Global Finance and Operations at the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). As the chief finance leader, Josh is responsible for all financial planning, strategy, reporting and daily operations. Josh manages our finance team across North America, Europe, Brazil and Australasia.

  Prior to joining CLIA, Josh was with Marriot International providing financial expertise and insight as he worked with executives in Sales, Marketing, Brand Management, Innovation, Human Resources, and Global Operations. Josh started his career in public accounting. During his tenure, he has supported various clients in a range of sectors, including government, for profit and non-profit.

• Andy Harmer

  

  Andy Harmer is the Senior Vice President of International Travel Trade Membership and Director of UK & Ireland. Andy has been responsible for the creation and implementation of the CLIA UK & Ireland travel agent programme for over 10 years, featuring professional development, online and offline resources and material, training seminars and conferences. From 2016 his responsibility included the expansion of the programme into Europe with specific agent engagement strategies, consumer facing promotions such as Plan a Cruise Month and overall responsibility for professional development. In 2017 he became SVP Membership with global responsibilities.

  Email: aharmer@cruising.org

• Lawrence Kaye

  

  Larry Kaye has been a nationally recognized maritime specialist for more than three decades. He overseas CLIA's legal affairs and the governance of its 15 regional offices. His firm represents many of CLIA's Member lines in a wide array of litigation, regulatory and transactional matters. He holds the highest possible peer review rating of “preeminent” for professional excellence and ethical standards issued by Martindale-Hubbell, the leading publication of lawyer ratings in the United States and Canada. He was also voted among the Top Lawyers in California.

  Kaye has handled or supervised legal matters throughout the United States and is responsible for more than two dozen precedent-setting published court decisions. He was a delegate to the International Maritime Organization and drafted key provisions of the Athens Convention on the Carriage of Passengers and Their Luggage by Sea. He also authored the International Cruise Passenger Bill of Rights adopted by every CLIA Cruise Line Member worldwide, has drafted legislation passed by the U.S. Congress and California Legislature, and frequently testifies as a maritime legal expert before legislative bodies. For more than a decade after its formation he chaired CLIA's Executive Partner Council.

  Based in San Diego, Kaye was Chairman of the Cruise Industry Advisory Committee of the Unified Port District for 12 years and a member of its Trade Development Committee for eight years. He is a former Judge Pro Tem who has published several legal articles, in addition to the chapter "Governmental Regulation of Cruise Ships" in Volume 10 of Benedict on Admiralty, the principal maritime treatise in the nation. Earlier in his career, he was a judicial law clerk to the former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law with honors in 1978 after only two years, where he received the Copley Press Award for legal writing, the American Jurisprudence Award for conflicts of law, and was a member of the Law Review.

  Kaye is a frequent industry and legal spokesman in major media outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, ABC Evening News, NBC Nightly News, 20/20, CBS This Morning, Inside Edition, Hard Copy and MSNBC Crossfire.

• Bo Larsen

  Bo Larsen plays a key role in helping to develop CLIA’s strategic program of benefits and events for member partners. He also manages CLIA’s global and European Port & Destination Committee. He has spent much of his career working within the travel industry, including 20 years with the airline industry followed by several years with Cruise Baltic and the Cruise Copenhagen Network.

  Email: blarsen@cruising.org

• Mike McGarry

  Mike McGarry is Senior Vice President of Global Government Affairs and North American Secretariat at Cruise Lines International Association, Inc. (CLIA) where he oversees government relations . He is also the Executive Director of the CLIA Political Action Committee.

  Mike has served as a government relations and public affairs leader for industry-leading brands, including Royal Dutch Shell plc, Visa Inc., Harrah’s Entertainment, MasterCard Incorporated, KPMG, and Marsh & McLennan. At Royal Dutch Shell, Mike led Group external affairs in the U.S. and was later based in London where he was Head of Global External Affairs for Shell Chemicals Companies.

  Earlier in his career, Mike was Deputy Staff Director and Parliamentarian at the U.S. House Financial Services Committee during consideration of historic legislation and investigative hearings that received international media attention.

  Email: mmcgarry@cruising.org

• Peter Plourd

  Peter Plourd is Vice President, Information Technology. Peter is responsible for CLIA’s worldwide technology infrastructure. He coordinates CLIA’s technology requirements across North American, Europe, Brazil and Australasia.
  Prior to joining CLIA Pete was the Senior Director of Information Technology at AcademyHealth in DC. AcademyHealth focuses on producing evidence to facilitate better decision making in healthcare. He has been working in the non-profit sector for almost 20 years and prior to that worked at a biotechnology firm in Baltimore and was with NASA for almost 10 years.

  Email: pplourd@cruising.org

• Brian Salerno

  
  

  

  Brian Salerno – Senior Vice President, Maritime Policy

  Brian Salerno is the Senior Vice President for Maritime Policy at the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).  In this capacity he coordinates industry positions on technical, regulatory and policy matters related to cruise ship safety, security and environmental stewardship.   He came on board with CLIA in December 2017

  Brian served 36 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring in 2012 at the rank of Vice Admiral.  During his career, he worked in a variety of Coast Guard operational missions, with particular focus on maritime safety.  

  Upon retirement, Brian began working as a marine consultant.  He served as the U.S. Liaison for BIMCO - an international ship owner’s association headquartered in Copenhagen. He also served on the Panama Canal Navigation Safety Advisory Board. 

  In 2013, he was appointed by the Secretary of the Interior to lead the recently established Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), which was focused on offshore oil exploration and production, and implementing the lessons learned from the DEEPWATER HORIZON oil spill.  He stepped down in January 2017 and resumed work as a maritime consultant.   He also serves as Vice President of the U.S. Friends of World Maritime University.

  Email: bsalerno@cruising.org

• Christian Savelli

  Christian Savelli is Vice President, Research and Business Analytics. Savelli leads CLIA’s internal research department and oversee business analytics. He facilitates annual research planning and prioritization process, manages the CLIA Research Committee, advises stakeholders on research thinking and priorities and assists the association with business modeling.  

  Email: csavelli@cruising.org

• Carrie Watson

  Carrie has over 20 years of experience in consulting, talent management, and leadership development experience engineering strategic roadmaps to ignite transformative change and boost business performance. Since joining CLIA, Carrie has been working to align organizational design and workforce planning to advance initiatives and foster cohesive, productive environments—as she works alongside internal stakeholders to establish human capital analytical platforms that serve as instruments of growth.

• Jennifer Williams

  Jennifer Williams is Vice President, Maritime Policy at Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in Washington DC, where she develops, presents, negotiates, and implements global industry positions on legislative, regulatory, and policy matters involving ship design, operation and engineering. She is accredited to the International Maritime Organization where she represents the global cruise industry during international treaty negotiations and other matters. She is also the designated Secretary to the CLIA Global Committee on Maritime Safety Matters as well as the Cruise Ship Safety Forum and its Steering Committee.

  Jennifer has diverse expertise in maritime safety, security and marine environmental protection. Having retired from the U.S. Coast Guard with nearly 30 years of service, she has held a variety of operational and staff positions which included Sector Commander Los Angeles/Long Beach where she served as Captain of the Port and Director of Inspections and Compliance in Washington DC, where she oversaw developed and maintained regulatory policy, standards, and program alignment for all prevention activities associated to the safe operation of vessels and facilities. She managed policy development for the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, recreational boating safety, foreign and domestic commercial vessels compliance inspections, ports and facilities safety and security, vessel documentation, and marine casualty investigation.

  She is a 2006 graduate of the National Graduate School in Quincy, Mass., where she received her Master of Science degree in Quality Systems Management, and a 1990 graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Transportation as well as her Third Mate’s Unlimited Tonnage U.S. Coast Guard License.

   

CLIA North America

• Brian Beall

  Brian Beall is Vice President of Government Affairs at the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). In this role, Brian creates and leads strategic programs to achieve desired outcomes for legislative policy priorities at the state and federal levels, advancing CLIA members’ ability to operate sustainably and grow in the North American market. He also provides leadership support to CLIA’s global government affairs priorities.

  To CLIA, Brian brings many years of experience in travel and tourism policy. Brian was the Deputy Director for Policy in the National Travel and Tourism Office, part of the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He has led and represented U.S. travel and tourism policy with foreign governments, private sector stakeholders, and federal agency partners. Brian also worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Senate focused specifically on travel and tourism policy issues.

• Caroline Johnson

  Caroline Johnson is the Senior Vice President, North American Travel Trade Membership. She oversees the Membership, Professional Development, Marketing, Events and Sales teams. Johnson is responsible for the membership value proposition and its successful delivery directed towards CLIA's Travel Agency and Agent Members. She brings extensive experience in association and corporate leadership roles.

  Email: cjohnson@cruising.org

• Charles Sylvia, ECC

  Charles Sylvia, ECC is Vice President of Membership and Trade Relations with Cruise Lines International Association. Charles has 24 years’ experience in cruise marketing and sales, starting as a front-line agent at a brick-and-mortar travel agency near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

  After a decade successfully selling group cruises on the leisure side of the business, Charles moved to the corporate side, producing meetings, incentives, conferences and events at sea for Access TCA, a Boston-based exhibit and corporate events agency. Charles built Access TCA’s “at sea” division from the ground up.

  In addition to being a lifelong cruise enthusiast, Charles is also interested in start-ups, serving as an advisor to graduate students in Brown University’s Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME). In his role at CLIA, Charles champions the interests of CLIA’s North American trade membership, comprised of more than 32,700 travel agency owners and agents.

  Email: csylvia@cruising.org

CLIA Australia and Asia

• Joel Katz

  Joel Katz has 25 years of international experience in the cruise and hotel industries. In his role as Managing Director of CLIA Australasia, Katz heads a Sydney-based team that is responsible for the promotion and development of the cruise industry in the region through trade relations, industry training, and advocacy activities on behalf of the Cruise Line Members.

  Email: jkatz@Cruising.org

CLIA Europe

• Tom Boardley

  Tom Boardley is the Secretary General in Europe for Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the world’s largest cruise industry trade association, providing a unified voice and leading authority of the global cruise community.

  Tom is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mission to Seafarers, and is also a member of the UK Department for Transport’s Maritime 2050 Expert Panel. Previously, Tom was the President of the UK Chamber of Shipping (2015/2016) and served as Chairman of IACS (International Association of Classification Societies) for the 2012/2013 year.

  Tom is an engineering graduate of Oxford University and is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

  Email: tboardley@cruising.org

• Maria Deligianni

  Maria Deligianni is CLIA’s Eastern Mediterranean representative based in Athens, Greece. She joined CLIA in March 2018 and is responsible for government and public affairs issues in the region. Maria has been involved in the shipping industry for eight years. Before joining CLIA, she worked for the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) in Brussels as a Senior Advocacy and Policy Advisor on maritime safety, environmental and offshore shipping issues. Previously she spent time at the European Commission’s Director General mobility and transport directorate in Brussels as well as SQE Marine group and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC Greece) in Piraeus and Athens. She holds an executive Master in Maritime Science at the University of Ghent in Belgium as well as an MSc in International and European Studies from the University of Piraeus and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration from the University of Athens.

  Email: mdeligianni@cruising.org

• Francesco Galietti

  Francesco Galietti is the National Director for CLIA Italy. Galietti is a policy expert, an author and a commentator in both the international print and broadcast media. His professional track record before joining CLIA includes three years as “Consigliere” at the Italian Ministry of Finance and advisory assignments with other Italian public institutions (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Government task force on sovereign wealth funds).

  Email: fgalietti@cruising.org

• Helge Grammerstorf

  Since March 2013, Helge Grammerstorf serves as National Director of CLIA Deutschland. For more than fifteen years, Grammerstorf has been the Managing Director of SeaConsult HAM GmbH, a consulting and research firm specialized in international cruise business. Furthermore, he is Managing Director of SeaConsult FIN GmbH, a company specialized in financing of river and ocean cruise vessels.

  Email: hgrammerstorf@cruising.org

• Julie Green

  Julie has extensive experience shaping corporate reputation and brand perception at national and international level.

  Julie began her career working for the European Commission in its London office, where she worked for the Directorate-General for Communication.  She then moved to Brussels where she spent several years working for a European Affairs agency, with responsibility for multiple clients including the European Catering Association.

  On her return to the UK, she worked in a number of PR agency and in-house roles.  Most recently, Julie was UK Head of Corporate Communications at professional services firm, WSP, where her responsibilities encompassed PR and social media, public affairs, brand and internal communications.  During her time at WSP, she was responsible for the company’s brand positioning campaigns in the UK, most recently highlighting the company’s offer to clients in a zero carbon economy.  She also introduced and successfully embedded Government relations within the company.

  Previously, Julie headed up global communications for the infrastructure business at engineering firm Bechtel, where she helped to transform the company’s approach towards reputation management.  During her time at Bechtel, she introduced and ran strategic communications and thought leadership programmes across multiple markets, including central and eastern Europe, and the Middle East.  She was also responsible for leading an award-winning digital campaign highlighting the company’s rail business to international audiences, including the UK, Brazil and Middle East. 

  Julie speaks English and French. 

  Email: jgreen@cruising.org

• Alfredo Serrano

  Alfredo Serrano, who obtained the degree of Industrial Engineering by the Polytechnic University of Madrid and holds an MBA from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France), has a broad professional experience in the cruising industry, since 2002, when he left the industrial sector after having worked in different multinational companies.

  Alfredo held the position of Managing Director at the Spanish cruise line Iberojet Cruceros, a division of the Iberostar Group. In 2007 Carnival Corporation & PLC acquired Iberojet and rebranded it to Iberocruceros, where Serrano remained as the Managing Director. He was responsible for launching the company as a key player in the Spanish travel market by diversifying its customer base and stablishing it in South America.

  In 2014, and to date, Alfredo was appointed National Director for Spain at Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) where he represents and gives a voice to the organisation, handles the Public Affairs and strategic engagement with ministries, regional, local administrations and national stakeholders as well as he manages the direct relationship with the CLIA partners.

  Email: aserrano@cruising.org

• Tor Christian Sletner

  Tor Christian Sletner has his primary education from the Royal Norwegian Navy; at the Coastal Artillery School of Appeal, the Naval Academy's Operative Line and the Navy's Staff School. In addition, he holds a degree in Economics from the University of Oslo and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Norwegian School of Economics. Following 15 years of service in the Navy, he began his civil career at Vestfold University College, later he became Deputy Director of the Norwegian Coastal Administration. Until he joined CLIA in July this year ha as worked at the Norwegian Shipowners' Association since 2010. Finally, he has been a board member in the Norwegian NOx fund, permanent representative of the Norwegian delegation to IMO and over years jointed and worked in committees in both International Chamber of Shipping and the European Community Shipowners' Association.

  Email: tcsletner@cruising.org

• Michael Thamm

  Michael Thamm is one of the leading figures in the cruise sector with a career spanning more than 30 years in the cruise and shipping industry. From 1993, he was a key player in developing the cruise market in Germany, positioning AIDA Cruises as the market leader. He was President of AIDA Cruises from 2004 to 2012, during which time he initiated a new-build program which saw the fleet grow by one vessel per year between 2007 and 2013.

  In 2012, Michael Thamm was appointed Group CEO to lead the global business of Costa Group that includes Costa Crociere, AIDA Cruises and Carnival Maritime. On top of this, in January 2017 he was named Group CEO Costa Group and Carnival Asia extending his responsibility over this region. In January 2019 Michael Thamm was appointed Chairman of CLIA Europe.

  Email: thamm@costa.it

CLIA Brazil

• Marco Ferraz

  With more than 30 years of experience in the tourism sector, Ferraz serves as President of CLIA Abremar Brasil. Ferraz started working with tourism in the 1980s, at Monark Tourism. Before assuming the presidency of CLIA Abremar Brasil, he acted as president of Braztoa (Brazilian Association of Tour Operators) for four years. Under his leadership, Braztoa began a partnership with World Travel Market Latin America, Abav Expo, and started a close relationship with UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) and WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) to include Brazil as a priority destination as well as a source for international travelers.

  Email: marco@abremar.com.br