Cruise and Ferry Review - Summer/Spring 2020

8 9 INTERV IEW Bridging the gap Celebrity Cruises’ Lisa Lutoff-Perlo discusses her mission for inclusion and diversity in the cruise industry with Allan Jordan H istorically, the commercial shipping sector has been a male-dominated environment. In the cruise industry, women were mostly employed in the hotel department, but this is gradually starting to change. In celebration of the International Women’s Day in March 2020, Celebrity Cruises’ revolutionary ship, Celebrity Edge, will become the first cruise ship to sail with an entirely female staff on the bridge and in the senior positions. “It says a lot about us as a company and how far we have come with efforts of diversity and inclusion that we can do this,” says Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises. Leading Celebrity since 2014, Lutoff- Perlo has been on a mission to transform the workforce. In her own career, she pioneered new ground, including becoming executive vice president of operations at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 2012, where she managed nautical and technical operations for a fleet of 22 cruise ships with more than 35,000 employees. Today, she is a role model of senior female executives at large corporations, actively speaking, interviewing and writing to promote inclusion and diversity. Among Lutoff-Perlo’s first initiatives at Celebrity was appointing the industry’s first American female captain, which happened in 2015. Over the subsequent 18 months, Celebrity took the percentage of women on its bridges from five to 20, but Lutoff-Perlo was still moved when she met a young woman from Cameroon in 2016. After having graduated from a maritime college in Ghana, Nicholine Tifuh-Azirh had encountered bias preventing her from pursuing her dream of a maritime career. “Nicholine was a determined young woman and she was not going to let me get away without hearing her story,” recalls Lutoff-Perlo. Moved by the story, she set Celebrity’s marine department on a mission. “It took a year working with the International Maritime Organization and Malta, our flag state, to get approval.” In August 2017, Tifuh-Azirh became the first cadet on Celebrity Equinox from a new programme with the maritime academy in Ghana. Today, she sails as second officer along with several other African women who are also pursuing maritime careers with Celebrity. Celebrity Edge’s March cruise will be a symbolic moment and another example of the philosophy that is guiding the brand. Celebrity has also used the christening Photo: Celebrity Cruises