Cruise and Ferry Review - Summer/Spring 2020

9 1 Celebrity Cruises will make history this March by being the first to sail a cruise ship with an all-female bridge crew events for its newest ships to champion its message. It was honoured in 2018 when Noble Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai became godmother of Celebrity Edge. Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of the international nonprofit Girls Who Code, will fill the same role for Celebrity Apex when she debuts in March 2020. Lutoff-Perlo points to research that shows diverse cultures are the strongest in business and produce the best results, but she gets her strongest satisfaction hearing from the officers, crew, and guests who all stop to thank her and express their appreciation. Celebrity’s marine department and human resources teams continue to actively work with maritime academies developing internships and recruiting. “It is something we are working at each day to attract qualified young women and to encourage them to enter this as a field of study,” she says. Today about 25% of Celebrity’s navigation officers are female, but Lutoff- Perlo is not content to rest on her laurels. “The marine department has finally caught up with the hotel department, but it will be an ongoing process,” she says. “Believe it or not, it has been even harder for us to find women from engineering schools.” Lutoff-Perlo believes this mirrors the trend seen in other technical professions that women have not traditionally been encouraged to pursue, such as computer coding. Celebrity, however, recently hired three women from engineering schools to be its first cadets. Humble in her success at increasing diversity and inclusion in the cruise industry, Lutoff-Perlo says she has no specific goals but remains dedicated to making sure women have equal opportunities. Most of all, she is proud of her team’s welcoming spirit and accomplishments in providing equal opportunities for advancement for women in what was once a male- dominated world. CFR “We are working each day to attract qualified young women and to encourage them to enter this field” INTERV IEW