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MSC Cruises appoints new chief marketing officer

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Casalino most recently served as group cmo for eDreams ODIGEO
MSC Cruises announced Riccardo Casalino had joined the company’s executive leadership at its global headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland, as the new chief marketing officer.

Casalino, 46, has lived and worked internationally for 20 years, leading various international marketing teams for Procter & Gamble Co., eBay (Europe) and, most recently, online travel company eDreams ODIGEO. He will report to ceo, Gianni Onorato.

Onorato said: ‘MSC Cruises is an ambitious young company that grew 800% in its first 10 years, quickly becoming the fourth biggest cruise line in the industry. We’re now on course for further exponential growth through a €5bn plan to double our current fleet capacity by 2022.’

Onorato added Casalino’s broad international experience spanning travel, e-commerce and consumer goods, ‘will be pivotal as we continue to build the MSC Cruises brand in step with the company’s rapid and aggressive expansion programme.’

Casalino most recently served as group cmo for eDreams ODIGEO, in Barcelona, where he managed a team of 120 people. Prior to that, he was senior marketing director for e-commerce pioneer eBay (Europe), based in Zurich, where he repositioned the eBay brand and drove growth well above the European e-commerce average.

Casalino, who took up his post on April 23, is the third addition to the MSC Cruises C-suite this year, following the arrival of a new chief communications officer, in March, and chief information officer, earlier this month.