John Padgett appointed Princess Cruises' president

‘An absolute honour’

‘The opportunity to lead the iconic Princess brand and to help take the cruise content — including hotel, food and beverage, entertainment, merchandise and destination experiences — to new levels is an absolute honor,’ said the newly appinted president.  

He will report directly to Jan Swartz, group president, Holland America Group, which includes Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn and P&O Cruises Australia.

‘A key player in fleet transformation’

‘John is the mastermind behind our state-of-the-art OCEAN platform and was a key player in our fleet transformation, working closely with Princess team members in virtually every area of our operation to enable the MedallionClass experience for all our guests,’ said Swartz.

'John’s vision, drive and performance, combined with his commitment to providing the best guest experience in the industry, have helped position Princess for success well into the future,' she added. 'We warmly welcome John to the role and look forward to his stewardship as we navigate this fast-changing, dynamic environment.’ 

Padgett has served as chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corp. since July 2014, responsible for guest experience innovation, development, creation and operations integration. He helped transform the approach to creating differentiated guest experiences, tailored to passenger interests. Together with his innovation team, Padgett was responsible for creating TV and digital content programming highlighting passengers’ experiences for over 900m viewers around the world, expanding awareness and demand-generation for cruising.

Padgett will retain leadership of the corporation’s innovation unit.

Background

Prior to becoming chief experience and innovation officer for Carnival Corp., Padgett worked for 18 years with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. He earned a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Virginia Tech and has more than two dozen patents and several awards for innovation.