Pamela Conover – President of a Greek Cruise Line owned by Carnival Cruise Lines

Cruising Along: Seabourn Cruise Line’s Pamela Conover, the first woman to head a major cruise company, discusses luxury, balance, management – and the $900 million expansion plan she’s ushering in while economists scream “recession.”

By Taylor Mallory

Born in Thailand, Pamela Conover moved to England with her British parents at age 7. A long, successful banking career brought her to the U.S. in 1979, and a few years later she went to work for Citicorp, where Carnival Cruise Lines (the $3.1 billion company that owns Seabourn) was one of her customers. “I immediately fell in love with the cruise industry and decided to learn as much as I could about the business,” says Conover, who left her finance career in 1994, when Carnival made her president of a Greek cruise line it had just acquired. She took on her current role in 2006, becoming the first woman to run a major cruise line. (There are three such women now – all at Carnival Corp. companies.) The 52-year-old lives with her husband in Key Biscayne, Fla.

PINK: What challenges came with the distinction of being the first woman in your position?
Pamela Conover: I’m lucky enough to work for a corporation that cares more about results and individuals than about gender. When I was in Greece 15 years ago, dealing with the Greek maritime unions and cultural issues, they were pretty surprised to have a woman as president. And they weren’t quite sure how to deal with me. I earned their respect by being completely direct and straightforward and firm. By the time I left, they were calling me the “steel hand in the velvet glove.” That was OK with me.

PINK: How do you define success – in your business and personally?
P.C.: If a brand is successful, you build more ships for it – and we’re adding three new ships by 2011. It will require more than 200 percent growth over the next four years, as each ship will cost more than $300 million to build. I don’t think of success in terms of specific milestones. To me, it means being involved in something you’re really passionate about and enjoy doing.

PINK: Given the looming recession, does it make you nervous to be making such a huge financial investment in these ships?
P.C.: It’s our greatest challenge, but I’m confident it’s also our greatest opportunity. There is tremendous demand for luxury travel, and despite a possible recession, I think demand is growing. There are all those baby boomers out there, which means more affluent people coming to the age where they have the time, money and inclination to travel. Research shows that rather than accumulating things, they want to accumulate experiences. Our challenge is to get the message to them that one of the best ways to do that is on a Seabourn ship. It’s a small, yacht-like experience with only 206 people. It’s very high-end, and we have almost one crew member to every guest to provide a completely personalized experience.

PINK: What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received?
P.C.: My father told me before I went to work, “For goodness’ sake, just keep quiet and listen and learn, because you don’t know anything yet.” And that’s been extremely good advice, even now that I do know things. You can never listen enough. If my employees on the ships feel I’m approachable and prepared to hear them, they’ll tell me stuff I would otherwise have no idea about. And the same thing with customers. I was on a ship recently doing a presentation to our guests. They were all polite and said I did well and that they got a lot of information. But in Q&A, I found out which issues they feel strongly about: “Why don’t you offer more cruises to Australia?” “Why aren’t there more black-tie formal evenings?” Listening to the questions people ask tells you so much more about their concerns than when you ask them questions.

PINK: What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your professional career?
P.C.: I learned a very valuable lesson early on in my banking career when giving feedback to a summer intern. At the end of her time with us, I gave fairly honest (and a little too harsh) feedback. At the time, I thought it was completely appropriate. On reflection, I realized that what I didn’t do was prepare her for this in any way. She was blindsided and tremendously upset. My mistake was to sit through the entire summer thinking about what she was and was not doing right – without telling her along the way. That was unfair. She had no opportunity to adjust or learn throughout the experience. I’ve learned to give constant feedback.

PINK: How is your Life/Work balance?
P.C.: It’s a work in progress. I love what I do, so often work doesn’t feel like work. But I try to make the time for myself. I like to get up very early and go running with my dog. That’s my time. I may be on the ship for two weeks working 17 hours a day. When I’m at home in the office, I’m there by 7 a.m. and generally don’t go home until 7 p.m. I try to take time off on the weekends to spend with my husband, but I have to be on call 24/7 because our ships are global. They’re in different time zones, so if something happens during the day in Asia, it’s the middle of the night here. Often questions come up on Saturdays and Sundays because the ships are operating on those days, so I can never have a BlackBerry-free day. But I’m OK with that.

PINK: What do you love most about your job?
P.C.: The people and the travel. I officially host one cruise per year – the President’s Cruise, when I stay on for the whole trip. I just did a two-week Costa Rica/Central America cruise though the Panama Canal. And then other times, if there’s space, I just pop on and spend a couple of nights. And I always try to go on board when they’re in port to talk to the employees and guests. We’ve just announced that I’ll be going to Asia soon – from Hong Kong to Singapore by Vietnam. It will be one of my favorite cruises because we’ll be going to Bangkok, where I was born and lived as a child. My husband, who’s never been, will get to see where I grew up.

PINK: What attracted you to this industry?
P.C.: It’s really fun! We’re in the business of creating memorable experiences in a rapidly growing industry. There are still so many people who have yet to experience it. And once people do cruise, the satisfaction rate is so high, they generally come back.

PINK: At what moment did you know you had “made it”?
P.C.: I would never say that, because we’re all constantly on a journey, and there is always room for growth. But one moment I would never have believed would happen was launching the Queen Mary II in 2004. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth came to christen the ship. As I’m British, being able to meet her and escort her around the ship was amazing – and quite intimidating. And we were launching the biggest ship in the world at the time. That was a proud moment.