by Donald Wood
Last updated: 5:08 PM ET, Tue December 12, 2017
Celestyal Cruises has a new North American president.
As part of his role with Celestyal Cruises, Leslie Peden will be responsible for promoting the brand across North America to drive business growth and market share.
Peden boasts over 30 years in the cruising, tour operations, air and rail travel industries, in addition to working for Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Virgin Holidays Cruises and Island Cruises (now TUI).
Peden will succeed Celestyal Cruises veteran Nicholas Filippidis, who will remain with the company in a consultancy role, ensuring a smooth transition for the brand's travel partners.
"We are excited to bring Mr. Peden on board. He is an industry standout and an innovator who brings decades of travel expertise, with an emphasis on cruising," Celestyal Cruises CEO Kyriakos Anastassiadis said in a statement. "We expect Mr. Peden will bring immeasurable enthusiasm to his role and we look forward to him achieving tremendous success in North America."
One of Peden's biggest impacts on the industry came with Virgin Holidays Cruises. Not only did he successfully integrate the business unit into the wider Virgin Travel Group, he also developed and executed Virgin Holidays Cruises' first fully-integrated marketing peaks campaign.
Prior to Virgin Holidays Cruises, Peden was with Island Cruises, where he defined and executed a five-year strategic plan for trade and consumer sales, multi-channel distribution, customer services, call center operations and more.
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