| Costa CEO replaced by AIDA president

Pier Luigi Foschi has announced
his retirement, which will see a
management shake-up at Costa
Cruises.
MICHAEL Thamm, president of Germanybased
AIDA Cruises, has been appointed ceo
of the Costa Group, replacing Pier Luigi Foschi,
who steps down from the post on 01 Jul.
The move is part of a long-term succession
plan with the scheduled retirement of Foschi
once he reached the age of 65 last September.
But Foschi will remain as chairman and a
managing director of the Costa Group, and
will sit on the Board of Directors of Carnival
Corporation & plc.
He has also vowed to continue to oversee
the company’s government relations and
matters related to the Costa Concordia accident.
“I will maintain my full support for the great
Costa management team to overcome the
recent difficulties in order to reconfirm Costa’s
leadership in Europe,” Foschi said in a statement.
As the new ceo, Thamm will serve on Costa’s
Board of Directors and report to Foschi, as well
as Carnival Corporation chairman and ceo
Micky Arison and vice chairman and coo
Howard Frank.
Replacing Thamm is AIDA senior executive
Michael Ungerer, while Gianni Onorato is
expected to continue in his role as president
of the Costa Cruises brand.
Foschi joined Costa Crociere in 1997 and was
elected chairman in 2000.
Under his leadership, the company launched
an €11 billion fleet expansion program, creating
Europe’s largest fleet: 25 ships (14 Costa Cruises,
eight AIDA Cruises and three Iberocruceros)
with total guest capacity of 61,500.
Six more new ships are set to enter service
for the group by 2016 (two for Costa Cruises
and four for AIDA Cruises).
Since 2000 Foschi has presided over an
increase in the company’s revenues from
€572.4m to €3.1b in 2011 (+ 540 %), with profits
growing consistently over the last 10 years.
As a result, Costa is now ranked as one of
Italy’s 10 most profitable companies.
Also in the period from 2000 to 2011, the
number of total guests travelling with Costa
Group rose from 363,000 to 2.3 million.
Micky Arison praised Foschi’s achievements
and congratulated Thamm, who will relocate
to Genoa.
“Pier has made it known for some time that
he intended to retire once he turned 65 and
today’s announcement is part of our longtime
succession plan that allows us to tap into our
talented management team to find qualified
individuals to oversee our brands,” Arison said.
“At the same time, Michael has done a
superb job managing AIDA Cruises and we
have every confidence that Michael will
continue these efforts at the helm of Costa”.