CaribPR Wire

A further demonstration of the company’s commitment to ESG

MIAMI, June 24, 2021 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ – Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL) announced today that Silvia Garrigo will join the company June 28 as Senior Vice President and Chief Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Officer, reporting to Chairman and CEO Richard Fain.

“I am thrilled to have Silvia join to help us continue our leadership and commitment to ESG,” said Fain. ”Silvia has advised several companies on purpose-driven and practical ESG strategies and programs, and she understands the interplay of legal, geo-political, social and environmental issues in a global business context. Bringing her to Royal Caribbean Group affirms our commitment to going above and beyond for the health and success of our planet and our people.”

Royal Caribbean Group is the first in the cruise industry to name a senior leader dedicated specifically to these efforts, demonstrating Royal Caribbean Group’s “pioneering spirit and leadership in the cruise industry and how we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” according to Fain.

Garrigo will be responsible for overseeing a companywide ESG framework and a long-term strategy for Royal Caribbean Group to support the company’s core business objectives as well as for developing strategic partnerships and relationships with stakeholders. In partnership with the leadership team, she will also lead the integration of environmental and social issues into the company’s governance and enterprise risk management.

“I share Richard’s and the executive committee’s values and vision of continuous improvement and am honored to be part of a company culture that has demonstrated resilience and determination to come back stronger,” Garrigo said. “We are facing increasing expectations for ESG performance and reporting, and I am excited to join a team that already has a very strong record of ESG work and a longstanding commitment to making a positive difference.”

With experience providing legal and sustainability counsel to senior executives of global publicly held companies, Garrigo joins the Royal Caribbean Group from Millicom International, where she was responsible for developing and executing Millicom’s global environmental, social and governance, and social investment strategy. Prior to that, Garrigo was senior legal and sustainability counsel for Morrison Foerster and Cuba Strategies Inc. And for more than a decade, she held various executive and senior legal positions at Chevron Corp., where she guided the company on corporate responsibility policies and practices as well as shareholder engagement on ESG issues.

Garrigo serves on the Advisory Board of the University of California Berkeley Boalt Law School’s Business and Society Institute; the University of Miami Business School’s Advisory Board; the American Bar Association’s Human Rights Working Group; and the United Nations’ Global Compact, Human Rights Working Group. She earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Boston College.

About Royal Caribbean Group
Royal Caribbean Group is the operating business name for Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Royal Caribbean Group is the owner and operator of three global cruise vacation brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, and Silversea Cruises.  Royal Caribbean Group is also a 50% owner of a joint venture that operates TUI Cruises and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Together, the brands operate 59 ships with an additional 15 on order as of March 15, 2021.  Learn more at www.royalcaribbeangroup.com or www.rclinvestor.com.

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MIAMI, April 11, 2020 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ Arne Wilhelmsen, a founder of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) and a visionary strategist of the modern cruise industry, died Saturday, April 11, 2020, in Palma, Spain. He was 90. The entire Royal Caribbean family extends its heartfelt condolences to the Wilhelmsen family.

Wilhelmsen was a constant influence on the company from its founding, serving more than three decades on the company’s board of directors. Together with the company’s first CEO, the late Edwin Stephan, Wilhelmsen saw possibilities for the nascent cruise industry that others did not.

“At a time when the rest of the world thought cruising was a niche use for old transatlantic liners, Arne was already seeing glimmers of the growth that was possible,” said Richard Fain, RCL’s chairman and CEO. “He had a vision of the modern cruise industry when the ‘industry’ might have been a dozen used ships, total.”

Their key insight: building new ships uniquely designed for cruising in warm weather. The industry did not grow from New York, the traditional transit hub; it came to Miami, helping the region itself grow as the public discovered an entirely new way to take a vacation.

Wilhelmsen saw the potential for cruising to become the fastest growing segment in a growing vacation industry.  A believer in economies of scale, he once recalled, “My initial challenge was to convince my partners and management in Miami to build bigger and more efficient ships in order to grow the company.”  True to his vision, the company now sails 61 ships calling on all seven continents and its fleet features the largest cruise ships in the world.

Born on June 15, 1929, in Oslo, Norway, Wilhelmsen earned his MBA at Harvard Business School and worked as a chartering assistant for Norway’s EB Lund & Co. and later as a shipbroker in New York. After joining the family business in 1954, he became its president in 1961. The scion of a leading Norwegian shipping concern – Anders Wilhelmsen & Co AS – he spent most of his life in the family business, including an early stint as a deckhand.

“Arne was a steady presence and source of wisdom on our board for decades,” Fain said. “And in 2003, when he was ready to step back, he was succeeded on the RCL board by his son, Alex, who has carried the involvement of the Wilhelmsen family in charting our company’s course into its sixth decade. Our high standards as a company, our insistence on excellence in operations and design, and our determination to persevere all owe a great deal to the long-term vision of Arne, Alex and the Wilhelmsen family. We salute our friend, and we will miss him dearly.”

About Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that controls and operates four global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara and Silversea Cruises. We are also a 50% joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises and a 49% shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur Cruceros. Together these brands operate a combined total of 61 ships with an additional 17 on order as of December 31, 2019. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.azamara.com, www.silversea.com, www.tuicruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, or www.rclinvestor.com.

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