Silversea Cruises UK marketing director Anil Swarup is leaving the company after five years as the luxury line announced the return of former marketing chief Mike Bonner.
Bonner has been named as director of sales and marketing and general manager for the UK, Ireland and Middle East from October 17.
He rejoins Silversea after five years working for the Maybourne Hotel Group, where he was director of sales and marketing for Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley hotels in London. Bonner was previously Silversea’s director of marketing from 1999 to 2006.
He will head the UK office’s sales, marketing, corporate communications and reservations functions, reporting to senior vice president of sales and marketing UK, Europe and Asia Pacific, Steve Odell, who recently returned to London after a period based in Australia.
In other changes, southern region senior sales manager Priti Mehta has been promoted to the new position of head of sales. Reporting to Bonner, Mehta will manage field sales and national accounts that will include Mafalda Baretto who will return in November to assume the newly created position of national accounts manager.
Anita Hobdell has returned to London from the company’s Sydney office as head of reservations and guest services, also reporting to Bonner.
She will oversee the relocation of the UK and European reservations department to the London office, manage the integration alongside the line’s team in Fort Lauderdale in Florida and then direct the new department which is due to be fully operational in January.
Hobdell has 12 years’ experience with Silversea, most recently establishing the Asia Pacific reservations department in the company’s Sydney office. Ewen Cameron has been promoted from manager of finance and administration to director of finance, human resources and administration, reporting to Odell.
Odell said: “I wish to express our gratitude to Anil for his many important contributions during his tenure and wish him the best for the future.”
He added: “Our new management team announced today has an enviable depth of experience and strategically places us in a very strong position to accelerate our growth in these key markets.”