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Kristian Stensby, our President and Chief Executive Officer, has been involved in the cruise industry since 1982. He is the founding partner of Ocean Group and since 2002 has been involved in development projects within the passenger ship industry both on behalf of Ocean Group and related entities.
Formerly, Mr. Stensby founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Premier Cruises, where Mr. Stensby grew Premier Cruises from one to six ships, operating itineraries in the U.S., Bahamas, South America, the Caribbean, and Europe, with annualized revenues in excess of $200 million, an operating profit in excess of 20%, and more than 3,000 employees, making Premier Cruises, with its 5,500 lower berths, the largest privately-held cruise line in the world.
Mr. Stensby also served as Treasurer of Kloster Cruise Limited (KCL), the parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Viking Line, and Royal Cruise Line. He led the effort to list KCL on the New York Stock Exchange, and negotiated and secured contracts on its behalf for the construction and financing of five new cruise vessels.
Mr. Stensby first became involved in the cruise industry in an investor/investment banking capacity with a Norwegian investment company owned by Den norske Bank and later with Merrill Lynch.
Mr. Stensby spent 18 months in the Royal Norwegian Air Force (1975-76), before completing Section I of Norwegian Law Studies at the University of Oslo in 1978. In 1980, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Denver, and subsequently completed a foreign student program at San Francisco State University, earning him a Siviløkonom degree from the Norwegian School of Business (Handelshøyskolen) in 1982.
Darryl B. Deaktor is our Executive Vice President Business Development and General Counsel and specializes in financial and commercial transactions. He has worked with us in various capacities since 2007.
Mr. Deaktor is a retired partner of White & Case, LLP, a global law firm with more than 2,000 lawyers in 30 countries, where he practiced corporate and securities law from 1987 to 2002. Mr. Deaktor was a founding partner of the firm’s Miami and Johannesburg offices, and at the time of his retirement he headed up the firm’s U.S. technology corporate practice in Silicon Valley. Since retiring in 2002, Mr. Deaktor has engaged in private practice.
Mr. Deaktor has served as a full-time member of the law faculty at the University of Florida and has lectured widely, primarily to legal practitioners, on U.S. securities and corporate law topics.
Mr. Deaktor has his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.
Andrew Wharton, our Chief Financial Officer, has been involved in
the hospitality industry since 1985 and for six years served as the SVP and CFO
of ResidenSea.
From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Wharton was a Managing Director
at KPMG LLP, based in its Miami office, and served as Southeast regional practice
leader of its Real Estate and Hospitality Advisory Services practice. In this role
he provided subject matter expertise on financial management and cruise, real
estate and hospitality industry issues to a number of domestic and
international cruise line and other hospitality clients on a variety of
projects. His clients included: Carnival Corp., Norwegian
Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Global Hyatt
Corp. incl. Hyatt Vacation Club, Goldman Sachs & Co., Marriott Vacation
Club International, and TPG.
From 1998 until the end of 2003, Mr. Wharton served as
a Senior Vice President and the CFO of ResidenSea Ltd., where he provided
overall leadership in the areas of operations and finance for this developer
and operator of the vessel “The World,” a luxury, mixed use resort at sea. Mr. Wharton was responsible for
developing and carrying out ResidenSea’s business plan, strategic planning and
analysis, investor relations, managing all partner management agreements,
management information systems, purchasing, legal, human resources, insurance
and financial reporting. Under his leadership, ResidenSea successfully
completed a $60 million private equity offering and a $260 million debt
offering despite a period of extreme financial illiquidity and the Asian
financial crisis.
From 1985 to 1998, Mr. Wharton served in various roles at
KPMG Peat Marwick focusing on hospitality clients.
Mr. Wharton is a Certified Public Accountant and earned
Bachelors of Science degrees in Accounting and Finance from Florida State
University.
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