Dive Brief:
- Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings tapped its recently hired chief strategy officer, Meghan Montana, to succeed outgoing CFO Mark A. Kempa on Jan. 1, the company announced in a securities filing and press release Thursday.
- A former VP of finance and corporate development and treasurer at American Airlines, Montana joined the cruise line last January. She will succeed Kempa, who is departing after serving as CFO for eight years.
- CEO John W. Chidsey said Kempa has been a “stalwart leader” since 1999 and guided the business through its IPO, acquisitions and the COVID-19 pandemic. “His financial leadership was instrumental in ensuring the company’s survival during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Chidsey said in the release. “Most recently, he led significant cost savings initiatives across our shipboard and shoreside operations.”
Dive Insight:
The company announced the transition along with its Q3 2026 earnings, reporting GAAP net income of $491 million for the period compared to $419 million in the year-earlier quarter.
The CEO said the company is seeing “early signs of progress” related to its turnaround strategy and the company said it is exercising cost discipline as well as hedging energy costs, with fuel expenses hitting $196 million in the quarter.
The Consumer Price Index rose in September to a higher-than-forecast annual rate of 3.7%, fueled largely by a surge in the price of gasoline, CFO Dive previously reported.
Before joining the cruise line, Montana served in various senior roles at American Airlines. Even as the average age of new CFOs at public companies fell to 48.2 years this year, Montana, 40, is on the young side in the increasingly youthful cohort.
She previously held several roles in the treasury department for the airline, including as SVP treasurer for roughly her last two years, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Her responsibilities included corporate finance and cash management, fleet transactions, asset management and fuel procurement, logistics and operations. Prior to American Airlines she worked for several banks including Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
In her new role, Montana will receive an annual base salary of $875,000 and will carry forward an existing sign-on bonus from her original hiring totaling $1.55 million, according to the filing.
The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
