Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd ( RCL - Analyst Report ) recently promoted its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brian Rice to the position of the vice chairman. In this extended role, along with supervision of the finance department, he will also have to look after the supply chain section. Rice will also need to concentrate more on strategic issues.

Apart from being the CFO of the cruise company since October, 31, 2006, Rice has also held the position of Executive Vice President since November, 2006. He has been employed with Royal Caribbean for over 20 years. After joining Royal Caribbean in 1989, Mr. Rice served a variety of senior management positions, including Senior Vice President of Revenue Performance; Vice President of Market Planning and Development; and Director of Revenue Planning and Analysis.

Brian Rice has played a pivotal role in enriching growth, profitability and efficiency of the company. With his rich experience in financial operations and revenue-performance management, he will be able to do full justice to his additional responsibility. He will continue to report to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Richard Fain.

Prior to joining Royal Caribbean, he served as director of Sales Planning and Administration at Kloster Cruises Ltd., the former parent company of Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Viking Line.

The Miami, Florida-based cruise operator also incorporated other managerial changes. It promoted Jason Liberty to the position of senior vice president of strategy and finance. He joined the company in 2005 and currently serves as vice president of corporate, revenue planning and insurance. He will now oversee the company's strategic planning, corporate planning, investor relations, deployment and treasury functions. Liberty will continue to report to Rice.

RCL also named its 27 year veteran, Lutoff-Perlo as executive vice president of operations for Royal Caribbean International and Lisa Bauer as executive vice president of global sales and marketing. Both will continue to report to the president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, Adam Goldstein.

We are encouraged by the above promotions and expect the company to flourish under such strong management leadership. Encouraged by the news, the shares of the company also hit its 52-week high of $31.97 on September 25, 2012.

Royal Caribbean which competes with Carnival Corporation ( CCL - Analyst Report ) currently retains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term ‘Hold’ rating. We are maintaining our long-term ‘Neutral’ recommendation on the stock.