Les Royle 1949-2022
Les Royle, managing director of Bernhard Schulte Cruise Services (BSCS) and cruise industry veteran, passed away September 29, after a brave fight against cancer. He was 72.
‘I was very sorry to hear of the passing of Les Royle. He was an incredible person and colleague. He was instrumental to Bernhard Schulte Management’s successful entry into cruise ship management. As much as we will miss his guidance, the entire team will always remember him for his great sense of humour and his endless passion for the cruise industry,’ commented Martin Springer, managing director BSM Cruise Services.
In a cruise career than spanned fifty years, Royle began his journey in his early 20s joining Cunard Line and spent seven years in the hotel department solely working on QE2. He finished his stint with Cunard in 1979, as senior hotel executive.
Royle then moved to Norwegian Cruise Line as senior hotel executive on the Norway and the white ship fleet. He was seconded to corporate offices in 1984 to help implement an onboard revenue system.So began his career ashore.
Career ashore
First role was as operations supervisor at Carnival Cruise Line where he originated children programmes for three, four and seven day cruising and worked in recruiting, training and scheduling personnel in the purser, steward, beauty and health spa divisions.
He then worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for two years in the late 1980’s, before joining Sovereign Cruises as director of operations.
He stepped out of front line cruising in between 1992 and 1996 taking the general manager role at Printing Place in Miami and overseeing it grow from a backwater position to be a leader in producing airline, hotel, and cruise publications.
The lure of front line operations saw Royle take on the role of VP operations at niche operator Midnight Sun Cruise Line in Norway, followed by CEO of Luxus Group for five plus years, where he led and organised funding campaigns with venture capital firms, investment banks and private investors.
Start ups
Drawn by start ups, Royle became CEO of Indian Ocean Cruises in 2004, the first dedicated cruise operation based in India.
He became a consultant to Niton Capital partners between 2008-2010 followed by six years as managing director of Niton’s Cruise division overseeing its venture into ocean and river cruising and developed a shipmanagement jv.
Cruise consultant Jasem Zaiton, who collaborated with Royle on a number of Indian cruise projects commented: ‘Les wasa true gentleman, always speaking in a very respectful way for the interest of the person he wasdealing with. He was always willing to collaborate and often going out of his way to support and prove that cruise is a very worthy industry.’
Shipmanagement
In 2011, Roylewas md at Global Vessel Management a jv between Niton, Wilhelmsen Ship Management and Apollo Group providing management services to niche cruise operators.
He joined Bernhard Schulte’s cruise division as md in 2016 where he was given the remit to make the 130-year-old shipmanagement company a significant provider of technical ship management and other services withing the cruise secor.
Today BMS Cruise Services has full management of 11 cruise ships ranging from technical management to crew management covering deck, engine and hotel crew.
Among them Ambassador’ Cruise Line’s first vessel Ambience. Christian Verhounig, CEO of Ambassador commented: ‘I enjoyed many conversations with Les ahead of Ambassador partnering with BSM, and he was instrumental in our decision to choose them as our cruise ship manager. While I never had the opportunity to meet Les in person, he is a big loss to our industry whose considerable achievements deserve the highest recognition. He was clearly a passionate and dedicated man whose customer-centric focus undoubtedly contributed to establishing BSM as the force it is today. My deepest condolences go to Les’s family at this difficult time.’
Royle’s funeral service is on October 11, in London. He is survived by his wife Marcia, daughter Anastasia, stepdaughter Beatriz and four grandchildren: Stella, LuÃs, Diego and Maeva.
