Kenneth Engstrom, one of the doyens of third-party cruiseship management, has retired after a career with Miami­­-based Cruise Management ­International (CMI) that spanned three decades.

CMI chairman Niels-Erik Lund revealed that Jim Barreiro de Leon, who was managing director of rival V.Ships Leisure USA until 2015, has been recruited to replace Engstrom as president and chief executive.

More recently, Barreiro de Leon, who hails from Spain’s Canary Islands, was managing director of Ship Supply of Florida.

CMI was formed in 2015 as a continuation of the original International Shipping Partners (ISP), which Lund started in 1988.

Selling the company

The pair had met when Engstrom was heading the ­operations department of ­Miami-based cruise operator SeaEscape and Lund, who was with parent DFDS Seaways, was sent to Miami to sell off the company.

Lund formed ISP after Sea­Escape was sold to US investors and quickly recruited Engstrom. The company was then one of the first shipmanagement outfits that focused ­exclusively on the cruise and ferry sectors.

Outsourcing the technical management of cruiseships and ferries was almost unheard of at the time but has since become commonplace, especially with smaller, independent cruise operators.

Today, CMI handles the technical, hotel and/or commercial management of 11 cruiseships, including those owned by compatriot SunStone Ships. These range from specialist ice-class expedition vessels to more conventional cruiseships.

CMI will also manage the four new expedition ships that SunStone ordered at ­China Merchant Industry Holdings and any others that follow.