Silversea Cruises announced that industry veteran Joe Leon will lead its trade sales teams following Katina Athanasiou’s move to sister brand Celebrity Cruises.

Athanasiou, Silversea’s senior vice president of sales since December 2021, was named Celebrity’s vice president of sales for the Americas, effective January 3, 2023. She will report to Dondra Ritzenthaler, Celebrity’s senior vice president of sales for the the Americas.

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Leon joined Silversea in 2016 as vice president of field sales, North America and has more than 20 years of sales experience in the travel industry. His expanded responsibilities include overseeing Silversea’s national accounts team, field sales team and expedition sales team.

Christian Sierralta, vice president of national accounts, will continue to lead Silversea’s national accounts team.

Rachel Woodward, who has been with Silversea for almost 10 years, was recently promoted to the position of senior director of field sales and will report to Leon. Also reporting to Leon is Karl Kannstadter, senior director of expedition sales. Kannstadter joined Silversea Cruises in January 2018 and, since October 2022, his responsibilities have had a global perimeter.

On the inside sales team, Marcus Kenny, director of business development and agency sales for the Americas, will continue to report directly to Leon.

“The travel advisor community is the lifeblood of Silversea’s success, and we are proud to count on the expertise of one of the industry’s strongest trade sales teams,” said Mark Conroy, Silversea’s managing director-the Americas, in a statement.

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