Listeners welcome back to the pod - today we will dive deep into the life of one of the most influential figures in the cruise line and maritime world. Our guest is a titan of the cruise line industry, a visionary entrepreneur, and a lifelong champion of global tourism his name is Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio. 

Manfredi has transformed his family business into a global leader in luxury cruising. Under his leadership, Silversea Cruises expanded its company offering travel experiences across all seven continents around the world. In a strategic partnership with Royal Caribbean Manfredi orchestrated the sale of a ⅔ stake in Silversea for a whopping $1 billion in 2018. This strategic partnership not only elevated Silversea's brand but also marked one of the most significant deals in the cruise industry's history. And lastly, Manfredi is the Chairman of The Heritage Group which is a private equity company that acquired 85% of one of the biggest luxury travel companies in the world Abercrombie & Kent - whose founder Geoffrey Kent was on the podcast just last month. 

Today we are going to dive into the life and mind of Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio. 

00:12 : Who is Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio?

03:42 : Manfredi’s Recommended Books     

05:56 : Manfredi’s Starts a Cruise Line

13:01 : How this Billion-Dollar Founder Spends his Time

15:05 : The Biggest Challenge Manfredi Experienced was September 11, 2001. 

18:56 : Manfredi Takes Over the Family Business

21:18 : Manfredi Pioneers the Luxury Cruise Industry. 

24:39 : Why Manfredi Loves Being an Entrepreneur

26:13 : Manfredi’s Career Chapters

29:59 : Manfredi Orchestrated the Most Significant Deal in the Cruise Industry. 

32:47 : Manfredi & Geoffrey Kent Built the First Expedition Cruise Ship

34:59 : Manfredi’s Daily Routine

37:13 : Advice Manfredi Would Give His Younger Self

37:58 : Things to Look for in Executives and Partners When You Bring Them On 

40:25 : What is Manfredi Most Proud Of?

Contact Info:

https://www.manfredilefebvre.com/

https://heritagemonaco.com/

https://www.silversea.com/

Transcript:

[00:00:12 ] Chris: Listeners, welcome back to the podcast today, and we will dive deep into the life of one of the most influential figures in the cruise line and maritime world. Our guest today is a Titan in the cruise line industry, a visionary entrepreneur, a lifelong champion of global tourism, and his name is Manfredi LaFavre D'Ovidio.

Manfredi has transformed his family business into a global leader in luxury cruising. Under his leadership, Silver Sea Cruises expanded its company, offering travel experiences across all seven continents around the world. In a strategic partnership with Royal Caribbean, Manfredi orchestrated the sale of a two third stake in Silversea for a whopping 1 billion in 2018.

This strategic partnership not only elevated Silversea's brand, but also marked. One of the most significant deals in the cruise industry's history. And lastly, Manfredi is the chairman of the heritage group, which is a private equity company that acquired 85 percent of one of the biggest luxury travel companies in the world, Abercrombie and Kent, whose founder was actually on the podcast last month.

So if you haven't listened to that interview yet, make sure you check it out. And today we're going to dive into the life and mind of Manfredi. Listeners, welcome to the show. Manfredi, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

[00:01:34 ] Manfredi: Not too bad. Not too bad. Can I add something to what you said?

[00:01:38 ] Chris: Please do. Add or take away.

Whatever you like.

[00:01:41 ] Manfredi: Well, what happened is that as soon as I did my deal with Royal Caribbean, I did buy, uh, Abercrombie Kent, which recently I brought up to 100 percent shareholding, and I sold to Royal Caribbean subsequently one further that I owned, uh, in, uh, Silver Sea in exchange of Royal Caribbean shares and acquired another cruise line, which is called Crystal Cruises.

[00:02:04 ] Chris: Ah, I did actually read about that. Forgive me for not putting that in there.

[00:02:08 ] Manfredi: No, so it's just, the story goes on. And before Silver Sea, we had another cruise line, which was called Sydmar. Okay.

[00:02:17 ] Chris: Was Sid, was Smar the one created by your father or was Silver Sea created by your father? Uh,

[00:02:23 ] Manfredi: Sid Smar was acquired by my father with me because I was working with him at the time.

And we bought, uh, the Cruise Line, which was one of the first cruise lines ever. And, uh, Sid Bar built the first free purposely built cruise ships, which were built in Italian shipyard fi can and LA in France.

[00:02:42 ] Chris: Great. So that

[00:02:42 ] Manfredi: was the beginning. Then we got an offer we couldn't refuse. We sold Smar. And we started Silversea together with my father, which I took over shortly after.

[00:02:52 ] Chris: And that was in the 90s, correct?

[00:02:54 ] Manfredi: That was, uh, we started in 92, we acquired in 86, Sidmar, sold it in 89, started in 92, uh, 91, Silversea, and, uh, we're ordering the ships, and then we started operating in 94.

[00:03:10 ] Chris: Incredible.

[00:03:12 ] Manfredi: So, and then in 2018, uh, we, I sold to Royal Caribbean and I bought in 2000, uh, actually was in 2019.

The negotiation started earlier 2019. I bought Abercrombie & Kent.

[00:03:27 ] Chris: That's right. Incredible. Um, so Manfredi, I was told by a mentor of mine a long time ago that the, uh, difference between a wealthy person and the average person is the information that we put in between the two ears that we have. and what we choose to do with it.

And I hear you're an avid reader, so if it's okay with you, I'd like to ask about what you're reading right now and some of the more impactful, uh, books of your life.

[00:03:59 ] Manfredi: Yeah, I tend to read two, three books in parallel. So now I'm reading the Silk Roads, number one, the old Silk Road and the new Silk Road.

Then there is a new book which was written about the oil industry and the energy markets, which is very interesting. I don't remember now the exact title. And then, you know, other things which went back in time. An interesting View of the history of the United States of America, which is unconventional view.

Ah,

[00:04:34 ] Chris: do

[00:04:34 ] Manfredi: you

[00:04:34 ] Chris: know who, do you know who the author of that book was?

[00:04:38 ] Manfredi: I can let you know.

[00:04:39 ] Chris: Okay.

[00:04:40 ] Manfredi: Um, it was recommended to me and I bought it and it's quite interesting.

[00:04:44 ] Chris: Do you have two or three books that were the most impactful in your life?

[00:04:50 ] Manfredi: Yeah, you know, but probably I'm, I, I had once, um, hepatitis, so I was stuck in bed for a long time and I managed to read all of War and Peace, the whole story. It's a massive book. In today's world, it's very difficult to read at all.

[00:05:10 ] Chris: Yeah. Okay. Anything else, any others?

[00:05:17 ] Manfredi: Oh, this is the one that comes to my mind immediately.

The other ones are, you know, I try to always read something which will leave me something, uh, in knowledge.

[00:05:27 ] Chris: Yeah.

[00:05:28 ] Manfredi: A book that I loved was, uh, A Hundred Years of Solitude.

[00:05:33 ] Chris: I've heard of that one.

[00:05:35 ] Manfredi: There's a life in this village in Colombia, which goes through the civil wars in the country. It's quite interesting.

[00:05:42 ] Chris: Nice. Um, so I kind of want to start this off about, uh, going back to your, your past and your childhood. And I'm curious about the first moment that you realized you had a passion for ships and cruise lines. Uh, do you remember that moment?

[00:06:03 ] Manfredi: I can, uh, reconnected because when I was 14, my father told us, uh, he was We're going on a cruise.

Now it's 14, it's uh, what is it, 56 years ago. It was really at the beginning. Nobody knew about cruises. And, uh, he, because his friend had his cruise line, which was called Sidmar, and so we went to all the way to Mexico, Los Angeles, took the cruise down the Mexico coast, and, uh, that was the first impact with, uh, uh, cruising.

But I've been involved in shipping all my life, because my father was a ship owner, a professor of university of maritime law, and a lawyer, and he was always involved with shipping. So it's been all our lives that we've been involved with ships, we had yachts, and so on. We had shipping companies, we had ferry companies, we had all sorts of things.

But that was a crucial moment because we sold this company, where I subsequently went to work. When I was 18. And then, uh, you