Cheng leaves P&O Cruises for health and wellbeing retailer

Yet another one of Australia’s top marketers, Simon Cheng, has announced he’s leaving his position as head of marketing at P&O Cruises for a new executive-level marketing post in the food retail space.

Cheng is switching cruise liners for health and wellbeing, taking up a new role as CMO of health food retailer, Healthy Life. The company owns about 60 stores nationally and focuses on natural and organic foods, vitamins and supplements.

Cheng was with P&O Cruises for nearly nine years, most recently as VP of sales, marketing and PR. The cruise line brand is part of the Carnival Australia business. His work saw him recognised as one of Australia’s 50 most innovative marketers in CMO’s inaugural CMO50 list in 2015.

Cheng finishes up at P&O this week and said he was looking forward to the opportunity to step into a new and dynamic industry.

Among the highlights of his time with P&O were leading digital strategy and development of a fresh P&O website with ecommerce facilities and personalisation capabilities, as well as spearheading the creation of event-style cruising under the MainEvents brand.

Cheng is one in a string of Australian top marketers pulling up stumps and leaving their roles this week in favour of new opportunities. HCF CMO, Jenny Williams, also left the health insurance provider last week after just over two years in the role, as did ANZ’s GM of group marketing, Louise Eyres.

World Vision also confirmed former Officeworks CRM and digital marketing leader, Teresa Sperti, as its first CMO, with Sperti officially commencing her new position on 8 May.

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