Interview with Karl Holz, Board Member of SailPlan

 

TME Editor-in-Chief, Tony Munoz, interviewed Karl Holz, a new member on the Board of Directors of SailPlan. Karl is also a senior advisor with McKinsey given his extensive experience in the cruise line industry, theme parks and transportation. His experience includes multiple roles at Disney Parks and Resorts. One of these was as President of Disney Cruise Lines for ten years.

“SailPlan is a data platform for maritime operations, focusing on emissions measurement, operating optimization and deep efficiency analysis. The firm created a maritime analytics, efficiency, and sustainability application that is truly leading edge. SailPlan works with shipowners, fleet operators, ship managers, and in the government sector to unlock strategic business outcomes powered by rich fleet data.”

TME: Karl you were our cover for January- February 2012 Edition as President of Disney Cruise Lines. You have since moved on and recently became a Board Member for SailPlan. What other endeavors have been keeping you busy?

Karl Holz (KH): In addition to joining SailPlan as a board member, I’ve been with McKinsey & Co. since 2018. They were the first major organization to connect with me, offering a Senior Advisor role with the firm. My focus is on building Organizational Culture and driving exceptional Customer Experience outcomes. Through McKinsey, I am involved in a variety of private equity engagements, dealing with cruise line matters and so much more. McKinsey & Co. has given me the opportunity to focus on healthcare, banking, themed entertainment, pharmaceuticals and utilities, to name a few. I just recently completed a project for a wildlife park in the far east, have guided theme park development around the globe and simply enjoy bringing my knowledge and insights to bear, driving benefits for a variety of organizations.

So personally, the most important thing for me is influencing outcomes, solving complex issues, helping young teams and simply exercising my mind. This happens through membership on various boards and in the case of SailPlan, becoming involved in strategy and development matters. Simply stated, I love guiding a young business and being able to contribute to an industry that I love and admire.

TME: So, are there synergies between SailPlan and the cruise line industry?

KH: Yes, there absolutely are clear synergies. It is a natural alignment of effort and priorities. Cruise lines want to operate as cost effectively as possible while doing their part for sustainability. SailPlan supports those priorities with seamless precision and actionable outputs. Since 2018, I have worked directly with the Saudi Public Investment Fund on their cruise ambitions and Aroya Cruise makes sustainability job number one! I also Chair the board of Aman at Sea, a joint venture between the Saudi Public Investment fund and the Aman Resorts group. Our first ultra-luxury yacht will be delivered in April 2027. There is literally nothing at sea today or in development that can compare. I expect that both efforts will embrace what SailPlan offers around emissions and operations optimization.

TME: Where will Aman at Sea sail?

KH: The first vessel will sail the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. We are exploring plans to take the business elsewhere too. The demand for unique experiences is strong and no one is better equipped than the Aman Resorts team to deliver unique, unrivaled experiences.

TME: Have you always been in the cruise industry?

KH: In 1996 I joined Disney Parks and Resorts and was with them for 23 years. I began my career with Sky Chefs, focused on airport concessions operations and airline catering kitchens. I was with them for 18 years and am proud that we introduced multiple high-profile brands, such as McDonald’s to the airport environment. I think that sort of caught on! I also spent five years at Knott's Berry Farm in Southern California as COO. When Disney announced its plans for Disney’s California Adventure, the Knott family reacted quickly and wound up selling Knott's Berry Farm to Cedar Fair Parks. One of my Disney colleagues, Matt Ouimet, was my predecessor at Disney Cruise Line. He truly defined an exceptional family experience at sea. Matt left Disney to become CEO of Cedar Fair and frankly led Knott’s Berry Farm and the entire Cedar Fair Theme and Amusement Parks portfolio towards exceptional success.

TME: Tell us how you became involved with SailPlan?

KH: I received a call from a friend, Kim Kolt who runs an investment fund focused on sustainability and environmental matters. She told me about SailPlan and asked if I could speak to Jacob Ruytenbeek, its Founder and CEO. I found that what they were doing was something very different from anything I had encountered in my previous years in cruising. It went so far beyond inaccurate emissions estimation processes. I was deeply intrigued by this new approach! I have always embraced a belief that driving creativity and innovation should be a personal responsibility for myself and everyone on my team and SailPlan was incredibly well aligned with that belief.

SailPlan is difficult to explain. And even more so, it is not easy to imagine how something like this gets done. So simply stated, it is the integration of proven emissions sensor technologies and SailPlan’s advanced digital platform. Imagine having all this incredibly powerful data in a cell phone like experience at your fingertips. SailPlan delivers environmental data, technical performance data and so much more so... as a C-Suite executive I immediately understood the value of their technology for the maritime industry. Whatever fuel you burn on a ship, you are still emitting carbon dioxide, and if you can manage emissions in a far more effective way, you reduce carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emissions. Within the new Carbon Intensity Indicator landscape, SailPlan becomes an invaluable tool. A tool that provides real time, immediate and accurate data while providing a pathway to improved CII ratings.

SailPlan is so much more advanced than the current practice of picking up an Excel spreadsheet and estimating your CO2 emissions based on fuel consumption. It is very specific, highly detailed, accurate and it deals with direct emissions reductions which will benefit the industry in countless ways. Those benefits vary from direct operating cost reductions, to lower fuel consumption, optimized itinerary planning and accurate “carbon tax assessments” around the globe. After all, it is only a matter of time before the EU ETS, a carbon cap and trade system, migrates to other areas of the globe.

TME: SailPlan is relatively a new company?

KH: Yes, it is a new company and I will say this again... no one before has taken proven, land-based emissions sensor technologies and integrated them with an advanced digital data analytics platform. The two together create a powerful source of actionable data for the maritime industry.

I have always felt that companies who believe in what they are doing on the sustainability front, are the first and most important test. They must be willing to explore innovations and to try new things. Scrubber technologies are a thing of the past. In today’s sustainability climate, it is all about burning fuels efficiently, thereby reducing emissions and at the same time exploring new fuel sources, whether that’s methanol, hydrogen or other emerging options. People are willing to point fingers at operators that are emitting carbon, but they avoid one simple data point... innovative enabling technologies are not keeping pace with the demands of decarbonization now. SailPlan is the ideal enabling tool.

Meanwhile, while SailPlan can make a material difference for shipping, it is noteworthy that cruise lines on their own have become more sophisticated, introducing various processes, systems and technologies which reduce their carbon footprint.

TME: Does SailPlan provide its software platform to the commercial shipping industry as well?

KH: Yes, SailPlan absolutely benefits all marine sectors whether it is cruise, commercial shipping or government related. And yes, each sector is exploring alternative fuels. It is easy to say “let’s go with a hydrogen power plant” or we’ll acknowledge that LNG is a transitional fuel, and we’ll then supplement that with cold ironing capability, fuel cells or battery power which together, can reduce our carbon footprint. In this environment of emerging decarbonization, SailPlan can alert a chief engineer through a NOX trend-line analysis that a particular engine is having a performance issue before something more dramatic happens. This is just one example of an unexpected benefit.

I believe the world of shipping is committed to pursuing green operations. But to do that, we must explore technologies that are just being developed, remain on the drawing board or perhaps, have not been conceived yet. We simply cannot wait for things to happen on their own... as an industry, we must aggressively pursue innovation with the goal of complete decarbonization in times ahead.

The SailPlan software platform is a new tool to help ships measure and reduce emissions but there is so much more to the story... to its capabilities. This is why I agreed to be a board member and help the company introduce its software to the shipping and cruise industry. It is clearly a winning technology. -- TME