July 9, 2025 • 7 mins
Paul Corvino sits down with CEO of Virgin Voyages, Nirmal Saverimuttu. Virgin Voyages is an adults-only cruise line known for its modern, luxurious, and lively atmosphere, offering a unique cruise experience that differs from traditional cruising. It features innovative entertainment, diverse dining options, and a focus on wellness and social interaction, all within a stylish, superyacht-inspired setting.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is CEOs you should know with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today I'm here with Nirmal savum Utu, who is the
CEO of Virgin Voyages.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, welcome, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, before we get started learning more about you and
your journey and about the new ship that's going to
be in Long Beach, I like to do a little
quick rapid session Q and A where you answer as
quickly as you can. It gets the brain working and
the mouth moving. You ready, I'm ready, Okay, beach your
ski vacation Beach Beatles or Stones Beatles, Tom Brady or
(00:37):
Michael Jordan, Jordan, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Sean Connery
Godfather or Star Wars, Star Wars celebrity people say you
remind them.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Of I'm going to say, I say pause on that one.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, Well, we're gonna we're gonna come up with one
by the end the end of the Ntervia. Well, we'll
welcome Narmal, and it's nice to have you on. So
tell me a little bit about your journey. We want
to learn a little bit about Virgin Voyages and especially
about the new ship which is very exciting. First, tell
me you said you grew up in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No, actually so I'm origin to Sri Lankan. But I
was born in Zambia and lived in Zambia till I
was eleven, lives in the UK for a bit, and
then grew up really finished high school in Australia, University
in Australia, and my first job was Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
What did you study in school and how did that
get you your first job?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah? So university I was did commers in law and
focused on finance and accounting, so kind of boring. And
then my first job was actually investment banker to Goldman Sachs.
Oh really places. Yeah, when people.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Bas based in Australia, based in Australia, and.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So I was heading off to go back to Goldman
after doing an MBA. But I also had done some
work for Richard and Virgin when I was a Goldman
and Richard was building out an investment team in North America,
which is actually the team that started Virgin America, which
was our airline here, and I thought, you know, why
not try something a bit more entrepreneurial. I always loved
the brand, loved loved the fact that Richard always calls
(02:02):
himself an entrepreneur, and I thought would be fun to
create things and build businesses and so exciting. Yeah, it was,
it was. It was a bit crazy at the time.
I'd be honest with you. A lot of my friends
said to me, you know, particularly coming out of business school.
I said, surely, surely you take the Goldman Saxe job.
And I said, no, I'm going to take the I'm
going to take the Virgin job and goes. And that
was nineteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Where'd you start with the company?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I started in New York. Actually, we were part of
the team that created Virgin America for Richard. I came
in just after the team had launched Virgin America, which was.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Virgin America was everything. It was it was.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It was our airline in based in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Also the Version's store I remember down on Fourteenth Street.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yep, yep. A long time ago, but we love those stores.
Missed them still.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Why the cruise line. What made you think, Okay, this
is something we want to do, this is something we're
going to be good at, and we're going to do
something to make it special.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
What what was that so Richard has always wanted to
go into these industries and disrupt. If you think about Richard,
he loves being able to go in and offer a
different perspective. Particularly industries are dominated by one or two players.
You think about virch Atlantic way back quit it was
always about you know, bla, I was just ripping people off.
We can do something better. In the cruise line industry,
we saw a big gap for something that felt much
more like a boutik hotel in cruising. Richard said, I'd
(03:13):
like to create something that I want to go on on,
my friends who want want to go on, and so
let's see if we can create something it feels like
a boutikotel in the ocean. And so we looked at
the industry and we said, well, we think we could
do that, and you know, very proud to say we
created it. Richard loves being on the ships. We're now
the number one raided cruise line.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So a boutique hotel in the ocean, I like that.
How do you take a huge cruise ship and make
it a boutique hotel.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So most cruise ships are really big right now. If
you think about the biggest cruise ships were there five
thousand passengers. Our cruise ship is about two thousand dollars passengers. So,
first of all, size you create a lot of intimate,
small spaces. We designed these ships with people that had
never designed ships.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We'll still have the same amenities being smaller.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, Actually what we do is we offer a lot
of choice on our ships. We have twenty different places
to eat, lots of different dining relative entertainment venues. But
the key was that we actually designed the ships with
people that had never designed ships before. So we got
a hold of designers like Roman Williams out of New York,
Tom Dickson in London and had them really think about
how they would bring their boutique hotel feel to a ship.
And there was a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So you so you're looking for a more of scale, sophisticated.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely, the ship feels like a super hot role. It's
a very modern design feel. It's very very atypical to
what you imagine a cruise ship to be. And we
also decided to do things all differently. So most cruise
ships are built with a big dining hall. I'm sure
you know about it. Most people think about cruise lines,
they think about a big two thousand person dining hall.
They think about buffets, we actually don't have any buffets.
We don't have any big dining halls. The biggest restaurants
(04:34):
around two hundred seats. All the food is made to water.
And one of the things people say about our ships
is they love the fact that our food is the
best food at sea now, and so we're very proud
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
How are you price compared of the cruise ships.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We're a bit of a hotel equivalent. We're about a
four star hotel. So for about three hundred dollars per
person per night, you get all your food, you get
still in sparkling water, you get soda, you get entertainment
Wi Fi included. So we're phenomenal value for money when
you think about it compared to a boutique hotel.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's pretty exciting. So so, so tell me about the new ship.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, so a new ship is brilliant Lady. She's a
fourth ship. Brilliant, Brilliant Lady. Yeah, she's a fourth ship
in our fleet. She's actually launching in September. She starts
in New York, spends the time in Miami, and then
she comes across through the Panama Canal, which was our
fastest ever sailing that we've got sold. And then she's
coming to my April next year. She's in La and in
La where will she go from sco Mexican Riviera and
(05:26):
up and down the up and down the coast of
San Francisco, San Diego Riviera. We're going to Carbo, We're
going to Portovayata, We're going to Mazalon. Also on fun places.
How long is the trip six nights, seven nights, eight nights,
depending on what people looking for. Seven nights are the
majority of the of the cruise line, so we find
that about six seven nights is a sweet spot for
what people love from us and enough time to get
on the ship, explore, relax and really fear leave the
(05:48):
ship feeling really relaxed, rejuvenate. Now, the thing about us
that's really unique is that we don't have any kids
on board our ships, which is also quite unique, and
that's what really makes experience special because we get grown
ups having any relaxed.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
No kids, boutique hotel made to order.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Food And I didn't tell you about a shake for champagne, Paul,
you can shake your eliminated.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Every reason why I haven't gone on a cruise.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Well, you know I have to tell you about shake
for champagne too. You can shake your phone on boarder
ship and we'll have champagne delivered to you within five
ten minutes anywhere on our ships. Oh really, yeah, we'd
have to get you on board so you can shake.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Paul, I'm ready to go on board. Let's the way.
Where's the salespeople. Let's do a border deal.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'll throw it a shake for champagne and I get
a shaker champagne.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
We got a deal. Well this, this is pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And when there's this launching April twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
April twenty twenty six, how do people contact you?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And and yeah, so virgin voyages dot com or any
travel advice.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Virgin Voyages dot com, YEP or any.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
One of your travel advisors. You can check out the itineries.
They got some phenomenal itineries. Like I said, where the
number one cruise line now no kids, best food at sea,
not look to nickel and dying people, and offer great
value for money. And so it's a great time on board.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's pretty exciting. And congratulations to you from the Zambia
to Sri Lanka to Goldman Sachs to a version where
you've been for almost twenty years now and now you're
the CEO of Virgin Voyages. Very very very exciting, a
great success story. Again, this is Paul Corvino, Division President
(07:21):
of iHeartMedia saying thank you for listening to another episode
of CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Thank you very much, Jamaiel, thank you, Paul. Listen to
CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app
This is CEOs you should know with Division President of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today I'm here with Nirmal savum Utu, who is the
CEO of Virgin Voyages.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, welcome, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, before we get started learning more about you and
your journey and about the new ship that's going to
be in Long Beach, I like to do a little
quick rapid session Q and A where you answer as
quickly as you can. It gets the brain working and
the mouth moving. You ready, I'm ready, Okay, beach your
ski vacation Beach Beatles or Stones Beatles, Tom Brady or
(00:37):
Michael Jordan, Jordan, Sean Connery or Daniel Craig, Sean Connery
Godfather or Star Wars, Star Wars celebrity people say you
remind them.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Of I'm going to say, I say pause on that one.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Okay, Well, we're gonna we're gonna come up with one
by the end the end of the Ntervia. Well, we'll
welcome Narmal, and it's nice to have you on. So
tell me a little bit about your journey. We want
to learn a little bit about Virgin Voyages and especially
about the new ship which is very exciting. First, tell
me you said you grew up in Sri Lanka.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No, actually so I'm origin to Sri Lankan. But I
was born in Zambia and lived in Zambia till I
was eleven, lives in the UK for a bit, and
then grew up really finished high school in Australia, University
in Australia, and my first job was Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
What did you study in school and how did that
get you your first job?
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah? So university I was did commers in law and
focused on finance and accounting, so kind of boring. And
then my first job was actually investment banker to Goldman Sachs.
Oh really places. Yeah, when people.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Bas based in Australia, based in Australia, and.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So I was heading off to go back to Goldman
after doing an MBA. But I also had done some
work for Richard and Virgin when I was a Goldman
and Richard was building out an investment team in North America,
which is actually the team that started Virgin America, which
was our airline here, and I thought, you know, why
not try something a bit more entrepreneurial. I always loved
the brand, loved loved the fact that Richard always calls
(02:02):
himself an entrepreneur, and I thought would be fun to
create things and build businesses and so exciting. Yeah, it was,
it was. It was a bit crazy at the time.
I'd be honest with you. A lot of my friends
said to me, you know, particularly coming out of business school.
I said, surely, surely you take the Goldman Saxe job.
And I said, no, I'm going to take the I'm
going to take the Virgin job and goes. And that
was nineteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Where'd you start with the company?
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I started in New York. Actually, we were part of
the team that created Virgin America for Richard. I came
in just after the team had launched Virgin America, which was.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Virgin America was everything. It was it was.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It was our airline in based in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Also the Version's store I remember down on Fourteenth Street.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yep, yep. A long time ago, but we love those stores.
Missed them still.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Why the cruise line. What made you think, Okay, this
is something we want to do, this is something we're
going to be good at, and we're going to do
something to make it special.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
What what was that so Richard has always wanted to
go into these industries and disrupt. If you think about Richard,
he loves being able to go in and offer a
different perspective. Particularly industries are dominated by one or two players.
You think about virch Atlantic way back quit it was
always about you know, bla, I was just ripping people off.
We can do something better. In the cruise line industry,
we saw a big gap for something that felt much
more like a boutik hotel in cruising. Richard said, I'd
(03:13):
like to create something that I want to go on on,
my friends who want want to go on, and so
let's see if we can create something it feels like
a boutikotel in the ocean. And so we looked at
the industry and we said, well, we think we could
do that, and you know, very proud to say we
created it. Richard loves being on the ships. We're now
the number one raided cruise line.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
So a boutique hotel in the ocean, I like that.
How do you take a huge cruise ship and make
it a boutique hotel.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
So most cruise ships are really big right now. If
you think about the biggest cruise ships were there five
thousand passengers. Our cruise ship is about two thousand dollars passengers. So,
first of all, size you create a lot of intimate,
small spaces. We designed these ships with people that had
never designed ships.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
We'll still have the same amenities being smaller.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, Actually what we do is we offer a lot
of choice on our ships. We have twenty different places
to eat, lots of different dining relative entertainment venues. But
the key was that we actually designed the ships with
people that had never designed ships before. So we got
a hold of designers like Roman Williams out of New York,
Tom Dickson in London and had them really think about
how they would bring their boutique hotel feel to a ship.
And there was a challenge.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So you so you're looking for a more of scale, sophisticated.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely, the ship feels like a super hot role. It's
a very modern design feel. It's very very atypical to
what you imagine a cruise ship to be. And we
also decided to do things all differently. So most cruise
ships are built with a big dining hall. I'm sure
you know about it. Most people think about cruise lines,
they think about a big two thousand person dining hall.
They think about buffets, we actually don't have any buffets.
We don't have any big dining halls. The biggest restaurants
(04:34):
around two hundred seats. All the food is made to water.
And one of the things people say about our ships
is they love the fact that our food is the
best food at sea now, and so we're very proud
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
How are you price compared of the cruise ships.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We're a bit of a hotel equivalent. We're about a
four star hotel. So for about three hundred dollars per
person per night, you get all your food, you get
still in sparkling water, you get soda, you get entertainment
Wi Fi included. So we're phenomenal value for money when
you think about it compared to a boutique hotel.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
That's pretty exciting. So so, so tell me about the new ship.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, so a new ship is brilliant Lady. She's a
fourth ship. Brilliant, Brilliant Lady. Yeah, she's a fourth ship
in our fleet. She's actually launching in September. She starts
in New York, spends the time in Miami, and then
she comes across through the Panama Canal, which was our
fastest ever sailing that we've got sold. And then she's
coming to my April next year. She's in La and in
La where will she go from sco Mexican Riviera and
(05:26):
up and down the up and down the coast of
San Francisco, San Diego Riviera. We're going to Carbo, We're
going to Portovayata, We're going to Mazalon. Also on fun places.
How long is the trip six nights, seven nights, eight nights,
depending on what people looking for. Seven nights are the
majority of the of the cruise line, so we find
that about six seven nights is a sweet spot for
what people love from us and enough time to get
on the ship, explore, relax and really fear leave the
(05:48):
ship feeling really relaxed, rejuvenate. Now, the thing about us
that's really unique is that we don't have any kids
on board our ships, which is also quite unique, and
that's what really makes experience special because we get grown
ups having any relaxed.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
No kids, boutique hotel made to order.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Food And I didn't tell you about a shake for champagne, Paul,
you can shake your eliminated.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Every reason why I haven't gone on a cruise.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Well, you know I have to tell you about shake
for champagne too. You can shake your phone on boarder
ship and we'll have champagne delivered to you within five
ten minutes anywhere on our ships. Oh really, yeah, we'd
have to get you on board so you can shake.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Paul, I'm ready to go on board. Let's the way.
Where's the salespeople. Let's do a border deal.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I'll throw it a shake for champagne and I get
a shaker champagne.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
We got a deal. Well this, this is pretty exciting.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And when there's this launching April twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
April twenty twenty six, how do people contact you?
Speaker 1 (06:41):
And and yeah, so virgin voyages dot com or any
travel advice.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Virgin Voyages dot com, YEP or any.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
One of your travel advisors. You can check out the itineries.
They got some phenomenal itineries. Like I said, where the
number one cruise line now no kids, best food at sea,
not look to nickel and dying people, and offer great
value for money. And so it's a great time on board.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
That's pretty exciting. And congratulations to you from the Zambia
to Sri Lanka to Goldman Sachs to a version where
you've been for almost twenty years now and now you're
the CEO of Virgin Voyages. Very very very exciting, a
great success story. Again, this is Paul Corvino, Division President
(07:21):
of iHeartMedia saying thank you for listening to another episode
of CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Thank you very much, Jamaiel, thank you, Paul. Listen to
CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app
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