Women Leading Travel & Hospitality added two new members to its advisory board: Isis Ruiz, chief marketing officer of Virgin Voyages, and Keryn McNamara, senior vice president of hotel technology at Aimbridge Hospitality.

Isis Ruiz

Ruiz was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in New York City. She studied history in Boston, where she had an early career within the legal field.

She moved to Miami 20 years ago and that’s when she landed in the cruise and travel industry working with Carnival, Karisma Hotels, Norwegian, Oceania, Regent, American Queen Voyages, and now Virgin Voyages.

Today, Ruiz is a  high-performing marketing executive with 20+ years of experience in global brand strategy, a proven record of driving revenue growth, and a passion for building and leading top-performing teams.

Over the last two decades, Ruiz has held various roles in the hospitality industry and is known for breaking ground and delivering high-impact business results.

In 2021, Ruiz was recognized as one of “Top Ten Líderes” by Hispanic Executive for her work launching the award-nominated “Break Free” campaign highlighting Norwegian’s offerings and delivering brand growth despite a pause in operations.

As chief growth officer for Virgin Voyages, Ruiz is responsible for the demand-generating functions that will help the brand scale over the coming years as it prepares to launch new capacity through 2024 and beyond.

Previous roles included chief commercial officer for American Queen Voyages, with responsibility for sales, marketing, and contact center operations, and a focus on driving commercial performance and top-line revenue for the brand.

Additionally, as the first global chief marketing officer for Norwegian Cruise Line, Ruiz led the go-to-market plans designed to drive demand and was responsible for brand strategy, consumer advertising, partnerships, promotions, digital and e-commerce across all phases of the customer journey, from acquisition through loyalty, to deliver annual revenues of more than $2.5 billion.

Prior to joining Norwegian, Ruiz spent six years at Carnival building trade marketing capabilities and launching programs to drive growth through third-party distribution (B2B2C) channels.

Keryn McNamara

McNamara is a member of Aimbridge Hospitality’s senior IT leadership team with an extensive background in hospitality operations and technology. In her role as senior vice president, hotel technology, she leads a team of hotel technology specialists to deploy and support hotel-based technology solutions and provides leadership and oversight of key technology initiatives.

She works closely with Aimbridge data and cyber security teams in building strong internal IT capabilities and relationships with strategic partners and service providers. McNamara joined Aimbridge in 2019 as vice president, hotel technology and served in this role with Interstate Hotels & Resorts, which joined Aimbridge in October 2019. McNamara began her hospitality career with Omni Hotels & Resorts in roles from property revenue director to operations director to ultimately Vice President of Hotel Technology.

She is a founding member and serves as co-chair for Aimbridge Women Excelling (A.W.E.) associate resource group. In addition, McNamara serves on the HITEC Advisory Council. In 2022, McNamara was named an “Influential Woman in Hospitality” by Hotel Management magazine, and in 2023, she was recognized as a “Technology Rock Star” by Hospitality Upgrade magazine.

Interested in meeting more Women Leading Travel & Hospitality members like Ruiz and McNamara? Apply to become a member today.