Members of the Alexandria, Va.-based
Passenger Vessel Association elected
Paul C. Belforti, Entertainment Cruises, Chicago, Inc., president for 2012
during the PVA Annual Convention at MariTrends 2012 in Portland, Ore.
Newly elected officers also include PVA Vice President
Carolyn Horgan, Blue and Gold Fleet, San Francisco, and PVA Secretary-Treasurer
Terri Bernstein, BB Riverboats, Newport, Ky.
Belforti has worked in various
management/entrepreneurial/executive capacities in the hospitality, retail and
passenger vessel industries for 28 years. Early in his career he served in
management roles in the rent-a-car business in Ohio, New York, and New England.
Belforti has served in the capacity of general manager and
regional director for Spirit Cruises both for the Boston operation and for
Spirit Cruises corporate functions as well. Currently, and since the formation
of Entertainment Cruises Inc. in 2006, he serves as senior vice president of
operations and is based out of the company’s headquarters in Chicago.
Entertainment Cruises operates Spirit Cruises, Odyssey
Cruises, and Seadog Ventures and has a fleet of 25 vessels comprising 19 dining
vessels — including fine dining, casual dining, private yacht charters and
European-style glass dining vessels — and six tour boats in Chicago, Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Norfolk, Va.
Prior to being elected PVA president, Belforti has served as
a PVA board member for the past five years, including one term as PVA
secretary-treasurer and one term as PVA vice president.
Belforti resides in northern Illinois with his wife, Joi,
and their two children, Max and Kyle.
Horgan has worked in the maritime industry since 1973.
She worked at Red and White Fleet in San Francisco for 24 years where she held
positions of increasing responsibility including marketing manager and
operations manager. Horgan has worked for Blue & Gold Fleet since 1997
where she is the vice president of operations.
Horgan has served as PVA board member for the past seven
years, including one term as PVA secretary-treasurer. She also served for three
years as the chair of the PVA Western Region.
Horgan lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband,
Jon. They have two sons, Hugh and Andrew.
Capt. Terri Bernstein is vice president of operations of BB
Riverboats, a third-generation, family-owned business that is the oldest
riverboat company in the Greater Cincinnati Ohio Region. Founded in 1979 by Bernstein’s
grandfather Ben Bernstein and her father Alan Bernstein, BB Riverboats owns
three vessels that offer sightseeing cruises, dinner cruises and specialty
cruises. Her company also operates an off-premise catering company. Bernstein
works closely in the business with her brother Ben, mother Mary, father Alan,
and even with her 3-year-old daughter Emma.
Bernstein graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1998
and started working full-time in the family business immediately after graduation.
She earned her 100-ton captain’s license in 2006. Bernstein has served on the
PVA board for two three-year terms, served as PVA’s Rivers Region chairman and
is currently chairman of the PVA Membership Committee. BB Riverboats has been a
member of PVA since 1979.
PVA members also elected Bob Lawler, Entertainment Cruises,
Boston, to the PVA board. Margo Marks, Beaver Island Boat Co., Charlevoix,
Mich., Walt Webster, Dubuque River Rides, Dubuque, Iowa, and Dan Yates,
American Waterways Inc., Portland, Ore., were elected to serve second terms on
the board.
In addition, the PVA Associate Council elected Carl Micu,
John Deere Power Systems, Waterloo, Iowa, as the associate member
representative to the PVA board.