Patrik Dahlgren

Captain Patrik Dahlgren is a Swedish-American Master Mariner and Maritime Executive serving as the Senior Vice President for Global Marine Operations for Royal Caribbean Group.
=== Corporate Career ===
==== NewBuilding ====
In 2011 Patrik Dahlgren joined the Royal Caribbean Group’s shoreside operation to work with corporate EVP Harri Kulovaara as director of Newbuild Maritime, responsible for developing Quantum class marine and safety aspects.
The Quantum of the Seas has also widely been recognized as the world’s first “smart ship,” invested with technologies to make the ship more tourist friendly, efficient, and environmentally sustainable. He was the key contributor to the development of the Quantum class’ Safety Center, and as a result received the Royal Institute of Naval Architects award for its innovation and contributions to maritime safety at an award in London.
==== Global Marine Operations ====
After a brief stint returning to sea, Dahlgren returned to the Royal Caribbean shoreside offices as VP of Technical Operations.
He was key in developing the Global Marine Operations group, which he now leads as SVP. It supports safety, technical operations, fleet optimization, sustainability/carbon reduction, and maintenance/dry docks across Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Silversea Cruises, TUI Cruises, and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.
==== Championing Diversity & Sustainability ====
Women represent just a 1% sliver of the maritime sector overall, slightly more in the cruise industry. When Dahlgren was Captain on Navigator OTS, he helped get more women on the bridge and, at one point, he was the only man.
In his time in the Global Marine Organization Patrik has worked to expand the nationalities and gender diversity onboard by hiring cadets of both sexes from schools around the world. “Mixing the different nationalities… You create a different atmosphere. It’s good for business and it’s good for the world,” in Dahlgren’s view. Dahlgren worked with the IMO and the Malta registry to get Ghana’s Regional Maritime University (RMU) accredited, opening the door for Ghanaian cadet Tifuh Azirh and more women like her to become cadets aboard the Celebrity vessels.
Dahlgren also paved the way for Kate McCue to become Celebrity’s first woman captain and the first US female to helm a large international cruise ship. Patrik spoke on the topic in an address to the International Labor Organization during its general session in Geneva, the 3rd WMU International Women’s Conference – Empowering Women in the Maritime Community in Malmo, Sweden, and at the 2019 WISTA International AGM Conference.
Celebrity Cruises now has about 25% women on the bridge, up from the 3% - 4% of a few years ago, which jumped to 20% in a little more than a year with aggressive recruiting.
Also under Dahlgren, sustainability has been a major goal of the RCG organization. Under his leadership the target was set and met of reducing RCG’s carbon footprint by 35% by 2020 compared to 2005 baseline levels, as agreed to with the World Wide Fund for Nature. 15-20% reductions of propulsion power were achieved under Dahlgren’s hull performance and coating strategy. Previously done by intuition and supplier information, Dahlgren has led the organization a data-based decision making model on hull performance.
==== Response to COVID-19 Pandemic & Healthy Sail Panel ====
Leading RCG’s internal efforts to address COVID-19, Dahlgren has helped in setting a global standard for the cruise industry’s return to service, by liaising with the EU Health Gateway group, the European Centre for disease Prevention and Control, and the public health authorities in the UK and Singapore.
Patrik worked with outside experts that laid the groundwork for the Healthy Sail Panel and was a key contributor for the RCG to the Panel. The panel consisted of leaders in public health, biosecurity, epidemiology, hospitality and maritime industry to develop return to service recommendations for the cruise industry, with public health, science, and data at the forefront.
Dahlgren specifically was involved in examining ventilation and airborne spread of the virus. He worked with three of the panel’s scientists and the University of Nebraska, an authority in the field, which sent four PhDs in atmospheric chemistry and bioaerosols to Oasis of the Seas in Miami. Over a week, they released billions of microsphere, each one individually DNA tagged, into the ship’s HVAC system, tracking where they went and how long they lingered in the air and on surfaces. The results were encouraging, with only minimal changes to systems onboard suggested.
=== Philanthropy & Board Placements ===
Patrik continues to give back to the community, evidenced by his board membership on various nonprofit organizations. Dahlgren has been a board member of Children’s Harbor, Inc from Jan 2016 – present. Established in 1996, Children’s Harbor is a nationally accredited child welfare organization that is dedicated to three specifics areas in the foster care system: keeping siblings together while they are in foster care, strengthening families who are in crisis within the community, and guiding teens who have “aged out” of the foster care system alone.
Dahlgren has also been a board member of the Ocean Exchange since Feb 2020 – present. The Ocean Exchange is the intersection where organizations from around the world advance and promote their cutting edge solutions and innovations in materials, devices, processes, and systems. We have created the knowledge-based catalyst for organizations to achieve Corporate Social Responsibility Goals. By connecting innovators and organizations, The Ocean Exchange empowers the successful application of solutions for the greater good. We are advocates for innovators. We are advocates for collaboration across industry and geography, while protecting the intellectual property of the innovator.
=== Maritime Career ===
Patrik earned his master mariner license at age 25 and worked on tankers, general cargo ships, car carriers, jumbo ferries and private super yachts before joining Royal Caribbean in 1999 as a second officer on Grandeur of the Seas.
His first command was Voyager of the Seas in 2007 at the age of 30. He also served as captain on MS Sovereign, Navigator of the Seas, Liberty of the Seas, Oasis of the Seas, and Quantum of the Seas. While captain of Oasis of the Seas it was the largest cruise ship at sea once delivered in 2009, carrying over 6,000 passengers.
=== Early Life ===
Dahlgren was born in the south Swedish highlands by lake Sommen in the province of Östergötland. Later in his childhood he moved to Kalmar and later Stockholm before moving to the United States.
Category:Merchant Marine Mariners