Off the Cuff: A Q&A with Ponant’s Samuel Chamberlain

July 25, 2025

Samuel Chamberlain is CEO of the Americas for PONANT

“Off the Cuff” is a Q&A series from Luxury Daily exploring the career paths, current projects and next steps of those shaping the world’s best luxury brands.

The interviews feature a Proust-style twist, allowing readers to get to know industry leaders on a personal level. This edition features Samuel Chamberlain, CEO of the Americas for luxury small-ship expedition line PONANT.

In this Q&A, Mr. Chamberlain discusses the power of understanding other perspectives, finding luxury in simplicity and his cooking-gear habit.

Here is the dialogue:

What was your first job ever? What did it teach you?

I worked as a bus boy at a sushi bar in the Valley in California. It taught me a lot around the importance of hard work, hustling for tips and going above and beyond.

Even a simple but thoughtful gesture could make for a special and memorable experience. It also was one of the first indicators that I had a genuine passion for hospitality and playing the role of the host.

Which skills have been critical to your success? Did you gain these skills within or outside of the workplace?

I did not grow up traveling, but I always had a passion for learning about other cultures and broadening my horizons.

I took some big risks early in my career – like moving to Asia right out of college. I always had a skill for trying to connect with other people and seeing things from another perspective. Given the travel industry's incredible diversity of views and people from around the world, much of my success comes from the ability to genuinely understand and relate to others — and to quickly build common ground.

My skills also developed by working within many different verticals of luxury travel: hotels, private aviation, now luxury cruises. Each sector offers a unique perspective of the luxury consumer.

The combination of international backgrounds and multiple luxury travel verticals has given me an edge to look at things differently.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Early in my career, I always felt like that there was a pressure cooker of having to make the right steps to get the right internship, to get the right college job offer, to then proceed down a very predestined and predetermined set of success. Think: banking, law, consulting – all very honorable, but all very predefined tracks where you have to follow the preconceived path that many also compete to do the same.

I received advice that if I were to take a less common path and not worry about the predefined steps to success, that there could still be an opportunity to do something different if I was enjoying the work and it gave me passion.

Not to bring a cliché to this interview, but choosing the road less traveled has allowed me to pursue something that has always been both a deep interest and a true passion. Do not be so stuck on following the plan, and allow for diversion and opportunities as they arise if they fit your broad objective.

I initially thought that I wanted to be a restaurateur, and then I had a mentor speak to me about the idea of hotels. It spurred a whole new path and intersection of staying in love with hospitality and opened the door to an entirely new venture.

How has your field changed since you started out in luxury, and what do you think your industry will look like in a decade?

We all know that luxury hospitality is far beyond the material items and the amenities war. I think the industry, in a decade, will be dominated by people seeking community, connections and health/wellness.

We are all hyper-connected and lonely at the same time. People will crave spaces and experiences where they will be able to genuinely connect with each other and disconnect from technology and the everyday noise. Unplugging and not being in these spaces where everyone is on their phones posting about what they are doing and actually enjoying what they are doing is going to be the new luxury.

People also crave connections and meeting new people that have like-minded interests and passions. The brands that set up this platform for people to organically build community and relationships with a common set of values will win with the personalization war that is taking place.

Health and wellness is not a passing trend or fad. People want to live longer and feel better.

The goals and desires of their leisure time will be focused on feeling good and taking care of themselves. There is a whole economy of products and services that have already been developed. The next frontier is luxury experiences that can help people maximize their free time or not miss out from their normal routine when they choose to travel.

What recent projects have ignited your passion for working in luxury?
PONANT EXPLORATIONS is a French luxury cruise line that delivers what I call the multicultural cruise; we are one of the few brands that has a mixed source of guests from all over the world at any given time. It is a literal melting pot of interesting and affluent French, German, Australian, Chinese, American and Latin guests all aboard a 200-person luxury cruise expedition experience.

One of the opportunities that we recognized was the service delivery for this multicultural environment delivery is quite complex. Fundamentally, we all have a common understanding of the luxury experience, but the details, the cultural nuances, the way that the crew engages (or decides not to engage), all of the small touchpoints of luxury service differs by culture.

It has been a fun process to lead a global initiative around the cultural differences that can deliver luxury hospitality through the eyes of the guests (and their perspectives) and to train our teams on how to best to deliver.

Who, in any industry or sphere, would you most like to share a long lunch with and where would you take them?

I would choose Ernest Hemingway, one of my favorite authors, brutally authentic and full of adventurous spirit with a lot of stories to tell. I also have been continuing to find that simplicity is the ultimate luxury, and I think he did this best.

I would take him to Sloppy Joe’s in Key West and treat him to the usual sandwich and cold bucket of beers. To me, this would be the perfect place to talk about stories of adventure, the luxury haunts that defined his era and a life well-lived.

How do you get into the right mindset before a big meeting or presentation?

I try to balance being prepared and knowing my content with trying to be authentic and unscripted. My usual routine is to focus on the factoids or statistics in my preparation about a day prior, and then unfocus on the details to deliver a genuine, unscripted connection.

I also try to pay close attention to performance in the build up: What I ate the night before, how much caffeine I drank that evening, trying to take care of myself so that I can deliver my best.

On your days off, what can you be found doing to relax or have some fun?

I live between New York and La Quinta, California, and travel 50 percent of the time. The mix up and the variation of the day-to-day has always kept me on the move.

When I am static – which I have come to love more and more – I enjoy the outdoors, golf and being largely disconnected.

I also make it a priority to maximize my time when I’m working so that I can get more down time, especially when I’m in motion: When I’m in an Uber or waiting for a plane to board, I’m "that guy" with his laptop out that is typing away and trying to get the lower-order tasks out and moving.

What does luxury mean to you?

To me, luxury is about owning your time and your schedule, being able to fully decide where you can be and whom you can share it with.

I also am always drawn to the romance of being off the regular tourism destinations and going to some of the more remote and off-the-beaten spots that still feel a little undiscovered. You will never really find me laying on a beach at a five-star resort.

Whether a product or service/experience, what is your favorite luxury indulgence?

I love to cook for myself and love all of the amazing cooking gear. Being a former wannabe restaurateur, I think there is nothing better to be able to source the ingredients that I want to eat and be able to select the oils, sauces and additives that you ingest to craft a perfect meal.

I love my equipment and gear – I have a Yoder barbecue and a massive cast iron cookware collection that I use to grill and cook California-style, healthy, full, robust flavors. A Yoder is this amazing American-made, over-engineered, 10-gauge, steel barbecue that uses wood pellets that can cook low and slow, grill on high heat, have a pizza oven and also a cast iron skillet top to do a smash – a complete luxury outdoor kitchen category killer.

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