As president of Cunard, Pam Conover is at the top of her profession. Keith Hamilton meets one of the most powerful names in the world of international shipping.

THESE days Pam Conover has a heavy responsibility on her shoulders, all 150,000 tons of it, as she oversees the construction and entry into service of the largest liner ever, Southampton's Queen Mary 2.

Already being hailed one of the major engineering projects of the century, Cunard's QM2 will be the largest, widest, tallest and most expensive passenger ship the world has ever seen.

As president and chief operating officer of Cunard it is Ms Conover who is at the helm of probably the most famous name in British shipping, steering it on a course set for far into the future.

She is quite simply one of the most powerful and influential top executives in the international cruising industry and Ms Conover has now decided to be based in Southampton.

The move by Ms Conover underlines not only Cunard's long-term commitment to the port of Southampton but also strengthens the city's global reputation as a leading European centre for shipping.

From now on Ms Conover, whose career has its roots in banking, will be criss-crossing the Atlantic every month as she controls and manages Cunard's multi-million-pound business.

She will spend a large percentage of her time at the shipping line's base in Southampton's Grosvenor Square while the remainder will be in Miami where Cunard's parent company, the giant Carnival Corporation, has its headquarters.

Having been brought up and educated in a small village just outside London, Ms Conover was prepared for all the differences resulting from swapping her home in Florida's Key Biscayne for an apartment in Southampton's city centre.

"When it became very clear that the UK was going to be a major part of the growth of Cunard I took the decision to split my time between Southampton and the US,'' said Ms Conover.

"It is wonderful to now be able to spend time in Southampton, the port which has figured so largely in the company's past and which will play such an import role in its future.''

Although when she looks out of her office window she cannot quite see the legendary Queen Elizabeth 2 or the five-star Caronia whenever they are alongside their berths in the Eastern Docks it does mean Ms Conover is in Cunard's UK home rather than thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic.

Now she is at the very heart of the shipping line's huge operation in Southampton with the ships, crews and managers on her doorstep.

With QM2 taking shape in France and the fact that Cunard is to build another cruise ship dedicated to the British market in Italy, it is also a much shorter journey for Ms Conover's many visits to the continental shipyards.

As QM2's keel is being laid early in July the megaliner now looms large in Ms Conover's life as more and more vital decisions have to be made that will help shape the look, atmosphere and character of the massive liner as well, of course, as its financial success over the coming decades.

"It is a wonderful, exciting experience to be so closely involved in such an ambitious project as QM2,'' said Ms Conover, who earlier this year performed the official cutting of the first steel to be used in the building of QM2.

"Of course it is impossible to consider every single aspect of QM2. It is a vast and complex undertaking, so we work together as a team on the construction programme and I consider myself lucky to have such an expert and talented group to work alongside.''

Ms Conover has been connected with ships and the sea since an early age, when her family lived in Thailand, where her father worked for a British trading company.

"I remember seeing, and sometimes visiting, all kinds of vessels from around the world and my fascination with ships continues to this day,'' said Ms Conover, who is married to Ray Lutz, a travel industry executive.

"Every ship has its own personality and soul and whenever you travel on a liner you experience life - I don't think that could be said of aircraft.''

Ms Conover was one of the first top-ranking executives appointed after Carnival Corporation acquired Cunard in 1998.

She came to the company from Carnival, which she joined in 1994, serving as vice-president of strategic planning.

Previously Ms Conover was with Citicorp, where she was vice-president in the ship finance department, and later managing director heading the company's ship financing business where Carnival was a top client.

In that capacity, she played a vital part in the development of the American cruise business through assisting Carnival companies and a number of other cruise lines with financing fleet expansion.

When Carnival made an investment in Epirotiki Cruise Line in 1994 she left Citicorp to become president and chief executive officer of that operation.

Later, when Carnival divested itself of its Epiotiki holdings, Ms Conover was asked to joined the corporate parent.