The Love Boat billionaire Micky Arison behind the Ruby Princess
The ultimate owner of the stricken ship Ruby Princess is a 70-year-old university drop-out who also counts US President Donald Trump as a friend.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- 56-hours of hell: Ruby Princess cruisers had no warning
- How Ruby Princess cruisers became super spreaders
The ultimate owner of the stricken ship Ruby Princess is the Love Boat billionaire, a 70-year-old university drop-out who counts US President Donald Trump as a friend.
Micky Arison, the chairman and a major shareholder of the Bahamas-registered Carnival Corporation & plc, inherited the company from his father, billionaire Ted Arison, and helped build it into the largest cruising company in the world with around 100 ships in its fleet.
The Florida-based Mr Arison, whose private worth is about $12.6 billion according to Bloomberg’s billionaire’s index, also owns the Miami Heat NBA team, and has visited the White House with superstars including Shaquille O’Neal.
He and wife Madeleine were guests at the wedding of Mr Trump and Melania Knauss in Palm Beach in 2005, and Carnival has been a sponsor in the past of Mr Trump’s former TV show, The Apprentice.
An Israeli-American, his sister, Shari Arison, is the wealthiest person in Israel where she owns several banks.
His father Ted co-founded Carnival in 1972 when he bought his first ship.
The company has since bought up most of the world’s famous cruise lines, including Princess, P&O, Holland America and Cunard. It now employs 150,000 people across the globe and on any given day 350,000 people are aboard a Carnival cruise ship – 45 per cent of the world’s cruise market. An investor briefing shows the company turned revenue of $32 billion last year.
The Princess Cruise Line is inextricably linked to the prime-time American TV show Love Boat, which filmed on several Princess cruise ships from 1977-1987.
Tel Aviv-born Micky Arison, who moved to Miami in 1966 with his family, dropped out of the University of Miami to join the family business. He worked his way up through sales and reservations and became chairman and CEO in 1990 when his father stood aside and handed the title to him. Ted Arison died in 1999. In 2013, Micky Arison resigned as CEO when the roles were split, but retained the role as chairman.
The company had been floated in 1987 and now trades on both the London and New York stock exchanges, where its shares are at historic lows following the coronavirus outbreaks affecting a number of their ships, including the Ruby Princess, the Diamond Princess in Japan, where around 700 people were infected and 11 died, and the Grand Princess, where people became ill and two died before it docked in Florida.
A private man who mostly eschews celebrity events, Mr Arison owns an enormous condominium in Bal Harbour, Florida, and a private jet, a Gulfstream registered in the name of Carnival. He also owns two luxury yachts, including the Mylin IV, built by his father and named for his mother Marylin, and the yacht Sirona, apparently purchased from American luxury car dealer Ray Catena.
MORE NEWS
COVID-19 financial help: Support payments you can access
COVID-19 war room ensuring Aussies get best care
Cute ways Aussies are staying in touch while staying apart
Crack squads of nursing home workers on standby
On March 19, Carnival offered the use of its now-empty cruise ships as floating hospitals, to help the US Government respond to the coronavirus crisis by providing extra beds for non-COVID-19 patients.
Mr Trump said Mr Arison had made a “very generous offer.’’
“He said that he has some ships that would be ideally suited for what we’re doing. And certainly, they have a lot of rooms. They’re big, and they have a lot of rooms. So we appreciate it from Carnival,’’ Mr Trump said.
The offer has not been accepted at this stage.
In 2005, the company was roundly criticised for the amount of money it charged the US Government which chartered three of its ships to assist in the fallout from Hurricane Katrina.
Early this year, Mr Arison and his wife made a $2 million donation to the Australian bushfire relief effort, through their charitable foundation.
Originally published as The Love Boat billionaire Micky Arison behind the Ruby Princess