Leading the way across some turbulent waters

The executive who led Carnival Cruise Lines to dominance shuns the spotlight.
ABOARD THE QUEEN MARY 2 (AP) -- Thirty-two years ago, Micky Arison was aboard Carnival Cruise Lines' first-ever voyage. The trip had a rocky start -- the decade-old Mardi Gras got stuck on a sandbar off Miami.
"That moment when she ran aground obviously was horrifying," Arison recalled. To keep passengers happy, the crew doled out free drinks while the ship was refloated. "After that it was party time," he said.
Carnival made its niche fostering that carefree atmosphere and grew from a struggling line with one 950-passenger ship into the world's largest cruise company with 73 vessels across 12 brands.
It also made Arison rich. Carnival Corp.'s chairman and chief executive is Florida's second-richest person and the 33rd wealthiest in America, with an estimated net worth of $5.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
His fierce determination to dominate and buy up rivals helped fuel the Miami-based company's expansion over the past quarter of a century, including the recent launching of the $800 million Queen Mary 2, the most expensive cruise ship ever built.
At the helm
Arison, 54, is known as "everything from Darth Vader to Mr. Rogers," depending on whose side you're on, said Rod McLeod, a retired industry executive who's known Arison since the 1970s.
For the most part, Arison shuns the spotlight that comes with wealth and fame.
"I absolutely hate it. I try the best I can to minimize it," he told The Associated Press in a recent interview on board a docked Queen Mary 2. "I can't get off the Forbes 400 because they don't allow you to apply for delisting. But if I could get delisted, I would do it."
Many insiders attribute part of Carnival's growth to Arison's hands-off management style. Although he's involved in setting goals, he said he likes to surround himself with people who know what they're doing and let them figure out how to achieve those objectives day to day.
Tim Conder, an analyst with A.G. Edwards & amp; Sons, said Arison "has helped instill that competitive, entrepreneurial spirit that's pervasive throughout the company." Arison's employees, he said, are always pushing to improve costs and boost efficiency.
Arison's success could hardly have been predicted before he began working at father Ted Arison's cruise ventures starting in the freewheeling 1960s.
"It was a pretty wild environment in those days. There were probably some pretty disastrous things I was doing from time to time. But I look back on them fondly," he said without specifics and with a laugh.
Arison was born in Israel, and his family moved to New York City when he was a child. They settled in the Miami area when he was a teenager. He graduated in business administration from Miami-Dade Junior College in 1970 and later dropped out of the University of Miami to work with his father.
The start
Ted Arison and a partner had started Norwegian Caribbean Cruise Line in 1967. After a falling out, he formed Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 with another partner. The younger Arison worked at everything from running shore excursions and bingo games to making ticket reservations and delivering mail.
The company billed its ships as all-in-one vacations, instead of the traditional transport for the wealthy. Carnival's vessels have casinos, elaborate theater shows and nightclubs.
As the company grew, Micky Arison got more involved in running Carnival and, in 1979 at age 30, he took over from his father. The younger Arison set out to make Carnival even bigger.
He led the company through its initial public stock offering in 1987, raising $400 million to start buying competitors. Half the global cruise passengers each year now travel on a ship owned by the Carnival group, which had $6.7 billion in revenues last year.
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