Maritime Law-Carnival Corp "Shakes it Up"

Carnival Corp. is shaking up its management team in an effort to rebuild its business after a deadly accident and several other mishaps drove passengers away. Effective December 1, 2013, Howard Frank will be stepping down from his current roles as vice chairman and chief operating officer at Carnival Corp. to take on the role of special advisor to the CEO and chairman, while continuing to represent the industry in his leadership role as chairman of CLIA. Alan Buckelew, president and CEO of Princess Cruises, will take over as chief operations officer of Carnival Corp. & PLC on December 1st.

This follows Carnival's decision in June to name a new CEO. Board member Arnold Donald took over as head of the company, replacing Micky Arison, who had been CEO since 1979 and is the son of one of the company's co-founders.

Today, Carnival's 10 brands annually welcome over 10 million guests on more than 100 ships supported by over 90,000 employees generating more than $15 billion in revenue with a market capitalization of $27 billion.

On Monday, Carnival also named a new CEO for its Holland America unit and a new president of Princess Cruises. Stein Kruse, president and CEO of Holland America Line, will become CEO of Holland America Group. Jan Swartz, the company's executive vice president of sales, marketing and customer service, was promoted to president of Princess Cruises. The newly created Holland America Group operates 41 cruise ships with over 36,000 employees worldwide who annually deliver 25 million passenger cruise days.

It is reported in both the Maritime Executive and the Daily Business Review that the Miami-based company is making the leadership moves after struggling with weaker revenue since the February breakdown of the Carnival Triumph, which stranded passengers for five days in the Gulf of Mexico. That was followed by two other instances of ships having to be towed back to port. Dozens of future sailings were canceled as the company repaired those vessels.

Carnival also ultimately owned the Costa Concordia, a cruise ship that hit the shore of an Italian island in 2012, capsizing and killing 32 people.

If you are interested in contacting me, you may do so by emailing me at mov@chaloslaw.com.

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