Arnold Donald stepping down as CCL CEO on Aug. 1

[DaveOKC]

Tue, April 26, 2022, 8:00 AM

 

 

In this article:

•  

  Arnold Donald Named Vice Chair, Josh Weinstein Named President & CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc

MIAMI, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company, today announced that effective August 1^st, Arnold Donald, currently President and Chief Executive Officer, is being appointed Vice Chair and member of the Boards of Directors. Josh Weinstein (age 48), currently Chief Operations Officer for the company, will assume the role of President and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc.

[KAKcruiser]

Wonder what is the story behind that!

[DaveOKC]

2 minutes ago, KAKcruiser said:

Wonder what is the story behind that!

Doubt it is good  news.

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for the info.

[OlsSalt]

Anyone would need a rest after these past two years of total chaos for the cruise industry.

[vicd1969]

Maybe he felt it's the best time to exit - having steered the corporation through the pandemic when its long-term existence was not a sure thing. Wish him well in his retirement or future plans.

[BermudaBound2014]

16 minutes ago, vicd1969 said:

Maybe he felt it's the best time to exit - having steered the corporation through the pandemic when its long-term existence was not a sure thing. Wish him well in his retirement or future plans.

 

IMO: Long term existence is not yet a sure thing. I suspect more dilution before he physically exits. 

[chengkp75]

Perhaps he sees further personal liability in the future after the January environmental compliance disaster, and having to work with a department designed by outsiders.

[BermudaBound2014]

Not to mention protecting retirement in the event things turn sour.

[albingirl]

Wow, that's a shame.  I never heard of any positive changes made, but perhaps he did a good job.  I find it increasingly difficult to deal with the cruise line.  It used to be easy.  Long call waits are very irritating, but I assume they've lost alot of staff.  

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, chengkp75 said:

Perhaps he sees further personal liability in the future after the January environmental compliance disaster, and having to work with a department designed by outsiders.

 

....a department designed by outsiders"...........

 

Should I assume this is the new department now headed by the green-striped Environmental Officer? - which has been a staff addition since we started cruising back in 2008.

 

And certainly we all have found many changes, both small and large, that have come under the umbrella - environmental improvements sweeping through every and all aspects of cruise ship operations.. (Get rid of single use disposables, no plastic water bottles, no plastic straws, waste management, dumping ....)

 

Assumed these changes were coming out of HAL Seattle corporate, but you comment makes me think the  fleet wide diktats come from elsewhere now. Where can we learn more about this? 

 

The website "Friends of the Earth" is having a heyday locally over HAL ships being "criminally negligent and getting an F grade for their environmental abuses. Yet when I drilled down  their website, they linked every single CCL abuse over the past 10 years to the arrival of a single HAL ships, who may have have released some exhaust for a few hours back in 2008.

 

Thanks for any further insights.

[ShipsAreTheBest]

I think he’s 68.  Probably just time to retire.

[chengkp75]

18 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

....a department designed by outsiders"...........

 

Should I assume this is the new department now headed by the green-striped Environmental Officer? - which has been a staff addition since we started cruising back in 2008.

 

No, based on the continued violations during probation, the court has ordered that the corporate environmental compliance office, the setting up of which was a condition of the first case, and the failures of that department were noted in the first probation violation, be set up as an independent office, reporting to a committee of the board:

 

Changes required under a plea agreement with the Department of Justice resolving the probation violation include:

• Carnival must restructure so that its investigative office reports directly to a committee of Carnival’s Board of Directors;
• Carnival’s internal investigative office must be given the authority to initiate investigations on its own and to determine their scope;
• Carnival’s management will be restricted in its ability to remove the head of the “Incident Analysis Group” that performs internal investigations;
• Carnival must conduct an assessment to ensure independent investigators have sufficient resources;
• Carnival must assess the effectiveness of required changes and correct deficiencies.
• Failure to meet deadlines in the plea agreement will initially subject the defendant to fines of $100,000 per day, and $500,000 per day after 10 days.

As has been reported by the CAM and auditors from the beginning, the onboard crew wish to comply with environmental regulations, and try their best, but are thwarted by constraints from the corporate offices.  This independent "Incident Analysis Group" will be monitored by the CAM and auditors to ensure that it is in fact independent, and free from corporate pressure.

[chengkp75]

31 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

The website "Friends of the Earth" is having a heyday locally over HAL ships being "criminally negligent and getting an F grade for their environmental abuses.

The "FOE" give an "F" grade to any line that does not respond to their inquiries.

[MISTER 67]

I wish him well. That being said I wish that my 2 favorite cruise lines, HAL and Princess were independent lines and not under the umbrella of CCL. 

 

 

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

The "FOE" give an "F" grade to any line that does not respond to their inquiries.

 

Local reporting on the Konigdam recent visit and the FOE "F" grade:  https://www.independent.com/2022/03/30/cruise-ship-in-santa-barbara-harbor-gets-f-grade/

 

When I dug deeper on the FOE website I did find many ongoing violations for Carnival ships; but only occasional and limited ones for HAL ships. Is the possible complaint against Arnold Donald for fleetwide environmental violations or just primarily against those under the Carnival names?

 

I was surprised in this day of very heightened awareness and threat of bad publicity, to see the Carnival brand seemed to still be a chronic violator. But now the media is attaching this to even the Konigsdam as a criminal environmental polluter .

[PACD_JG]

I can't be the only one who read the headline and thought what - Aaron Donald (Rams) had a side hustle in the cruise industry!?

[ontheweb]

52 minutes ago, PACD_JG said:

I can't be the only one who read the headline and thought what - Aaron Donald (Rams) had a side hustle in the cruise industry!?

Aaron Donald did say he might retire after the Super Bowl win. (I guess he can devote more time to his duties as a Carnival Corporation board member. 🤣)

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Local reporting on the Konigdam recent visit and the FOE "F" grade:  https://www.independent.com/2022/03/30/cruise-ship-in-santa-barbara-harbor-gets-f-grade/

 

When I dug deeper on the FOE website I did find many ongoing violations for Carnival ships; but only occasional and limited ones for HAL ships. Is the possible complaint against Arnold Donald for fleetwide environmental violations or just primarily against those under the Carnival names?

 

I was surprised in this day of very heightened awareness and threat of bad publicity, to see the Carnival brand seemed to still be a chronic violator. But now the media is attaching this to even the Konigsdam as a criminal environmental polluter .

I don't frankly give a toss about the FOE, and their environmental grades.  What I do care about is the blatant culture of environmental non-compliance by Carnival Corp, as witnessed by the original Princess violation that lead to the probation a couple years ago, then the hundreds of continuing violations by ships of every Carnival fleet (HAL included) that were documented during the first year of probation, which led to the second fine, and then these continuing violations that have led to a second plea agreement that probation was violated by Carnival Corp.

 

FOE goes for headlines and "catchy" "flashy" inaccurate postures of cruise ship pollution, the Court Appointed Monitor's reports detail specific violations that were documented.  In January, Carnival pled guilty again to violation of probation.

[OlsSalt]

What are the powers and duties of the onboard, green-striped "environmental officer" - just for corporate PR?  I am disappointed to be learning this.

[chengkp75]

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

What are the powers and duties of the onboard, green-striped "environmental officer" - just for corporate PR?  I am disappointed to be learning this.

His job is to ensure that the environmental regulations and company policies are met.  However, as they fall within the chain of command, both onboard and in the corporate structure, there can, and has been, pressure from corporate to skip on training of crew, failures to keep adequate records, and make some "small things" disappear.  In many cases, the onboard officer is told (implicitly or explicitly) to make problems disappear, and if they don't, their relief will be joining the ship at the next port.   It is only when the corporation develops a culture of environmental compliance from the top down that real compliance can be obtained.  Carnival's corporate culture has shown repeated failure to even understand what compliance means.  It is only when you have a department that is outside the chain of command, and is independently hired, that you can really get the truth about compliance, and place the blame for non-compliance where it rightly belongs, in the headquarters building corner offices.  When a corporation embraces compliance, with mottos like "the budget for compliance is unlimited", and mean it, unlike Carnival, whose original compliance officer was not given any budget for compliance, nor any authority to change corporate policy, that things turn around.

[rkacruiser]

I need more detail than I now have about this change leadership at CCL.  I know nothing about Mr. Josh Weinstein.  Nothing in the Annual Report for 2021 indicated that such a change was coming.

 

But, so what?  Fain of RCI decided he has had enough recently,   At the age of 68, Mr. Donald might well feel the same way.  When I retired from my career, I was much younger than either of these gentlemen.  For you "youngsters" on this Message Board, believe me, you will know when it is time to "hang it up".  And, if you decide to continue to "hang around" as I have seen some colleagues do, it may be a decision that you will regret.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, chengkp75 said:

His job is to ensure that the environmental regulations and company policies are met.  However, as they fall within the chain of command, both onboard and in the corporate structure, there can, and has been, pressure from corporate to skip on training of crew, failures to keep adequate records, and make some "small things" disappear.  In many cases, the onboard officer is told (implicitly or explicitly) to make problems disappear, and if they don't, their relief will be joining the ship at the next port.   It is only when the corporation develops a culture of environmental compliance from the top down that real compliance can be obtained.  Carnival's corporate culture has shown repeated failure to even understand what compliance means.  It is only when you have a department that is outside the chain of command, and is independently hired, that you can really get the truth about compliance, and place the blame for non-compliance where it rightly belongs, in the headquarters building corner offices.  When a corporation embraces compliance, with mottos like "the budget for compliance is unlimited", and mean it, unlike Carnival, whose original compliance officer was not given any budget for compliance, nor any authority to change corporate policy, that things turn around.

Makes me feel even better that I voted no for all directors to be reelected on my proxy statement.

[Sir PMP]

13 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

I need more detail than I now have about this change leadership at CCL.  I know nothing about Mr. Josh Weinstein.  Nothing in the Annual Report for 2021 indicated that such a change was coming.

 

But, so what?  Fain of RCI decided he has had enough recently,   At the age of 68, Mr. Donald might well feel the same way.  When I retired from my career, I was much younger than either of these gentlemen.  For you "youngsters" on this Message Board, believe me, you will know when it is time to "hang it up".  And, if you decide to continue to "hang around" as I have seen some colleagues do, it may be a decision that you will regret.

More cost cutting coming:

 

Prior to his role with Carnival UK, Weinstein was treasurer for Carnival Corporation for 10 years from 2007 to 2017, overseeing the treasury, tax, insurance and financial planning & analysis functions over this time period.

From 2002 to 2007, Weinstein served as an attorney in the corporate legal department.

Weinstein said he recognized what a privilege it is to become CEO of Carnival Corporation.

"I am truly humbled to take up the role of CEO and am honored to lead such a talented team of over 100,000 ship and shoreside team members who do such an incredible job in delivering unforgettable, happy vacations to our guests, day in and day out," Weinstein said. "I have benefitted tremendously from Arnold's guidance and mentoring, and I would like to thank him, Micky Arison our Chairman and the entire Boards of Directors for their support. I look forward to building upon the company's successes as we move forward."

Weinstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Law. A native of New York, Weinstein and his wife have three children.

[OlsSalt]

WSJ covers this today - not a happy report for the cruise industry overall, and its current inability to turn a profit after the arbitrary and draconian strikes against it starting in March 2020.