Arnold W. Donald becomes CEO of troubled Carnival Corp.

Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise company, last week announced that Arnold W. Donald (pictured), will become the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Donald replaces Micky Arison, the son of company founder Ted Arison.

The news came on the same day that Carnival Corp., announced second quarter profits of US$41 million, due largely to lower fuel and administrative costs. However, despite deep discounting, passenger traffic remains low, particularly on the flagship Carnival line.

Carnival Corp. has had a string of unfortunate incidents negatively impact on its brand – an engine room fire knocked out the Carnival Triumph’s main power, leaving the 2,758-passenger ship dead in the Gulf of Mexico. Passengers described horrible conditions as the ship was towed to Mobile, Alabama. – outgoing CEO Micky Arison, who owns the Miami Heat basketball team, was criticized for attending a game while the crisis was ongoing.

The following month, the company ended a voyage of the Carnival Dream early after the ship’s backup emergency diesel generator failed. Carnival was forced to charter airplanes to fly the ship’s 4,300 passengers back to Florida from the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

And all this came after the sinking last year of the Carnival-owned Costa Concordia. The incident, which killed 32 people, dominated global headlines for weeks.

Donald, a serial entrepreneur, brings a wealth of experience to the position – he founded and led Merisant, a company whose products include sweetener brands Equal and Canderel. He also held multiple senior management roles at Monsanto over the course of 20-plus years, including president of the company’s consumer and nutrition sector and president of its agricultural sector.

Source: USA Today