Arnold Donald, CEO and president of Carnival Corp., the parent company of several cruise lines, is scheduled to step down Monday after leading the cruise giant for nearly a decade.
Donald told USA TODAY that the decision came as part of an ongoing planning and leadership development process taking place within the company.
“I’ve been in this role for nine years. And also, you know, I’m getting to an age where it makes sense for the next generation to step in, and that’s how we got there,” he said.
Carnival Corp. announced in April that Donald would transition to vice chairman and member of the company’s board of directors after his tenure as CEO and president ends.
Donald, who started in the role in 2013 and led Carnival through the COVID-19 pandemic, will be succeeded by Josh Weinstein, who previously served the company as its chief operating officer.
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In a statement shared with USA TODAY, Weinstein said he feels privileged to have been given the opportunity to take on the role, adding that Donald’s passing is “quite an honor.”
Carnival Corp. is the parent company of major lines Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises, Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises and Cunard.
How did Arnold Donald get to Carnival Corp.?
When Donald started in the role in 2013, he anticipated taking it on for about three years — he was actually already semi-retired after spending more than 20 years at Monsanto, and later formed the company Merisant where he served as CEO and chairman.
Arnold then spent a period of semi-retirement in leadership positions at nonprofit organizations and served on various boards, including Carnival Corp. until he stepped into the position of president and CEO at the cruise giant in 2013, which he said seemed like a good opportunity.
When he took over at the carnival, he had specific goals to accomplish. Donald wanted to bring the company’s various brands together to act as a federation – to share practices and strengthen the company as a whole.
Donald applied three practices: Communication, cooperation and coordination.
“If you look at the leadership team in the management team, how we work together, it’s changed dramatically,” he said. “Brands have extensive communication, collaboration and coordination that they didn’t have before from a diversity standpoint. The majority of our fleet is now commercially run by women.”
Leading the company through COVID-19
During his tenure, Donald led Carnival Corp. through COVID-19 — and he said there have actually been some positive results from the pandemic that shut down the cruise industry for more than a year.
“(There’s nothing like a crisis to bring people together,” he said, noting the communication, collaboration and coordination they worked so hard to improve across brands pre-pandemic was brought to a new level. thanks to the pandemic.
The company is still recovering after taking on debt during COVID, but Donald is confident things are moving in the right direction.
And Donald believes the industry, as a whole, is growing. “There is no doubt that the industry is on its way to an even better place.”
What’s next for Arnold Donald?
As vice president and member of the company’s board of directors, Donald said his number one job is to “help Josh be extremely successful.”
After that he hopes to have a little more “me time,” which he said he plans to fill with outside board engagements, dropping a few names, including the National World War II Museum and Bank of America, among others. others.
And after that he said he would consider what happens next, noting that he might consider other boards — or perhaps private equity, which Donald was involved with when he “first retired “.
On the personal side, he is searching for his family legacy.
“I’m going to take some time and personal development and leave something for my grandchildren,” he explained. “So I’m not looking to publish, but I’m going to do some writing.”
To pursue that goal, he’s enrolled in a nonfiction writing course “so they’ll actually want to read it.”
He would also like to pick up his saxophone, he said.
