Micky Arison (born June 29, 1949) is an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and chairman of Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise operator. From 1979 until 2013, he was also the company’s chief executive officer. Arison is also the owner of the NBA‘s Miami Heat, which under his ownership has won three NBA Championships.
Arison is a shareholder in Carnival Corp, the world’s largest leisure travel company, according to its website. He owns a 7.7% stake through a Wilmington, Delaware-based holding company and various trusts, according to the company’s 2023 proxy statement.
He isn’t credited with about 35 million shares in Carnival held by the Artsfare 2005 Trust because Arison doesn’t have an economic interest in them, according to the 2023 proxy. The billionaire inherited the majority of the stake from his father, Ted, who died in 1999.
His father co-founded the Miami Heat basketball team in 1988 and Micky Arison took over seven years later. The Heat is valued based on a December 2022 analysis from sports consultancy Sportico. Arison is the sole owner of the team, according to the Heat’s website.
The value of his Arison’s cash holdings is based on proceeds from dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
Vance Gulliksen, a spokesman for Arison, declined to comment on the billionaire’s net worth calculation.
Biography
Arison attended the University of Miami School of Business at the University of Miami but dropped out to become a sales representative for Carnival Corporation
Micky Arison’s father, Ted, founded Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972. The elder Arison, who was born in Tel Aviv, immigrated with his family to the United States in the 1950s. Micky Arison still has close ties to Israel, where his sister, Shari, lives and is one of its richest citizens.
After dropping out of the University of Miami, Arison began his career working at Carnival in the sales department, becoming reservations manager in 1974. Five years later he was made president of the company that operated three ships. Today the fleet numbers 100 vessels. Carnival sold shares in an initial public offering in 1987, raising $400 million. It acquired the Holland America Line two years later.
Arison is the managing general partner of the Miami Heat basketball team. The team has won three NBA championships under Arison. The second one, in 2012, came two years after the acquisition of the league’s most valuable player, Lebron James.
Milestones
- 1949 Micky Meir Arison is born in Tel Aviv.
- 1972 Father founds Carnival Cruise Lines.
- 1974 Starts work at Carnival as a reservations manager.
- 1987 Company sells shares in public offering, raising $400 million.
- 1988 Father becomes first owner of the Miami Heat basketball team.
- 1995 Receives ownership of the Miami Heat from father.
- 2012 Costa Concordia, a Carnival-owned cruise ship, sinks off of Italy.
- 2012 The Miami Heat win their second NBA championship.
