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Carnival Corporation Howard Frank ~ Vice Chairman & Chief Operating Officer Howard Frank, vice chairman and chief operating officer for Miami-based Carnival Corporation & plc, is responsible for directing corporate-wide business development strategies for the largest cruise vacation group in the world. He works closely on strategic planning with the management of each of the company’s various cruise brands, which are headquartered throughout the world, and together operate 97 ships totaling approximately 189,000 lower berths. In tandem with Micky Arison, the company’s chairman and CEO, Frank provides oversight for all of the company’s brands in North America, Europe and Australia, which include Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, The Yachts of Seabourn Cruise, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, and Ibero Cruises. Frank joined Carnival Corporation as senior vice president-finance and chief operating officer in July 1989 and has served as the company’s vice chairman and chief operating officer since January 1998. Before joining Carnival, Frank was the partner in charge of accounting and auditing services with the South Florida offices of Price Waterhouse. Frank currently serves as chairman of the Cruise Lines International Association. He is also a past chairman and current vice chairman of the Board of Trustees for the New World Symphony.
Giora Israel ~ Senior Vice President, Port and Destination Development Giora Israel, Senior Vice President Port & Destination Development, Carnival Corporation, is a veteran of the hotel, marine parks, and cruise industries. A graduate of Tadmor Hotel College in Israel, he served as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Tel Aviv Hilton and as General Manager of hotel resorts in Israel & The Bahamas. He also developed & managed two marine parks and tourist attractions in The Bahamas and in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, before becoming a cruise industry consultant in 1990. In 1992, he joined Carnival Corporation as Director of Special Projects, where he engaged in a variety of international activities for the line in Europe and other parts of the world. This included an assignment in Greece as Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing of Epirotiki. From 1998 until 2008 Mr. Israel served as Vice President Strategic Planning at Carnival Corporation and PLC. In that capacity, Mr. Israel was involved with Carnival’s international expansion. Other responsibilities included strategic developments relating to ports development, cruise operation and other areas of Carnival, the world’s largest cruise company. In late 2008, Mr. Israel was promoted to his current position, further emphasizing the strategic importance of cruise destination & cruise development, a key element in Carnival’s continuing growth and expansion for the years to come. In addition Mr. Israel remains involved in key strategic initiative for the corporation in various developmental and operational areas. Mr. Israel also serves as the President of Carnival Ports Inc., as well as the President of four ports operated by Carnival Corporation: Long Beach Cruise Terminal (California), Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), Grand Turk Cruise Center (Turks and Caicos Islands), and Mahogany Bay (Roatan, Honduras). Mr. Israel has served as a speaker in many international forums on tourism and the cruise industry in over a dozen countries. He has also been a frequent guest speaker at various universities, including the University of the West Indies, Barry University, University of Yucatan and Florida International University (both at the Hotel Management school and the FIU MBA program) and served as a visiting fellow at both the Oxford and Cambridge Seatrade Cruise Academy. Mr. Israel serves on the MBA school advisory boards of both Barry University in Miami and Purdue University. Mr. Israel is Member of the Board of Trustees of the Miami Chamber of Commerce and has served on numerous civic and industry boards in the U.S., Caribbean and Central America. In 1999, Mr. Israel, together with Dr. Lawrence Miller, formally a professor at FIU, co-authored the first dictionary of the cruise industry, which was published in London. CRUISE INDUSTRY PROFILES • 2010
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