The Men Who Founded RCCL.

Arne Wilhelmsen is a Norwegian businessman with a net worth of $1.6 billion. He is credited with co-founding one of the premier cruise companies in the world, the Royal Caribbean. The Royal Caribbean has 22 vessels in its kitty and organizes tours to 270 destinations across more than 70 countries. He is the 4th richest man in Norway and ranked #931 richest person in the world on the Forbes list. 

The Harvard University graduate has a large stake in the cruise company although he has retired a long time ago. In 2003 his son Alex was made one of the Directors of the Royal Caribbean. Arne is also the owner of Linstow which is a large property development company in Norway. In 2008 Arne pocketed more than $500 million as China Oilfield Services acquired Awilco Offshore. He had a stake of 40% in the latter company which was ultimately sold for $2.5 billion. 

Arne Wilhelmsen is now in his eighties and  he has truly achieved a lot in his life. He is married and has 3 children. It is amazing to know that he started his career as a shipping broker and ultimately founded the Royal Caribbean which is a household name today. The name of the cruise company comes to mind again and again whenever you think of the lovely Caribbean cruises. In short, he has changed the world of luxury cruises. 

May 12,2003- Stephan, 71, guided Royal Caribbean at its birth more than three decades
 ago.  In 1970, when the fledgling cruise line launched Song of Norway with an
 expansive pool deck, it was the first ship designed specifically for warm-
 weather cruising.  It revolutionized the cruise industry; previous ships were
 built for point-to-point ocean transport with far less open space.
     Stephan was the cruise line's president from 1969 to 1996, when he became
 vice chairman of the board of directors.  At various times, he served as
 general manager, CEO, president, and vice chairman.
     "Ed is a man of great vision and tremendous warmth," said Richard D. Fain,
 Royal Caribbean's Chairman and CEO.  "He is universally well-liked, and his
 influence is impossible to measure.  Everyone at Royal Caribbean, and the
 cruise industry as a whole, owes him a great debt.  He is a founding father of
 the modern cruise industry."
     Stephan nurtured Royal Caribbean from an idea on paper in 1968 to a fleet
 of 25 ships with global itineraries and revenues of $3.4 billion in 2002.  He
 previously worked in the hotel business in Florida, following military service
 in Korea where he was a decorated artillery officer.  In the 1960s, he joined
 Yarmouth Steamship Company and later Commodore Cruise Line.
     Stephan journeyed to Oslo, Norway, in 1968 with a dream that would become
 Royal Caribbean.  He had an idea for a ship designed especially for pleasure
 cruises in the balmy Caribbean.  In Oslo, he enlisted the support of three
 Norwegian ship owners, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line A/S was born January
 31, 1969.  He set up a two-room office in a stucco building at 853 Biscayne
 Boulevard as work began in Finland on the 724-passenger Song of Norway, the
 largest vessel ever built in Scandinavia.  The 17,500-ton ship (one-eighth the
 tonnage of Royal Caribbean's newest ship Navigator of the Seas) cost
 $14.3 million and first sailed out of Miami November 7, 1970.
      Stephan's "vision" included a glass-walled cocktail lounge cantilevered
 from the funnel.  When he told naval architects he wanted something like the
 Space Needle in Seattle, they were skeptical.  A rival cruise line predicted
 it would shake right off the funnel.  Instead, the Viking Crown Lounge became
 a distinctive feature on all Royal Caribbean ships.
      Under Stephan's leadership, Song of Norway was followed by other ships
 representing historic shifts in nautical design.  Sovereign of the Seas, for
 example, in 1988, was the first ship with a soaring, five-deck atrium -- a
 feature that has become integral to every ship built in the last 15 years.
     "Even as he takes a well-deserved retirement, we will always be receptive
 to his wise counsel," Fain said.
     Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company that
 operates Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, with a combined
 total of 25 ships in service and three under construction.  The company also
 offers unique land-tour vacations in Alaska, Canada and Europe through its
 cruise-tour division.  Additional information can be found on
 www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebrity.com or www.rclinvestor.com.
 
 

SOURCE  Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.