Ted Arison

Ted Arison
File:Ted Arison.jpg
Born	Theodore Arisohn (1924-02-24)24 February 1924 Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
Died	Tel Aviv, Israel
Nationality	British Palestine (1924-1948) Israeli (1948-1952 and 1990-1999) American (1950s-1990)
Alma mater	American University of Beirut
Occupation	Businessman, soldier, sports team owner and Philanthropist
Known for	Founder Carnival Cruise Lines
Spouse(s)	Mina Wasserman (1948–66; divorced) Marilyn "Lin" Hersh (1967–99; his death)
Children	Micky, Shari, Michael
Parent(s)	Meir and Vera Arisohn
Military career
Allegiance	Israel
Years of service	1948 - early 1950 (IDF) British Army (1940-1945)
Rank	Sgan Aluf (Lieutenant Colonel) Sergeant Major (1940-1945)

Ted Arison (Hebrew: תד אריסון‎; 24 February 1924 – 1 October 1999) was an Israeli businessman who co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966 with Knut Kloster and founded Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972.

Early years

Arison was born Theodore Arisohn in Tel Aviv (in the then British Mandate of Palestine) to Meir, a wealthy businessman, and Vera Arisohn. He was a third-generation sabra of Romanian descent and studied commerce and economics at the American University of Beirut and fought as a member of the Jewish Brigade of the British Army during World War II. After the British departure he later served as an officer in the IDF during Israel's War of Independence, eventually achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. From 1946-51, he managed Meir Dizengoff and Company, a shipping company.

Business career

Frustrated by the lack of business opportunities, Arison wrapped up his business and moved to the United States after 1952. He took his family to New York in 1954 and moved to Miami, Florida in 1966. He created Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972 in which he made his fortune.

Later, he established the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts based in Miami. He brought professional basketball to South Florida with the forming of the Miami Heat in 1988, and established the Arison Foundation, a philanthropic institution, in Israel and the United States.

In 1986, Arison's condominium neighbor, Count de S.G. Elkaim (Vice President at E.F. Hutton & Company, Inc.), advised him to go public before an impending big correction in the stock market. Following his advice and guidance, Carnival Cruise Lines went public in the American Stock Exchange in July 1987, one month before the stock market top and the infamous crash of October 1987. (Hutton was one of the four underwriters.)

No competition was able to raise money, which gave Carnival a head start. In February 1989, Arison awarded in the strictest of confidence the exclusive sale of the company at $30 per share to Elkaim. The stock market recovery from the emotional shock on the 1987 crash was not able to absorb this transaction. Consequently, having Carnival in the stock market and the ensuing rally until 1999 catapulted Arison to one of the world's richest people.

Return to Israel

In 1990, he renounced his U.S. citizenship, in an effort to avoid estate tax in the United States and returned to Israel and founded Arison Investments. In 1997 he headed a consortium that purchased the controlling share in Bank Hapoalim for more than $1 billion, the largest privatization in Israel's history.

Family

Arison married Mina Wasserman in 1948 and they had two children: a son Micky (born 1949) and a daughter Shari (born 1957). The couple divorced after moving to Florida in 1966. In 1967 he married Marilyn "Lin" Hersh and later adopted her son Michael (born 1961).

Death

At the time of his death in 1999, Ted Arison failed by approximately nine months to meet the requirement of being outside of United States territory for 10 years for the tax benefits of his renunciation of U.S. citizenship to be realized.

See also

• Arison family