Giora Israel ~ Vice President, Strategic Planning, Carnival Corporation; President of Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Mexico (a Carnival affiliate); President of Carnival Ports, Inc.

Mr. Giora Israel, Vice President for Strategic Planning, Carnival Corporation, is a veteran of both the hotel and cruise industry at senior levels. A graduate of Tadmor Hotel College in Herzliah, Israel, he served as Director of Sales and Marketing at the Tel Aviv Hilton and as General Manager of other hotels in Israel & The Bahamas. He also managed two marine parks and underwater observatories 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 to Greece as Senior Vice President of Epirotiki during the Carnival/Epirotiki joint venture. In his present position as Vice President Strategic Planning, Mr. Israel is involved with Carnival’s international expansion. Other responsibilities include strategic developments relating to ports and other areas.

In addition, Mr. Israel serves as President of Carnival’s Port Development Group, Chairman of its Mexico port operations company and as director for several of Carnival’s affiliates. Mr. Israel has served as guest speaker in many international forums on tourism and the cruise industry in over a dozen countries.

Since his graduation, Mr. Israel has also spent time at various universities as a guest lecturer, including Barry University, the University of the West Indies, and served as a visiting fellow at both the Oxford and Cambridge Seatrade Cruise Academy.

In 1999 Mr. Israel, together with co-author Dr. Lawrence Miller of FIU in Miami, published the first dictionary of the cruise industry in London.