Ted Arison

Ted Arison (1924 – October 1, 1999) was an Israeli-American businessman who co-founded Norwegian Cruise Lines in 1966 with Knut Kloster and founded Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972.¹ Born in Tel Aviv in the then British Mandate of Palestine , he fought in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army during World War II . He moved to the United States in the early 1950s and 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 philanthropic Arison Foundation in Israel and the United States . In 1990, he renounced his U.S. citizenship, in an effort to avoid U.S. Estate Taxes (and failed to meet the 10 years out of the United States rules on this matter, when he died in 1999) 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 deal in Israel's history. His children include Micky Arison and Shari Arison .²