Royal Caribbean Chairman Richard Fain was awarded the Seatrade Personality of the Year 2012 award at a dinner held at London's Guildhall.
About 400 people witnessed the 24th annual Seatrade Awards, which is a shipping industry event that recognizes companies in the areas of safety at sea, clean shipping and innovation, as well as individuals that make significant contributions to the shipping industry.
Seatrade chairman Chris Hayman spoke about why Fain deserves the award, "through his exceptional leadership and perseverance Royal Caribbean has blossomed in different directions to become a global cruise company operating 40 ships under the Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Pullmantur, Azamara Cruises and CDF Croisières de France brands."
Fain was praised for two achievements at Royal Caribbean: Overseeing the remarkable development in the hardware of the product, ‘not just size and volume but the transformation of the onboard experience incorporating elements that no one would have even dreamt about 25 years ago’; and secondly globalisation, both in deployment of cruise ships and sourcing of passengers. ‘Under his leader ship the company has moved ships to Asia, Middle East, South America and other parts of the world which are now all considered as major destinations and sources of passenger growth,’ he added.
Fain accepted the award and offered a few words of thanks for the honor, "I take this award with great humility. To receive this honor from Seatrade, handed to me by the IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu, is very much a reminder of how important it is that each and every one of us in this great industry to which I have devoted my business career, maintains a high level of excellence."
"I am unusual in this room in that there are not many people who have crossed over from real shipping to cruising. When I first joined Royal Caribbean 90% of our ships sailed from Miami, within a few minutes reach of our offices, now more than 50% of our business is coming from outside the US."
