By Associated Press
Miami, FL – Carnival Cruise Lines president and chief executive Robert Dickinson is retiring at the end of the year.
Dickinson has been with the company since its start 35 years ago. He's been instrumental in forming Carnival Corporation into the world's largest cruise operator.
Dickinson joined Carnival Cruise Lines in 1972. He was part of Carnival's early 1980s expansion when it built the Tropicale. As the industry's first new ship in years, it led to an industry-wide shipbuilding boom and the addition of several new Carnival ships later that decade.
In 1993, he was promoted to Carnival Cruise Lines president, and he took the title of chief executive in 2005.
Dickinson, who will turn 65 next month, says he'll remain on Carnival Corporation's board of directors as he pursues charitable causes.
Carnival's passenger ship ''Holiday'' is based at the Alabama Cruise Terminal in Mobile.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)