 Mr Dingle - lucky to be surrounded by the best in the business |
David Dingle joined P&O Cruises in 1978, later becoming managing director in 2000, having held a range of posts. When the company was taken over by US group Carnival in 2003, the company created a new position for him - which left him in charge of the group's UK operations.
Interestingly, his new role as Managing Director of UK Cruising also left Mr Dingle in charge of sales and marketing for P&O's former rival Cunard which also had been snapped up by the US group in 1998.
But his passion for cruise travel doesn't end with his Carnival job - he's also chairman of P&O Travel and a board member of the Association of British Travel Agents, the Chamber of Shipping, and the Passenger Shipping Association.
What was your first job - and how much were you paid?
I spent my holiday jobs working in the local council's rates office.
It taught me the pleasures of taking people's money but without the reciprocal pleasure of providing them with some enjoyment in return.
People tend to take more delight in two weeks aboard a luxury cruise ship than in the transitory pleasures of a freshly emptied dustbin.
My first pay packet contained �44 - big money in 1973!
I was told it was a tradition to share your first wages with other members of ones family - something I ungenerously chose to ignore!
What was your first car?
My father sold me his Ford Cortina Mk 3 in 1975.
Being only three years old, it was the flashest vehicle in the college car park by some way, and fortunately too heavy to be picked up by members of the Boat Club and deposited in embarrassing locations on the college lawns, unlike the Austin 1100 of a fellow student later to become an MP.
Smart cars and political ambitions would clearly have created a dangerously high profile!
The other car deserving of respect was a nice, little, low-slung Triumph Spitfire - I secretly envied the acceleration.
What was the first house you got a mortgage for?
A flat in green and pleasant Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, costing �20000.
Having been dispatched at short notice to work in the North of England after an assignment in Sydney, Australia, I was somewhat guarded over the attractions of Lancashire, so I found a tiny corner of Manchester resembling Southern suburbia but dangerously located in border land between the two local football teams.
Nevertheless, it was an effective bachelor pad although it embarrassed me somewhat when I closed the front door too hard and the wallpaper fell off.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
The people who work around me - we are constantly driving each other forward.
The cruise industry is a rapidly expanding business in the UK.
It's also very complex since it covers everything from heavy engineering to cordon bleu catering to interactive web marketing.
To be successful it requires a team of highly skilled open-minded individuals with bags of enthusiasm.
I'm very lucky to be surrounded by the best in the business.
What's the best bit of business advice you've had?
Whether you agree with it or not, always try to understand the other person's point of view.
If you want to influence someone, it's always better to try to build on and change their existing views rather than confront them with the total opposite.
What was the proudest moment of your career?
The naming by The Queen of Oriana, the first cruise ship purpose-built for the British cruise market.
I spent three years working on the design and introduction of the ship. It's rare in a service industry to be able to create something so tangible and enduring.
This was in 1995.We subsequently repeated the exercise with Aurora in 2000, and we are now building our latest new vessel, Arcadia, which will be Britain's biggest and most advanced cruise ship when she enters service in April next year.
Carnival is the only company in the world to be listed on both the UK's FTSE 100 and the US S&P 500. The group has 12 cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia - including P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Cunard Line and Ocean Village - as well as operating tour companies.
With a market capitalisation of $33,981,193 the firm currently operates 75 ships with 55,000 crew members - which carry a total of around 118,000 passengers.
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