Thomas Michael McAlpin (born 1959 in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

) is the president and CEO of

Virgin Voyages Virgin Voyages is a cruise line headquartered in Plantation, Florida and a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Bain Capital. As of April 2022, Virgin Voyages has two ships in the fleet, with two more on order, all with an expected capac ...

. He previously served as president and CEO of ''

The World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

'', a privately owned residential ship. McAlpin also served as president of Disney Cruises, where he oversaw two

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "s ...

, the ''

Disney Magic ''Disney Magic'' is the first cruise ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Line, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. She has 11 public decks, can accommodate 2,700 passengers in 875 staterooms, and has a crew of approximately 950. The int ...

'' and ''

Disney Wonder ''Disney Wonder'' is a cruise ship operated by Disney Cruise Line. She was the second ship to join the Disney fleet on entering service in 1999. ''Disney Wonder'' is of the same class as . The other three ships in the fleet are the , , and . The ...

'' as well as Disney's private island

Castaway Cay Disney's Castaway Cay, or simply Castaway Cay (), is a private island in the Bahamas which serves as an exclusive port for the Disney Cruise Line ships. It is located near Great Abaco Island and was formerly known as Gorda Cay. In 1997, The Walt D ...

Early life and education

McAlpin was born in

in 1959. He earned his bachelor's degree in Accounting and Finance from

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

and a master's degree in Business Administration from the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

Career

In 1981, McAlpin began his career as a senior auditor for

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

and in 1984 became the chief financial officer for the CSB Leasing Group. In 1986, he joined

Royal Caribbean Cruises Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

, Ltd. as director of Corporate Planning and Analysis and held this position for eight years. McAlpin joined Disney Cruises as part of the founding management team in 1995 as vice president of finance, business development and shore-side travel operations. During the creation of Disney Cruises, he was responsible for planning the first two ships and negotiating the contracts for Castaway Cay. McAlpin was with the company for 14 years and served as president for the final five years of his tenure. In July 2009, McAlpin joined ResidenSea, Ltd., the company responsible for the condo cruise ship, ''The World'', as president and chief executive. During his five years with the company McAlpin oversaw an $11 million renovation of the ship. He resigned from his role at ''The World'' and joined Virgin Cruises as president and CEO in 2014.

Other activities

McAlpin is a member of the Florida State University Foundation Board of Trustees. He was previously a member of the national board of the

Make-A-Wish Foundation The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in the United States that helps fulfill the wishes of children with a critical illness between the ages of and 18 years old. Make-A-Wish was founded in 1980 and headqua ...

and the chairman in 2012.

References

External links

* 1959 births Living people Walt Disney Parks and Resorts people Disney executives University of Miami Business School alumni People from Miami People from Parkland, Florida {{disney-stub