ORLANDO BUSINESS JOURNAL
By BOB MERVINE Contributing Writer
FRIDAY, September 1, 2000
ORLANDO - The colorful co-founder of the I-Drive attraction "Titanic: Ship of Dreams" has been torpedoed: G. Michael Harris, chief operating officer of RMS Titanic, Inc., has been fired after being abruptly recalled from the stormy North Atlantic where he was salvaging treasures from the doomed vessel.
Harris could not be reached for comment.
Spokesmen for RMS Titanic confirm the termination, but offered little solid information about Harris' dismissal.
It's not immediately known how, or if, Harris' firing will affect the I-Drive exhibit. However, it does remove Harris from the helm of the only company with legal salvage rights to the vessel - a critical link in obtaining more exhibit items.
The dismissal caps an already turbulent chapter in RMS Titanic Inc.
Harris and company president and CEO Arnie Geller helped lead the shareholder ouster of former CEO George Tulloch, general counsel Allan Carlin and two other directors in an overnight Thanksgiving Day coup. Charges and countercharges followed: In fact, Carlin spent 10 hours in jail for allegedly stealing 20 boxes of documents and wiping out the firm's computer hard drives. Charges were later dropped.
After the dust settled, Geller and Harris were left as the only surviving company officers. They quickly assumed the top posts and, this June, both signed off on lucrative contracts: a $300,000 annual salary, guaranteed raises of 5 percent per year, a $1,000 a month car allowance and stock options valued at more than $1 million.
At the same time, RMS Titanic had a contract in place ensuring that the Orlando attraction - which Harris co-founded - would turn over 20 percent of its profits to RMS Titanic.
Profits at the Orlando attraction, though, have depended in part on the acquisition of still more artifacts from the sunken ship. Some felt there simply have not been enough items to draw crowds. New general manager Pat Burns freely admitted that the I-Drive attraction missed original first year projections of 1 million visitors.
But Harris, whose father took him searching for the missing wreck as a young man, was already involved in mounting still another expedition to gather artifacts from the rapidly disintegrating 90-year-old ship.
That was one reason the Orlando attraction believed it could have as many as 40 new artifacts before year's end, perhaps the $300,000,000 bag of diamonds, the band new 1912 Renault or the jewel-encrusted Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam still stored in the ship's cargo hold.
And, in fact, Harris, the expedition's leader, was one of three men in a submersible sub who found a leather case about 200 feet from the Titanic's mangled stern containing still-fragrant vials of perfumes.
But it appears to be the first and last time Harris will go back to the Titanic. RMS Titanic Inc. not only owns salvage rights, it has fought for, and won, exclusive legal rights to even dive at the wreckage site - essentially barring other visitors.
By BOB MERVINE Contributing Writer
FRIDAY, September 1, 2000
ORLANDO - The colorful co-founder of the I-Drive attraction "Titanic: Ship of Dreams" has been torpedoed: G. Michael Harris, chief operating officer of RMS Titanic, Inc., has been fired after being abruptly recalled from the stormy North Atlantic where he was salvaging treasures from the doomed vessel.
Harris could not be reached for comment.
Spokesmen for RMS Titanic confirm the termination, but offered little solid information about Harris' dismissal.
It's not immediately known how, or if, Harris' firing will affect the I-Drive exhibit. However, it does remove Harris from the helm of the only company with legal salvage rights to the vessel - a critical link in obtaining more exhibit items.
The dismissal caps an already turbulent chapter in RMS Titanic Inc.
Harris and company president and CEO Arnie Geller helped lead the shareholder ouster of former CEO George Tulloch, general counsel Allan Carlin and two other directors in an overnight Thanksgiving Day coup. Charges and countercharges followed: In fact, Carlin spent 10 hours in jail for allegedly stealing 20 boxes of documents and wiping out the firm's computer hard drives. Charges were later dropped.
After the dust settled, Geller and Harris were left as the only surviving company officers. They quickly assumed the top posts and, this June, both signed off on lucrative contracts: a $300,000 annual salary, guaranteed raises of 5 percent per year, a $1,000 a month car allowance and stock options valued at more than $1 million.
At the same time, RMS Titanic had a contract in place ensuring that the Orlando attraction - which Harris co-founded - would turn over 20 percent of its profits to RMS Titanic.
Profits at the Orlando attraction, though, have depended in part on the acquisition of still more artifacts from the sunken ship. Some felt there simply have not been enough items to draw crowds. New general manager Pat Burns freely admitted that the I-Drive attraction missed original first year projections of 1 million visitors.
But Harris, whose father took him searching for the missing wreck as a young man, was already involved in mounting still another expedition to gather artifacts from the rapidly disintegrating 90-year-old ship.
That was one reason the Orlando attraction believed it could have as many as 40 new artifacts before year's end, perhaps the $300,000,000 bag of diamonds, the band new 1912 Renault or the jewel-encrusted Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam still stored in the ship's cargo hold.
And, in fact, Harris, the expedition's leader, was one of three men in a submersible sub who found a leather case about 200 feet from the Titanic's mangled stern containing still-fragrant vials of perfumes.
But it appears to be the first and last time Harris will go back to the Titanic. RMS Titanic Inc. not only owns salvage rights, it has fought for, and won, exclusive legal rights to even dive at the wreckage site - essentially barring other visitors.
