Michael Carr, a former banker and a leader in the visitor and nonprofit industries, is the president and chief operating officer of the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

Q. How concerned are you about the decline in visitor arrivals since the Missouri relies heavily on tourists?

A. There is a concern as we move into trying to do our budgets for 2009. Projecting our revenue is difficult because we have seen the declines beginning in July. The declines are consistent with the declines in hotel occupancies. We have the additional challenge of being out of business for three months in 2009 when the ship goes into dry dock in September. But there are a lot of things that we can do to counter the overall decline by trying to appeal to wider audiences, trying to link the brand of the Missouri more closely with the overall Pearl Harbor brand, and to impress in visitors' minds that they have not really done all of Pearl Harbor unless they've seen the Missouri. If we're successful and can grab a higher percentage of the people that come and visit the Arizona, we could make up for the overall decline. We've also done a poor job of marketing ourselves to the East-bound visitors, particularly Japanese and Chinese visitors. We've also done a very, very poor job at making it convenient and easy for kama'aina visitors to come and see the Missouri. So there are a number of areas that we're focusing on, which if we are successful with those efforts, could overcome the overall decline in our raw numbers.

Q. What's going to happen when the Missouri is in dry dock?

A. The hull of the ship will be cleaned and repaired. The superstructure, which is the part above the deck, will be sand-blasted and repainted. We have some interior tank work that needs to be done. A few months ago one of the exterior tanks failed and flooded and caused the ship to list. That was repaired, but that particular tank needs to be cleaned and de-humidified and we need to identify any other areas within the tank area that need to be addressed.

Q. How much is this going to cost and have the funds been raised?

A. The preliminary quote for the work is around $12 million, but that's still a number that needs to be refined as we negotiate with the vendors. It's still a year away, so we've got quite a while to pin this down.

Q. Is more work needed on the battleship?

A. We have other major projects that we're working on. The most obvious and visible is the replacement of the teak decking on the ship. That is an expensive project. We're doing a test section on the back of the ship that's about 2,500 square feet, which should be done in a few weeks. Once that's done we'll have all the data that we need to determine how much it will cost to do the rest and we can then begin to plan where we're going to get the funds to do that and how we're going to do that.

Q. You have an extensive background in tourism and finance. What did you start off doing?

A. My first real job in Hawai'i was with Bank of Hawaii. I started as a management trainee in 1977 and quickly ended up in the leasing company. After being in the leasing company for seven years I was asked to assume the position of visitor industry manager for Bank of Hawaii. My office was in Waikiki and it was my responsibility to handle marketing for the entire visitor industry and to stay on top of all of the deals that were happening at the time. This was the late '80s when the Japanese were making huge investments in Waikiki, so Bank of Hawaii was trying through that job to stay as involved as it could in as many of these transactions as possible. It was at that time that I really fell in love with the visitor industry.

Q. From there you went to Polynesian Adventure Tours?

A. Polynesian Adventure Tours was actually one of my customers at the bank and I was approached by the owner of the company to consider becoming president of the company and I did. I left Polynesian Adventure in early 2004. I didn't do anything for a little while, but eventually at the request of some friends and people that I knew I started doing some consulting work. I worked for some visitor industry companies, doing profitability analysis and product analysis. I helped a friend that has a distribution company with sales so I was doing stuff like that when I was asked to consider coming back to Bank of Hawaii and working in the trust department as a private banker, which I did beginning in 2006.

Q. What eventually led you to the Battleship Missouri Memorial?

A. The Missouri was seeking a new president. They posted this position and through an executive recruiter I found out about the posting, made my interest known, submitted my resume, and through a fairly lengthy process of multiple interviews eventually I was offered the position.

Q. Why were you attracted to the job?

A. The Missouri is one of America's national treasures and the opportunity to be the steward of the Missouri as it enters its second decade as a major visitor attraction in Hawai'i was a great honor and an opportunity that was just too good for me to pass up. It gets me back involved in the visitor industry, which I love, and it gets me on the ground working with people here, all of whom have a tremendous affection and love for this ship.

Q. What are your primary duties?

A. I'm in charge of all day-to-day operations: financial, accounting, marketing. There are 130 people who work on this ship divided into a number of departments and I am responsible for the performance of all of these departments. I am responsible to our board of directors. We are a nonprofit organization, but this is also a business that must sustain itself.

Q. Is fundraising a big part of your job?

A. Fundraising is a significant part of what we do. We have a development director, Sarah Tenney, who has day-to-day responsibility for our fundraising activities, which are diverse. I'm happy to say that our fundraising efforts are all directed at specific capital projects, as well as our education programs. Since we are able to sustain ourselves through our visitors, we cover our operating costs in that manner and all of our fundraising efforts are directed at specific capital projects and our educational programs.

Q. The Missouri received a break on its rent recently?

A. A bill has been passed by the U.S. House and the Senate and one of the provisions of this bill would afford us free rent for 2009 and 2010. I don't know if this bill has been signed into law yet. Our current rent is approximately $17,000 a month.

Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?

A. One of the great joys of this job is to work with such a great staff of committed individuals that have a deep love and affection for this ship that extends all the way to our board of directors. I've been involved in nonprofits before in which the boards were not nearly as engaged as this board is. It's a joy to work with them, particularly people such as our chairman, (retired) Adm. Robert Kihune, who is a wonderful man and brings a broad experience with decades of Navy experience to this that I don't have.