Stockton Rush is the CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, which runs submarine tours of the sunk Titanic cruise ship.
But as well as owning the exclusive high-market tourism venture, Rush – who is thought to have a net worth of at least $10 million – is also an avid pilot and world record holder.
Who is Stockton Rush?
Born in 1962, Rush was the son of Irish heritage Americans.
While from a working-class family by background, his maternal grandfather – who Rush says was a “dirt poor Irish immigrant” when he moved to the US – turned around the family’s fortune by becoming the youngest director of Standard Oil in America at the age of 33.
Rush clearly learnt from his grandfather, setting records of his own: The American graduated early from high school and persuaded his parents to pay for him to take flying lessons. At the age of 19 he became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world.
Rush mixed being a pilot with studying full-time for a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. During the summer holidays, he would fly out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Overseas National Airways under a subcontract from Saudi Arabian Airlines.
READ MORE ON THE 24/7 PROJECT
In the three years that he was at Princeton between 1981 and 1984, the pilot flew to locations including Cairo, Damascus, Bombay, London, Zurich, and Khartoum.
It had been Rush’s hope that he could join the US military as a pilot or become an astronaut, but upon discovering that his eyesight wasn’t good enough to pass the necessary tests he instead turned his attention to business.
In 1989 he received an MBA from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and began looking at intellectual property ventures he could invest in.
His endeavours have included serving on the board of BlueView Technologies (a sonar system manufacturer), on the board of Entomo (an enterprise software developer), and also being the chairman of Remote Control Technology.
In 2006 Rush claimed he “accidentally” purchased an unfinished submersible submarine. Travelling 250 feet underwater on his new mode of transport, he had an idea of setting up his own business transporting tourists down into the ocean.
In 2015 the American launched his first sub as part of his OpenGate business. In 2021 it started trips down to the wreckage of the Titanic.
He charges customers $250,000 per trip to see the remains of the ship.