WOW, CEO Of Now Doomed OceanGate Sub Said He Didn't Want To Hire Any '50 Year Old White Guys

Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, the company operating the missing Titanic tourist submersible, admitted to avoiding hiring experienced “50-year-old White guys” because they aren’t “inspirational.” He instead chose to employ younger, inexperienced staff who could be trained up on the job.

Rush is among five passengers on board Titan, the submersible craft that lost contact with the outside world less than two hours into a dive operation to the Titanic shipwreck located 12,500 feet below sea level on Sunday.

In an interview analyzed by U.S. submarine veteran Aaron Amick for Sub Brief, the OceanGate CEO explained how he preferred to employ college graduates who could be trained up over ex-military submarine experts he referred to as “50-year-old White guys.”

“When I started the business, one thing you will find is that there are other sub operators out there but they typically have gentlemen who are ex-military submariners, and you’ll see a whole bunch of 50-year-old White guys,” Stockton said.

“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational. I’m not going to inspire a 16-year-old to go pursue marine technology, but a 25-year-old who is a sub-pilot or a platform operator or whatever can be inspirational. So we’ve really tried to get very intelligent, motivated, younger individuals involved because we’re doing things that are completely new.