AH&LEF Dinner Tribute to Barry S. Sternlicht
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Sponsorships
Barry S. Sternlicht
Biography
Barry Sternlicht is the chairman and chief executive officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 745 properties in 80 countries and 105,000 employees. With six internationally renowned brands, including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts.
Barry Sternlicht has been credited as a dynamic and innovative hotel leader, inspiring new products and programs with immediate global appeal, including a revolutionary new guest room design for Sheraton and the creation of Westin's "Heavenly Bed", Heavenly Bath, Westin Workout and other innovations. USA Today reported the launch of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program as the #1 loyalty program in the world. Barry launched the first new hotel brand in recent history, W Hotels, which has grown to 22 hotels in major cities in the United States and internationally in Sydney, Australia, Seoul, Korea and Mexico City, Mexico.
One of the youngest and most respected leaders in the hotel and leisure industry today, Barry places as strong an emphasis on his humanitarian efforts as he does his business pursuits. For many years, he has served as Corporate Chairman of the NY Chapter Juvenile Diabetes Foundation's "Walk to Cure Diabetes" helping to break all previous walk fund-raising records, and was recipient of JDF's Exceptional Leadership Award. Recently, Barry made a five-year commitment to General Colin Powell, promising that 25,000 Starwood employees will dedicate over 40,000 hours to the "America's Promise" effort. Through job shadowing and mentoring programs, as well as donating community service hours, Starwood employees are serving various charitable organizations throughout the world-building parks as National Sponsor of City Cares or delivering food and mattresses to orphanages in Europe.
Barry Sternlicht was born in 1960 and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. He received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Barry holds an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management from Johnson & Wales University. He also received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University School for Hospitality, Tourism & Travel Administration and the CEO Diversity Award by Diversity Best Practices/Business Women's Network.
Barry is a trustee of Brown University. He serves on the Board of Directors of HealthMarket, the National Advisory Board of JP Morgan Chase, and the Advisory Board of Eurohypo. He serves on the boards of Juvenile Diabetes International Foundation, Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, Channel 13/WNET, the Business Committee of the Arts, and the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. He is a member of the Presidential Tourism & Travel Advisory Board, Young Presidents Organization, World Travel & Tourism Council, Council for the United States and Italy, Urban Land Institute, and Fairfield County Junior Achievement.
Barry and his wife Mimi reside in Greenwich, Connecticut with their three children.
For more information please contact Bob Craycraft
(202) 289-3154
