Mark A. Robertson Named Vice President & Counsel For Hilton Hotels Corp.

He reports to Thomas E. Gallagher, executive vice president & general counsel.

Robertson's responsibilities in his new position include franchise development and operations (domestic and international), information systems and technology, and hotel operations.

Robertson, from Anchorage, Alaska and Spokane, Wash., joined Hilton in 1995 as counsel and vice president and counsel of Conrad International Hotels. He was named senior counsel at Hilton in 1998. He came to Hilton from the O'Melveny & Myers law firm in Los Angeles.

Prior to his legal career, he was a United States diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. While with the State Department, he was posted at the Department of State in Washington D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa in the Yemen Arab Republic, and the U.S. Consulate General in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He also served in temporary duty assignments at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon (following the Embassy bombing) and at the U.S. Consulate General in Naples, Italy. He was awarded the Meritorious Honor Award in 1984 by the State Department for his services in the Middle East.

Robertson attended Columbia University (where he was a John Jay Scholar) and the State Department's Foreign Services Institute, and earned his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and his Juris Doctor from the University of Southern California Law Center. He is a member of the California and Washington D.C. bar associations.