The Palace Hotel is pleased to welcome Clif Clark as general manager of the historic hotel in San Francisco. Clark comes to the Palace from the Marriott San Francisco Airport Waterfront in Burlingame, California. As general manager, he led his team to achieve consistent revenue growth and record breaking years of profitability and guest satisfaction. Clark recently oversaw a complete renovation of the property. It was his focus on team work and quality service that produced outstanding results during his time at the hotel.
Clark's more than 30 years of management experience at leading hotels on the West Coast contributes to his strong and productive leadership style. He has dedicated the last 21 years of his career to leading top-performing Marriott properties in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Clark began his hospitality career 1984 as a management trainee at the Westin Century Plaza Hotel. Over the next twelve years he held management positions in the front office, operations and food and beverage areas learning all aspects of the hotel industry.
In 1996 he took on his first general manager role at the Oakland Marriott City Center. As general manager of the Oakland Marriott City Center, he successfully negotiated a contract with the City of Oakland empowering the hotel to manage the adjacent Convention Center, thereby, increasing the hotel's function space from 21,000 to 109,000 square feet. He also completed a hotel renovation and tripled profits over the performance three years prior. His efforts garnered one of five "Mustang Awards" for special achievement among Marriott International general managers.
From 2000 to 2002, Clark was hotel manager of the San Francisco Marriott (now San Francisco Marriott Marquis). He established the Guest Satisfaction Committee that focused on customer service. He garnered exceptional profits for the hotel while elevating its service standards.
Clark then moved to San Jose to become the pre-opening general manager for the San Jose Marriott. Within his eight-year tenure, he was a founding member of Team San Jose, which manages all of San Jose's convention and cultural facilities. He also helped established a non-profit hotel business improvement district, San Jose Hotels, Inc., to generate funds for new marketing initiatives and citywide group subsidies.
In 2010 Clark became the general manager of the Marriott San Francisco Airport Waterfront hotel where he remained until joining the Palace in May 2018.
Clark has been an integral force in community affairs throughout his career. He is currently the Chairman of the Board for the Silicon Valley San Mateo Convention and Visitors Bureau. He was the Chairman of the Board for the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce in 2014 and 2015.
He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Hotel and Restaurant Administration at Washington State University. While studying abroad, he assisted in the research of a European hotel management textbook written by Dr. Lother Kreck.