First outsider to lead Marriott chain

HE'S A GLOBAL LEADER, A MAN WITH A CONSCIENCE,

A PERSON WHO CONNECTS WITH HIS PEOPLE.

— FORMER CHAIRMAN OF BAUSCH & LOMB INC. FRED HASSAN IN 2019

Arne Sorenson, the first nonfamily member to be chief executive officer of Marriott International Inc., the world's largest hotel chain, has died. He was 62.

Sorenson died on Monday, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He disclosed a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in May 2019, saying doctors had caught the disease early, and that he intended to continue working while undergoing treatments.

Earlier this month, Marriott said that Sorenson would limit his work schedule to undergo demanding cancer treatments.

In his absence, Stephanie Linnartz, 52, group president, consumer operations, is overseeing the company's lodging division, while Tony Capuano, 55, group president for global development, is in charge of the U.S. and Canada lodging business.

The board expects to appoint a new CEO within the next two weeks, according to the statement.

The new leader will take the reins during a critical time for the hotel giant, as the global hospitality industry seeks to recover from its worst year on record. Marriott has begun positioning itself for a rebound in leisure demand, adding resort hotels to its portfolio. But a full recovery will take years.

The company's shares were down less than 1 per cent as of early afternoon trading in New York on Tuesday. The stock slipped 12.9 per cent in 2020.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who was on Marriott's board and has close ties to the hotel company's founding family, called Sorenson a “leader of vision and achievement” in a statement released on Twitter.

“Arne was not only a brilliant executive, he was also a fundamentally good person,” Romney said.

Sorenson took over as CEO in 2012 from J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr. as only the third person to hold that title since the company was founded in 1927 by J. Willard Marriott. After leaving the practice of law in 1996, Sorenson worked for the Bethesda-based company the rest of his life.

In his biggest transaction, the former merger and acquisition lawyer managed the US$14 billion takeover in 2016 of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which included the Sheraton, W and Westin chains.

The deal made Marriott the industry's largest player and pushing competitors like Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. and Accor SA to add new brands in a bid to keep up.

“He's a global leader, a man with a conscience, a person who connects with his people,” Fred Hassan, former chairman of Bausch & Lomb Inc., said when he announced that Chief Executive magazine had named Sorenson CEO of the year for 2019.

The Starwood acquisition gave Marriott a popular loyalty program. Marriott also inherited a reservation database that was hacked. The cyberattack, which was discovered in 2018 and involved the data breach of hundreds of millions of customers, created a public-relations crisis for Sorenson, who took responsibility for it and instituted new security measures as he dealt with consumer lawsuits.

The year he took over as CEO, Sorenson told the Miami Herald that his biggest challenge was how to respond to global growth in the competitive hotel business.

The purchase of Starwood was a response, but it brought with it hard work beyond shoring up the reservation system. Key among the tasks was how to rebrand the aging Sheraton line of hotels, which made up about half the acquired company, while continuing its customer-friendly tradition.

Sorenson also had to respond to the burgeoning home-rental business to compete with companies such as Airbnb Inc., whose customers were attracted by lower prices. He instituted pilot home-rental programs in Europe and in 2019 in U.S. resort cities.

Arne Morris Sorenson was born in October 1958 in Tokyo while his parents, Morris and Dorothy, were in Japan as Lutheran missionaries. He moved to the U.S. at age seven, received a bachelor's degree from Luther College in Iowa and earned a law degree from the University

ARNE WAS NOT ONLY A BRILLIANT EXECUTIVE, HE WAS ALSO A FUNDAMENTALLY

GOOD PERSON.

of Minnesota. After a judicial clerkship, he joined the Latham and Watkins law firm in Washington as an associate specializing in M&A deals.

He met Bill Marriot while advising the company on a legal case, and Marriott invited him to join Marriott in 1996.

He was worked as senior vice-president of business development and was promoted to executive vice-president and chief financial

officer two years later.

He assumed the additional title of president of continental European lodging in January 2003. In 2009, he became president and chief operating officer. When he was named CEO, he retained the title of president.

He was married to Ruth Sorenson. They lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and had four children: Astri, Esther, Isaac and Lars.

SIMON DAWSON / BLOOMBERG FILES When Arne Sorenson took over as CEO of Marriott in 2012, he told the Miami Herald that his biggest challenge was how to respond to global growth in the competitive hotel business.