During a Fireside Chat at The Lodging Conference, Marriott International President and CEO Anthony Capuano shared his experiences at the helm of the company for the last several years, offering details on everything from the COVID crisis to the devastating wildfires in Maui last year and more.
Interviewed by Greg Dickhens, managing partner, Trinity Investments, Capuano—who celebrated 30 years with Marriott in February—shared a wide range of insights with the nearly 3,000 attendees.
Having taken over the helm of the company as CEO in 2021 during COVID and following the passing of long-time Marriott executive and CEO Arne Sorenson, Capuano acknowledged it was an “extraordinarily challenging time.”
With regards to COVID specifically, he noted some of the company meetings during that time started with Chairman Bill Marriott asking, “Are we going to survive?”
Capuano added, “You didn’t even know what equation you were solving. Our most immediate focus was liquidity, but did we need to generate liquidity for the next 6 months, year, decade, or forever.”
Commenting on the loss of Sorenson, he noted, “The impact on the organization was profound.” Capuano went on to add, “he was not just a generational leader, but a dear friend and mentor.”
Meanwhile, in August of 2023, the island of Maui was hit with a devastating series of wildfires. With hotels in the area, Marriott was quick to respond.
“Our initial response is always what can we do?” asked Capuano, noting the company has dedicated business councils to look at philanthropic efforts.
Capuano said he spoke to the Governor of Hawaii and the company responded.
“It became clear the most important area where he felt we could be impactful was education. We made contributions towards getting schools rebuilt, we made spaces available for temporary schools and hosted events for teachers and administrators that had been there,” he noted.
Finally, Capuano was asked what he learned from his long-time development role when it came to help shaping him as a leader.
“In my old role, I would often get asked what’s the company’s development strategy? In a lot of ways I always thought that was the easiest question to answer. For all of you and for all of our Bonvoy members we want to capture as much as that travel wallet as we can. How do you do that? Make sure you have the right product for everywhere those members want to travel for every purpose. I think that overarching focus on not growth for the sake of growth, but growth to satisfy the constituents we feel we serve. So, if we’ve got the right growth strategy it’s creating tremendous career opportunities for associates, it’s allowing our guests to concentrate their travel in a single portfolio. For our owners and franchisees it gives them opportunity to continue to grow their portfolios with us,” he noted.
