The third chief executive
Sorenson, 53, becomes just the third chief executive in the Bethesda firm’s history. He joined the company’s legal department in 1996, rising to become chief financial officer and then president.
Polished, well-spoken and unpretentious — often eschewing first-class travel for a seat in coach — Sorenson is the son of a Lutheran minister. He and Marriott, a devout Mormon, bonded over the years despite their age difference, with humble family values linking them.
Bill Marriott is not going anywhere. He intends to be extremely active and vocal, and his family will probably continue to exude power in the company. The Marriotts control about 14 percent of the firm’s outstanding stock, the largest single stake, and several family members work in important jobs in the organization.
“This is a tremendous moment for me personally,” Sorenson said in an interview. “I’m enormously grateful to Bill Marriott of his support. I’m grateful that he is staying involved. He has forgotten more about the hotel industry than I will ever know.”
That Marriott is stepping aside is in many ways not a surprise. He is about to turn 80, and though he still visits hundreds of hotels a year, where employees treat his arrival like that of a rock star, the pace of running a global chain is difficult even for a young man.
Still, his move is likely to surprise and sadden employees at every rung of the organization who always assumed, only half in jest, that he would step down on the day he died, perhaps at his desk.
In the age of corporate titans and swashbuckling chief executives, Marriott is the anti-mogul: folksy and unaffected. He carries a beat-up canvas tote bag. He tells old jokes, listens to old music and likes fast cars. He is happiest around his family, and if junk food is there, too, even better.
This week, as a Washington Post journalist traveled with him to visit Steelcase, a Michigan company helping Marriott redesign its offices, the aging chief executive seemed happiest ordering a cheeseburger (rare) in the cafeteria. On the way to Michigan in his corporate jet, Marriott told the pilot, “Save the doughnuts.”
Leading from the gut
Marriott has always eschewed business-school babble, preferring to lead from his gut with simple maxims such as “success is never final” or “the logical decision is the right decision.” He believed, like his father J. Willard Marriott, that taking care of employees and customers was his most important role.
Marriott in many ways has lived his life in the shadow of his father, who was tough and unrelenting with his son. They battled endlessly; his father called these fights “stretching exercises.” While the father was interested in building up the food part of the family empire — including the famous Hot Shoppes restaurants — the son saw that the company’s real future was in hotels.
But hotels required going into debt, and the elder Marriott despised owing people money.
“Debt was something that he didn’t understand, and he hated it,” Bill Marriott said several years ago. “He didn’t want anything to do with it. He was haunted by the Depression.”
But the son would not be deterred, and one after another, he opened hotels across the region and then the world. To this day, he deflects praise for the company’s success.
“He doesn’t like to step forward and take a lot of credit for things,” his wife, Donna, once said. “I’m the one who tells him, ‘Well, you really built this company.’ ”
Marriott told a dozen or so senior staff members that he was stepping down at a private meeting with them at Steelcase on Monday. A loud and sustained applause could be heard in the hallways.
Staff writer Danielle Douglas contributed to this report.
Other executives on Marriott:
“In many ways, Bill has helped define the industry as it exists today and has a very important place in the history of the hotel business.” Christopher Nassetta, chief executive of Hilton.
“When I started working at Marriott in my twenties, Mr. Marriott knew my name the first week I started and was always checked in to see how my career was going, which meant a lot.” Mark Brugger, chief executive of Diamondrock Hospitality.
“Nobody will ever replace Bill Marriott as the maestro of this industry.” Fred Malek, Marriott’s former president and founder of an Annapolis hotel investment company.
“Some executives want to be the smartest guy in the room, but Bill always wanted to make sure he had the brightest and best minds around him. He was never afraid to give up and coming executives roles where they could learn, demonstrate their skills and even skin their knees.” Norman Jenkins, chief executive of Capstone Development. “
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