A Good Guy for Hilton

But there is no doubt he is one of the more successful, having transformed Host Hotels & Resorts from an over-leveraged stepchild of Marriott into an independent powerhouse with a global presence, a blue-chip portfolio of properties, strong relations with all the major hotel operators and the strongest balance sheet in the industry. During his eight-year tenure, investors in Host have earned an average annual return of 17 percent.

He's the rare executive who is a hard-nosed dealmaker, strategic thinker, favorite of investors and fabulous manager of people.

And here's the thing -- he's the nicest, most down-to-earth guy you'd ever want to meet.

"He's one of the good guys," said Paul Whetsell, a competitor at Interstate Hotels.

"I've never met anyone quite like Chris," said Richard Marriott, Host's founding chairman. "Anyone who works with him, anyone who does business with him -- they're all his friends."

Now this homegrown superstar is off to West Coast to take the reins of Hilton Hotels, which was recently purchased by the Blackstone Group for $26 billion. His challenge will be to bring the luster back to the Hilton name, increase expansion in Europe and Asia, and consolidate disparate luxury and resort properties into a single brand that can compete with Four Seasons and the Ritz.

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Source - Washington Post


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