Barry Sternlicht

Barry Sternlicht is the chairman and chief executive officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 725 properties in 80 countries and 120,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. With internationally renowned brands, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points and W brands, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts.

Barry Sternlicht has been credited as a dynamic and innovative hotel leader, inspiring new products and programs with immediate global appeal, including a revolutionary new guest room design for Sheraton and the creation of Westins Heavenly Bed. USA Today reported the launch of the Starwood Preferred Guest Program as the #1 loyalty program in the world, less than four months after it was inaugurated. Barry is also responsible for the launch of the first new hotel brand in recent history, W Hotels, which can now be found in major cities in the United States and internationally in Sydney, Australia.

One of the youngest and most respected leaders in the hotel and leisure industry today, Barry places as strong an emphasis on his humanitarian efforts as he does his business pursuits. For the past three years, he has served as Corporate Chairman of the NY Chapter Juvenile Diabetes Foundations Walk to Cure Diabetes helping to break all previous walk fund-raising records, and was recipient of JDFs Exceptional Leadership Award. Recently, Barry made a five-year commitment to General Colin Powell, promising that 25,000 Starwood employees will dedicate over 40,000 hours to the Americas Promise effort. Through job shadowing and mentoring programs, as well as donating community service hours, Starwood employees are serving various charitable organizations throughout the world-building parks as National Sponsor of City Cares or delivering food and mattresses to orphanages in Europe.

Barry Sternlicht was born in 1960 and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. He received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School with first and second year honors.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Barry holds an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration in Hospitality Management from Johnson & Wales University. He also received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University School for Hospitality, Tourism & Travel Administration.

Barry is on the Board of Directors of HealthMarket.com and the National Advisory Board of JP Morgan Chase. He serves on the boards of Juvenile Diabetes International Foundation, Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, Channel 13/WNET, and the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding. He is a member of the Young Presidents Organization, World Travel & Tourism Council, Council for the United States and Italy, Urban Land Institute, and Fairfield County Junior Achievement.

Barry and his wife Mimi reside in Greenwich, Connecticut with their three children.