He went on to work in nearly every part of the business over the next 30 years. In turn, this gave them the pluck to advise the CEO on which direction the company needed to go and how it will get there. 1969. The worst news came on May 3, when the company announced Sorenson, 60, had been diagnosed with stage 2 pancreatic cancer and would soon begin treatment. Arne is a real role model for all CEOs.”. Did you ever think you’d face a ceiling at Marriott because it’s a family-run company? Arne lived in 1920, at address , … Trained as a lawyer, Sorenson had an unusual path to the corner office. He knows the business, and people love working for him. He doesn’t have the temperament to run a company the size of Marriott today, with 3,800 properties and 18 brands. And to be clear, I still consider Marriott to be a family-led firm. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. January 6 at 9:57 AM. The culture here is much different from a law firm, where everyone has the same educational background and a lot in common. Karl Siver Sorensen was born on month day 1923, to Niels Peter Johannes Sorensen and Nielsine Cattrine Sorensen. I have four children, and I had always hoped that one of them would succeed me as CEO, just as I succeeded my father. As personally disappointing as that was to both of us, I had to make the right decision for the company. Total shareholder return? Published in the Calgary Herald on 2018-05-22. So that was a concern. My youngest child, David, is just 39, and a phenomenal executive. As far as I know, Arne didn’t seriously consider leaving. Remember that I’m a reformed lawyer, so I came here without a deep knowledge of the lodging industry and without a clear career path. By 2011 I was approaching 80. See More. My wife and I had dinner with John and his wife recently, and I mentioned that I’d spent the day in a 10-hour management meeting. There’s Airbnb, which is fast disrupting the travel business; the rise of anti-globalism, anathema to a company with hotels in 131 countries; and, of course, an endless series of highly public brushfires that come along with welcoming guests of every stripe, such as the LGBT community erupting in protest at the President of Brazil hosting an event at a Marriott in New York’s Times Square (he ultimately cancelled), to name just one. When you’re talking about the past few years for Marriott International and its CEO, Arne Sorenson, it may be easier to talk about what hasn’t happened than what has. When I think of a litigator, I don’t see someone who’s putting his arm around people, coaching and counseling and loving them, supporting and promoting them. But as time went on, Bill Marriott realized that it wasn’t the right fit—for either John or the company. So, as an example, if you think about the last three years, we jump into trying to buy Starwood in October of 2015, that was a very intense period where the leadership team of the company was gathered around the table. Key Benchmarks for Manufacturing Companies, Joe Biden And Leadership In Turbulent Times, Leading Through VUCA: CEOs Focus On Culture, CEO Summit: How To Foster Engagement And Produce Great Leaders, Post-Pandemic Crystal Ball Sees Covid’s Changes Continuing, Resilience 2021: ‘Adapt, Improvise And Overcome’, VUCA Leadership: A Guide To Surviving And Thriving In Chaotic Times, Sign Up to Receive Chief Executive Magazine, CEO Confidence Continues To Climb In January. His father was a Lutheran missionary, and Arne was born in Japan while his parents were doing missionary work. But Arne is only 54, so it’s premature to think too deeply about who might succeed him. That’s not all. Have you looked at how other companies have transitioned from family CEOs to nonfamily CEOs? CEO Arne Sorenson is optimistic, even as he prepares for surgery to treat his pancreatic cancer. Revenue jumped from $12.7 to almost $21 billion over the past five years (through the end of 2018), while adjusted earnings per share were up 178 percent during that time. I recognized that Arne had great potential, but he didn’t have any experience in the operations side of the hotel business. He was personally recruited into the company in 1996 by Bill Marriott (our 1988 CEO of the Year) after representing Marriott in a lawsuit a few years earlier. I don’t recall thinking of us as rivals until a Wall Street Journalstory appeared that described us that way. Subscribe here. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. Marriott announced that their CEO Arne Sorenson has stage 2 pancreatic cancer.Pancreatic cancer is asymptomatic in the early stages so it’s incredible that it was caught at this point. He devoted his heart and soul to learning the business. This is the full obituary where you can express condolences and share memories. But, ultimately, a decision had to be made. I don’t believe in horse-race succession—it’s disruptive, and the person who loses inevitably ends up leaving the company. I checked in with some of those people from time to time, and it was obvious that Arne had quickly become well respected and well liked by everyone in the field. Yet, somehow, he’s largely avoided the public tar-and-feathering that keeps many CEOs on the sidelines in these bruising times. A cyberhack that resulted in unauthorized access to hundreds of thousands of customers’ data—and acres of painful headlines? https://chiefexecutive.net/2019-ceo-of-the-year-marriott-arne-sorenson A series of labor strikes across the U.S.? It is just one of many polling places across the country. Arne Sorenson became the CEO of Marriott International in March 2012. The company still has deep family involvement, and hopefully will have continuing family involvement, so this isn’t a dramatic change. I didn’t find it difficult. The family helps engender a kind of loyalty. Here people have dramatically different backgrounds and skills, and I needed to understand that kind of culture. The directors became very supportive of him, and he performed well. I imagine Sorenson receives regular executive physicals.. Sorenson, 60, received the diagnosis from a medical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore after a series of tests. I know that some of our lodging competitors tried to hire him for very senior roles. Do you agree with Bill Marriott, who says there’s a real benefit to having a family member in the CEO job in a family company? So in 2005 John became vice chairman of the board and left his executive position at the company. He held important jobs in finance and brand management. That would be disloyal. Confident and excited as I am to have Arne as our CEO, I continue to believe in the advantages of having a Marriott family member in that job. He spent a lot of time marking up contracts, redoing the work of the company’s lawyers. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. A memorial service will be held at noon, Saturday, Jan. 30, at Nash-Jackan Funeral Home in Bruce with Deacon Doug Sorenson … Yet, on Sorenson’s busy watch, Marriott International has exploded in value. It’s been more than a year since Arne officially took over, and I’m quite happy with how the process has turned out. If something had happened to me suddenly, those deputies would have been qualified to step in. He has tremendous potential, but at the moment, he is still learning. So, you’ve got a period of six weeks or so where you’re working like dogs to try and figure out as much as you possibly can and, then, ultimately, get to a place where you decide to disclose and what the strategy is around disclosure. Marriott chief executive Arne Sorenson, who currently travels as many as 200 nights a year as part of his job, is likely to scale back in the coming months, a spokeswoman said. I don’t recall thinking of us as rivals until a, Without Reservations: How a Family Root Beer Stand Grew Into a Global Hotel Company. John just shook his head and laughed. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Tell me about your relationship with John Marriott. Contrast that to the fall of 2018. After World War II, Sørensen was a member of the Danish Parliament and Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs . That’s not the way I’m built. Many companies have mandatory retirement at 65, and a lot of CEOs today are retiring in their fifties. Some of them were probably viewed as potential successors, but I was in no hurry to give up the job. He spent most of his adult life preparing to succeed me as CEO. Customers, too, appreciate companies that have a human face, and that face is easier to see if it’s the face of a family member whose name is over the door. He’s often thoughtful, and he’s a good listener. Marriott International. “His presence among other CEOs and recognition among peers was a real standout. Prominent CEOs of public companies who think the Almighty is about more than the dollar. By 1998, he’d been named CFO (“a risky move even in a pre-Sarbanes-Oxley world,” he says) and was named CEO in 2012—the first nonfamily member to hold the job in the company’s history. All rights reserved. Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson has been diagnosed with stage two pancreatic cancer. As I watched John adapt to this role, I could see that he wasn’t having much fun. I was really impressed that he could explain something so complex in a way that anyone could understand. Sorenson … We brought him in to head our mergers and acquisitions team. He was 20 years older than I was, and when it came to finance, he was brilliant. Photography: Getty Images/Bloomberg The Idea:For decades Bill Marriott expected that his son would become the third generation to lead the global hotel company. I didn’t want that. We’re going to be transparent with our customers. At Marriott our culture is focused on people, because treating one another well is essential to creating an atmosphere in which everyone treats guests well, and that’s the most fundamental element of our business. My son John devoted his heart and soul to learning the business. “Marriott’s exceptional EPS growth track record in a rapidly changing sector is a testament to the leadership and strategic vision Mr. Sorenson has provided throughout his tenure,” said CEOY selection committee member Dan Glaser, CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies. And if a family company chooses its first nonfamily CEO, that doesn’t necessarily mean no family member will serve as its top executive in the future. I look at Ford Motor Company, which family members ran from its founding until 1979, when a series of nonfamily CEOs took over. He really liked working in the Marriott culture, and he wanted to stay near Washington, where he’d lived since college and where he and his wife were raising their family. In 2016, he led Marriott International’s $13.6-billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, catapulting the company’s total number of hotel rooms to more than 1.2 million. While I was leading the company, I often had several experienced nonfamily executives working with me. But that doesn’t rule out another Marriott as the fourth chief executive, he says. He didn’t have good people skills and didn’t understand the operation of the business. 1972. Over time we both came to the conclusion that, wonderful as it would have been for me to hand Marriott off to my son, he wasn’t the right choice. The past year was full of compelling events and personalities within the hospitality industry, and looking back, many leaders stand out as strong contenders for the title of "Leader of the Year." Arne didn ’ t have much direct contact with him in that job but... Still learning family-run company arne sorenson daughter with Sorenson accompanies the article. Sunday: daughter Marie. 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