I’ve met a lot of the CEOs involved here, including Arne, Capuano, Frits van Paaschen, Nassetta, Hoplamazian, etc. Never met Bill Marriott. But in terms of CEOs, industry people universally said Arne is the best in terms of vision and industry relations, followed closely by Nassetta. Frits van Paaschen was disliked in the industry and by shareholders. You can talk about high spending elites all you want but Starwood lagged Marriott and Hilton in delivering paying guests to US hotels. Hoplamazian seems fine but the Pritzkers run Hyatt.

I thought Stephanie Linnartz should have been elevated to CEO over Capuano (I said so in this forum after Arne’s death), she would have been unlikely to say something like this in an interview no matter how true it is. Nevertheless Capuano is a serious developer and will make owners happy and grow the company.