Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide today again reached outside the travel industry to find a new chief executive officer, naming Coors Brewing Co. president and CEO Frits van Paasschen its new head, effective Sept. 24.
Van Paasschen will succeed interim Starwood CEO Bruce Duncan, who will continue to serve as the hotel company's chairman. Duncan has been interim CEO since the company and former CEO Steven Heyer parted ways in April
(BTNonline, April 2).
Van Paasschen's résumé includes management stints at several major consumer-product firms. He was appointed CEO of Coors, which is a division of Molson Coors Brewing Co., in 2005 and previously held executive positions at Nike Inc. and Disney Consumer Products, the hotel company said.
"Frits is an extremely talented and proven leader with demonstrated success in driving both top- and bottom-line growth on a global scale across a variety of leading consumer lifestyle companies," Duncan said. "Our company has never been in a stronger position, with a robust pipeline of approximately 105,000 rooms, of which over 70 percent are in the upper upscale and luxury segments and approximately half of which are outside of North America. We remain focused on developing and opening new properties, with 80 new openings planned for this year and over 100 for next year."
Starwood and Heyer, who was president of Coca-Cola Co. when named as CEO of the hotel company in 2004
(BTN, Oct. 4, 2004), parted ways with more than a year remaining in his contract. Starwood officials at the time attributed the separation in part to Heyer's management style and his decision not to live near Starwood's White Plains, N.Y., headquarters, but published reports cited allegations of inappropriate behavior. Starwood today said van Paasschen will relocate to White Plains.