Wyndham Taps Kleisner

<B> Wyndham Taps Kleisner</B>

By Cheryl Rosen

Veteran hotelier Fred Kleisner stepped out of his supporting role and into the limelight last week to accept the position of president and COO of Wyndham International. He replaced Karim Alibhai, who resigned in May.

Starwood immediately filled the spot Kleisner left behind by promoting Ted Darnall to president and COO of its Americas Hotel Group.

Kleisner takes on responsibility for a newly restructured company, badly hurt by financial scandal, that this month begins afresh by giving up its REIT status and becoming a C Corporation (<I>BTN,</I> July 5).

But industry insiders said if there is a man who can handle the job, Kleisner is it. He has spent a lifetime in hospitality, serving 16 years as general manager of various Hilton hotels, including the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and holding executive spots at Sheraton, Interstate and Westin, including a stint as Westin's president and COO.

Starwood vice president of global corporate sales Paul Gottwald called the position "a challenging situation but a great opportunity for Fred. Wyndham has a great product and great distribution, and for Fred personally it's obviously a move from running a division to running a whole company. Basically, he'll be the Juergen Bartels of Wyndham."

But Bjorn Hanson, hospitality and leisure industry leader at Manhattan-based PricewaterhouseCoopers, noted that Kleisner's expertise runs more to the internal than the external.

"Fred is in many ways a quiet and unassuming gentleman, though with an immediate and imposing stature," he said. "He is one of the most renowned operators in the industry --a person really in a class by himself. Where J.B. is about marketing and enthusiasm, Fred doesn't sell himself at all. And you learn about him slowly, by watching him over a long period of time. You could say that Fred is to operating what J.B. is to marketing.