Newsmaker: Starwood Taps Ferrazzi

<B> Newsmaker: Starwood Taps Ferrazzi</B>

By David Meyer

Starwood Hotels has appointed a Deloitte Consulting executive to be chief marketing officer, reporting to Juergen Bartels, Starwood Hotel Group CEO. Keith Ferrazzi replaces David Van Kalsbeek, who has resigned to pursue other interests, according to a Starwood press release.

As chief marketing officer at Deloitte Consulting, Ferrazzi developed and managed a globally integrated marketing organization and had responsibilities that included sales and lead-generating coordination and communications functions. He developed a reputation for being creative and aggressive in his efforts to raise the formerly low profile of Deloitte Consulting.

Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood, expects that Ferrazzi now will apply those same qualities to the mega hotel operation he has built.

"Starwood needed a seasoned chief marketing officer who would bring fresh perspective to our world-renowned brands," Sternlicht said in the release. "Keith has a proven track record in strategic marketing and brand positioning and I'm confident this experience, coupled with his innovative approaches, will bring a new energy to the Starwood brands. This critical position has taken us a great deal of time to fill, as we needed to blend the skills of an astute marketer with the business skills required to manage an almost $300 million global marketing budget, which covers traditional media but also our preferred guest and reservation center functions."

Ferrazzi earned a BA in economics and political science from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. A business writer and commentator, he had his own consulting business focused on service quality in the retail and travel industries before joining Deloitte Consulting. Last year, Ferrazzi was named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum.

The hotel industry outsider certainly appears ready to take on the challenges ahead at Starwood.

"Juergen Bartels has over 40 years of hospitality experience that I can learn from, and a level of passion that ignites my own," Ferrazzi said. "I couldn't be more excited about the opportunity to work with both he and Barry as they define what their industry will look like in the future.