Alabama football .
Capuano ’ s admiration for the two is appreciable . Bill Marriott , the nonagenarian former CEO of the company and now chairman emeritus , whose father , J . Willard , founded the company , remains active with the company , as Capuano related in this exchange . “ We had a board dinner to celebrate his 40 years as chairman and CEO . The next morning I had to fly to Miami and by the time I landed , I had three voicemails from him about various hotels and transactions . Retirement is not a word that applies to him .”
A BOY ’ S LIFE Like many other lodging company CEOs , Capuano started out on the low rung of the ladder and climbed his way up to the top to lead the biggest hotel company in the world with more than 8,800 hotels globally across more than 30 brands . Capuano was born and raised in Baltimore to a father only 20 years older than he . Capuano got his work ethic from his dad , who loaded trucks on the graveyard shifts at UPS , while also getting an undergraduate degree at nearby Johns Hopkins University . “ The very earliest memories I have , it was about working ,” Capuano said . ( He penned a heartfelt story about his father in a Father ’ s Day LinkedIn post .)
Capuano ’ s first job in hospitality came washing dishes , which is as humbling as it is needed — ingraining work ethic , a huge theme in Capuano ’ s life . Capuano used to carpool into Washington , D . C ., about a 40-minute drive south on I-95 , with a neighbor who at the time worked for what was the American Hotel Motel Association , the antecedent to today ’ s AH & LA . He suggested working in hospitality as a career .
Some years later , Capuano graduated from Cornell , which , not unlike the University of Alabama pumping out NFL stars , pushes out hotel executives by the bushel . He credits the school ’ s career services office and its access to myriad companies within the hospitality segment .
Out of school , Capuano interviewed with eight companies . He got seven job offers and one rejection — from Marriott . “ I carried that rejection letter for a long time ,” he said , not out of ire , but rather humility , after all , he did go on to become chief of the company . “ One of the things I treasure about our company is its humility . They probably looked at me and saw this newly minted graduate , who thought he knew everything . He needs to go get humbled a little bit before we invite him into the fold .”
MERRY AND MISERY AT MARRIOTT Capuano joined Marriott in 1995 as part of the market planning and feasibility team , which propelled him to eventually lead Marriott ’ s development efforts in the Western U . S . and Canada for its full-service brands . In 2009 , Capuano assumed global development responsibility . He began overseeing global design in 2014 and global operations in January 2020 as group president , global development , design and operations services .
About a year earlier , Arne Sorenson was diagnosed with stage II pancreatic cancer . He succumbed to the disease two years later , which created a void in leadership . At the time , it was thought to be a two-person race as to whom would be anointed next CEO , Capuano or Stephanie Linnartz , the latter holding the title of president at the time . Capuano got the nod and Linnartz left
The Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah , Dubai