Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
(
HOT
) recently announced the promotion of Steve Williams to the
position of Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
of its Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc. (SVO) division. In
addition, it also announced the appointment of Serge Rivera as the
Co-President of its newly combined region under SVO, Starwood
Americas.
The organizational change is a part of management's strategy to
unite the Starwood Vacation Ownership's North American and Latin
American regions into the new Americas region. Moreover, management
intends to strengthen the relationship between Starwood and its
timeshare operations.
Mr. Williams, who joined Starwood in the year 2000, has
previously served as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing of
the company. He possesses an experience of more than 30 years in
the field of vacation ownership, residential and hospitality
industries. Mr. Williams also held various top executive positions
in Marriott Vacation Club, a brand of
Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp.
(
VAC
) and Fairfield Communities Inc. before joining Starwood.
On the other hand, Mr. Rivera served as the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Starwood Vacation Ownership since September 2008.
He has played a pivotal role in the overall growth of Starwood's
Vacation Ownership and Residential Development operations. Mr.
Rivera boasts of an experience of more than 20 years in the
industry, and has been associated with Starwood Hotels &
Resorts for more than 17 years.
Starwood Vacation Ownership, an operational arm of Starwood,
offers customers a villa-vacation lifestyle along with exclusive
access to the company's more than 1,000 hotels and resorts in 100
countries. The division operates through the Starwood's top loyalty
program, the Starwood Preferred Guest program and across nine
upscale brands - Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, The Luxury
Collection, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Le Meridien , Aloft and
Element.
The company is scheduled to release its second quarter 2012
earnings on July 26, 2012. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the
second quarter is pegged at 61 cents per share. We presently have a
long-term Neutral recommendation on the stock. However, the company
carries a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Buy
rating.
STARWOOD HOTELS (HOT): Free Stock Analysis
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MARRIOT VAC WW (VAC): Free Stock Analysis
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