Arne M. Sorenson is the Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Marriott International, Inc., the largest lodging company in the world. Following Marriott’s September 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the company includes over 6,000 properties across 30 brands in more than 120 countries and territories. In May 2019, the company announced that Mr. Sorenson had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In February 2021, Marriott International announced that Arne Sorenson would be temporarily reducing his schedule to undergo more demanding treatment for pancreatic cancer. He died of pancreatic cancer on February 15, 2021.
Mr. Sorenson joined Marriott in 1996. He became the third CEO in the company’s history in 2012 – and the first without the Marriott surname. Prior to that, he served as Marriott’s President and Chief Operating Officer. He has held a number of positions, including Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and President of Continental European Lodging. He was elected to Marriott’s Board of Directors in 2011.
Additionally, Mr. Sorenson served as Vice Chair of the President’s Export Council. He is the immediate past Board Chair for Brand USA and continues as a member of the board. Other affiliations include: Chair, U.S. Travel Association CEO Roundtable; member of the Luther College Board of Regents; Stewardship Board of the World Economic Forum System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Mobility; and member of the Board of Trustees for The Brookings Institution.
Mr. Sorenson’s Influencer blog, which appears on LinkedIn, has more than 400,000 followers.
Marriott’s Global Sustainability Council was co-founded by Mr. Sorenson in 2007. The following year, he launched Marriott’s rainforest preservation partnership with the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation in Brazil.
Mr. Sorenson chairs Marriott’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Council. The Council, along with the Marriott Board of Directors’ Committee for Excellence, monitors and evaluates Marriott’s strategy to promote a diverse workforce, as well as ownership, customer and vendor communities around the world.
Before he joined Marriott, Mr. Sorenson was a partner with the law firm Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions litigation.
He is a graduate of Luther College in Decorah, Iowa and the University of Minnesota Law School. He and his wife Ruth live in the Washington, D.C. area, where they raised their four children.
He died of pancreatic cancer on February 15, 2021.