Starwood Hotels

From Germany to Asia to leading global operations for the biggest hotel luxury groups in the world.

Hyatt, Starwood, Rosewood.

And here's the real question.

How do you go from executing on the line in the kitchen at the pass to leading at scale? And what does it cost to get there? This is not a story about success.

This is a story about transformation.

You went from global head of Hyatt International, food and beverage, and then to head of food and beverage for Starwood, and then head for operations for Rosewood.

So did you plan this from day one?

No, I mean, I always wanted to be a chef.

This month, we're introducing a new voice on the show.

Crystal Venise Thomas spent her career building some of hospitality's most recognizable brands, including W Hotels at Starwood and Hyatt's Lifestyle & Luxury Portfolio.

She even had a stint at Apple working on Beats by Dre.

Not too long ago, she stepped away for a year-long sabbatical.

Born and raised in Miami, currently live in LA, spent my defining decade in New York.

I lived abroad in Brussels actually for a few years.

Within that, hopped around within hospitality, consumer tech and sport, but started at Starwood.

I worked a lot on you know, the luxury and lifestyle brands there.

And I was like, when was there a, an inflection point? And there were a bunch of little ones.

Like, I remember getting the Starwood Amex-

Mm-hmm

... which was like-

So I think it's easier, but it's, like, amassing Hilton points is hard because you basically have to either stay at Hilton or use a Hilton card.

Now, amassing Hilton free night certificates is easier, and I think is probably the way to go for H- Hilton.

But I remember Starwood Amex is, like, how I built up a mass of Marriott points.

I don't earn any Marriott points anymore because there's no easy way to get points there that's a good deal, and I'm not using their cards.

property.

It was like a Starwood.

Remember Starwood? Starwood Marriott property.

And so, you know, I was like, well, there is very clearly a no fraternization policy.

Right.

see the AMC CEO? So Adam Aron, which...

of backstory about this guy um you know you can former ceo of starwood hotels norwegian cruise line veil resorts in philadelphia 76ers uh controversial figure i think to say the least some people are not a huge fan but he he tweeted so he's currently ceo of um of amc amc so there's two stocks that were like really meme-ified it was and amc's always been meme-ified i think by the meme by the um even non-crypto crowd, the Reddit crowd, I'd

say.

The WallStreetBets crowd.