Delivering Alpha

Barry Sternlicht

Source: Barry Sternlicht

Barry Sternlicht is chairman and chief executive officer of Starwood Capital Group, the private investment firm he formed in 1991 that is focused on global real estate, hotel management, oil and gas and energy infrastructure. Sternlicht also serves as chairman of Starwood Property Trust, the largest commercial mortgage REIT in the United States; TRI Pointe Homes, one of America's largest homebuilders; and French crystal maker Baccarat. He also serves as co-chairman of Colony Starwood Homes, one of the largest publicly traded investors, owners and operators of single-family homes in the United States.

For the past 25 years, Sternlicht has structured investments with an asset value of approximately $77 billion. Starwood Capital's funds have invested in approximately 141,000 multifamily/condo units, 2,600 hotels, 65 million square feet of office properties, 53 million square feet of retail and 50,000 lots of land in residential subdivisions. The firm currently manages more than $51 billion of assets on behalf of its high net worth and institutional partners. Starwood Capital, its affiliates and externally managed public companies employ more than 2,200 professionals, while approximately 20,000 additional employees are involved with a dozen portfolio operating companies. The Firm maintains offices in Greenwich, Connecticut (headquarters); Atlanta; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Chicago and Miami, with affiliated offices in London, Frankfurt and Hong Kong.

From 1995 through early 2005, Sternlicht was chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, a company he founded in 1995. During his tenure, he built Starwood Hotels into one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, employing more than 120,000 people with 895 properties in 100 countries. Sternlicht created W Hotels, perhaps the world's most successful "boutique" brand, and transformed the St. Regis Hotels brand from a single hotel to a global brand.

In 2008 Sternlicht founded SH Group, his new hotel management company. SH Group is the owner and manager of Baccarat Hotels & Resorts and 1 Hotels.

In 2015, Sternlicht was named the Global Industry Figure of the Year by PERE, received the Cornell Icon of the Industry Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Hotel Investment Forum. In 2013, Sternlicht was named the Most Important Person in Commercial Real Estate Finance by The Mortgage Observer. In 2010, Sternlicht was named Executive of the Year and Investor of the Year by Commercial Property Executive. He was also named America's Best Lodging CEO by Institutional Investor.

He is a member of the Interior Design Magazine Hall of Fame. He has received the Preston Robert Tisch Distinguished Industry Leadership Award from New York University, the CEO Diversity Award from Diversity Best Practices/Business Women's Network, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Travel Marketing Executives, the Hospitality Heritage Award from the American Hotel and Lodging Association, and the Marketer of the Year Award from Brandweek. Sternlicht's humanitarian efforts have garnered prestigious national honors, such as JDRF's Man of the Year, JDRF's Living and Giving Award and JDRF's Chairman's Award.

Sternlicht serves on the board of directors of The Estée Lauder Companies and the Real Estate Roundtable. Additionally, he serves on the Boards of The Robin Hood Foundation, the Dreamland Film & Performing Arts Center and the Executive Advisory Board of Americans for the Arts. He is a member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation Trustee Council, the World Presidents Organization and the Urban Land Institute.

Sternlicht received his BA, magna cum laude, with honors from Brown University. He later earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.