Thank you, Jill, and good morning, everyone. We certainly appreciate you all joining us today and I hope everybody is staying well. I want to start with something difficult. I want to start by extending my most heartfelt condolences to the Sorenson family and the thousands of Marriott associates around the world following the heartbreaking news of Arne’s passing. To say I’m deeply saddened by that loss. It would be an understatement. I as many of had the opportunity to work with Arne in a number of capacities throughout my career, including earlier on at host.
I think it’s very fair to say he was an exceptional leader, but also an incredible person and a great friend. Our industry is better, because of him and I am a better professional and a better person, because of him. On behalf of everyone at Hilton family and the entire Marriott family are in our thoughts.
As we all know this past year has presented unique challenges, including a pandemic that devastated lives, communities and businesses across the world, widespread economic declines and acts of social injustice. Due to the extraordinary levels of disruption, our industry experience demand declines we’ve never seen before in our 101-year history. Guided by our founding purpose to make the world a better place through the light and warmth of hospitality we acted quickly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our people.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE