Marriott International Asia Pacific announces its second Women in Leadership Asia Pacific Conference closes today after a resounding past three days of success. The event took place at Marriott International’s recently-opened The Ritz-Carlton Macau and JW Marriott Macau Hotels, and was hosted by Peggy Fang Roe, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Asia Pacific; and Yibing Mao, General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Asset Management & Financial Analysis Asia Pacific. The conference convened 73 Marriott women executives from across the Asia-Pacific region to bolster their working knowledge and give them an opportunity to network, share insights, and be inspired by each other.
“Women have always played a pivotal role at Marriott. Even in 1927, our co-founder, Alice S. Marriott, was imperative to Marriott’s success. Marriott International Asia Pacific has a high percentage of women in leadership roles, and a third of our senior executives are women. That makes me very proud and I know that the company is better for it,” said Craig S. Smith, President and Managing Director for Asia Pacific.
Mr. Smith continued, “However, we are far from being done. Marriott International is committed to encouraging more women to take on leadership roles and we will support our women associates and help them grow personally and professionally. They are vital to Marriott’s future.”
A series of diverse topics covered over the three days included “The Competitive Advantage of Female Talent,” presented by Mr. Smith; “Pursuing Excellence” by Rajeev Menon, Chief Operations Officer, Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China); and “Building Your Innovation Brand,” presented by Jenny Hsieh, Vice President, Insight, Strategy & Innovation.
“The company is determined to think forward on how it can continue to mentor and grow women in leadership roles, and I have seen it firsthand since I started at Marriott International over 10 years ago. It is an honor to co-host this year’s conference, continue Alice’s legacy, and do my part in opening doors of opportunity to the women in the company within this region,” said Ms. Roe.
The annual conference is part of Women’s Leadership Development Initiative, which was founded in 1999 with the aim to increase the presence of women in management or decision-making positions by engaging senior leaders to ensure career development, as well as encouraging current female leaders to drive organizational success.
Globally, women represent 52% of Marriott International’s staff and nearly 60% of its management roles, with nine women leading divisions worth more than US$100 million annually. Women executives on the rise are offered a wide variety of development programs, including formal mentoring, coaching, leadership training and succession planning.
In Asia Pacific, close to 40% of the company’s managers are women, with a substantial increase in women General Managers over the past few years.
Marriott International Asia Pacific has leveraged several programs to identify and develop future women leaders, such as Human Capital Planning, GM Elevate and Asia One-Week Leadership Development Program. In addition to these, Marriott International Asia Pacific launched last year a series called “Evenings of Engagement,” which comprises events across the continent providing networking opportunities for women leaders where they can share stories, discuss experiences and issues, form deeper relationships, and inspire future women leaders.
In September 2015, Marriott International was named one of the 100 Best Workplaces for Women 2015 by Fortune.com and the Great Place to Work® Institute. Companies were selected based on responses from over 135,000 women in the US on issues such as fairness of promotions, access to information and leadership, and support for personal lives as well as for the level of representation of women in leadership positions.
