W-hotel cover

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. HOT, has named Jonathan Browning as executive vice president of design. He will report to Barry Sternlicht, chairman and chief operating officer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

Browning will be responsible for the image management and design for Starwood's Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton and W brands. He will also formalize global aesthetic standards for each Starwood brand, as well as oversee the design direction for individual properties.

Browning most recently lead the design and production for all retail concepts for Levi Strauss and Co., which included managing a $50 million rollout for the Levi's division. Prior to this Browning was vice president, store design and visual merchandising for Guess? Inc., where he was responsible for the conceptualization and execution of all store design, in-store marketing and visual merchandising and construction for more than 250 stores. He also served as director of visual merchandising for The Gap, Inc., where he produced and published Gap's monthly fashion and display directive for 850 stores nationwide, and was also responsible for designing new store concept prototypes for the retail giant.

Browning has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley, and received his Master of Architecture degree in 1991 from the South California Institute of Architecture. Browning will be based out of Starwood's headquarters in White Plains.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 725 properties in 80 countries and 120,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. With internationally renowned brands, Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchiser of hotels and resorts including: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W brands, as well as Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit us at www.starwoodhotels.com.

Nadeen Ayala
203-351-2542