Nanula, Richard D. 1960–

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Richard D. Nanula 1960–

Company executive

Richard Nanula would rather talk sports than politics, prefers mystery novels to books on business theory, and was known to read the newspaper during class at Harvard. However, as the youngest person to become a Fortune 500 chief financial officer (CFO), Nanula clearly knows how to put his time to good use. He spent twelve years working for Disney, where he was promoted to senior executive vice president and served as CFO for a $22 billion company. In 1998, he accepted the position of president and chief executive officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, a company that had recently become the world’s largest hotel and gaming company. Nanula’s associations with Disney and Starwood are spectacular, even a bit glamorous. With this in mind, Sarah Ryle commented in the Observer, “Nanula sounds just a little bit flashy. Now look again. Without a hint of irony, Nanula says he took his current job because it gave him the chance to work with his best friend [Barry S. Sternlicht]. He exudes quiet restraint.”

Throughout his career, Nanula has developed a professional reputation for being fiscally conservative and a nice guy to work for; outside of work, he is quick to talk about his love of sports as a player and spectator, but otherwise keeps his personal life private. He called himself a “multiprocessor” in a 1998 New York Times interview, referring to the fact that he can do several things at once. He likes to watch five television sets at one time (he has a special touch pad that allows him to control the channels and volume) and once moved a business negotiation to the Super Bowl so that he could watch the game. When he was in business school at Harvard, Nanula often sat at the back of the classroom so that he could do other work—or read the paper—when the pace of discussion slowed. These skills are sure to serve him well at Starwood, where he faces the enormous challenge of turning a promising young company into a proven competitor.

Worked Hard as Teen

Born in Los Angeles in 1960, Nanula grew up in Pasadena and Santa Rosa, California. His father is of Italian descent, his mother is African American. He remarked that his race was not an issue in the mostly white neighborhoods where he was raised, and he suspects that some people thought he was Egyptian or

At a Glance…

Born May 9, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA. married Tracey; children: (twins) Anthony and Samantha. Education: University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), B.A.; Harvard Business School, M.B.A.

Career: Worked for Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, Atlanta and awarded C.P.A., mìd-1980s; Walt Disney and Company, senior planning analyst, 1986–87; strategic planning manager, 1987; director of strategic planning, 1988–89; vice president and treasurer, 1989–91; chief financial officer, 1991–95; Disney Store Worldwide, president, 1994–96; senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, 1996–98; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., president and chief executive officer, 1998—.

Member: Board member, Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles; board of trustees, UCSB Foundation.

Addresses: Home—Greenwich, CT. Office—Starwood Hotels & Resorts, 777 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY, 10604.

Hawaiian. Now that he is making news for breaking into the predominantly white ranks of American corporate leadership, he shrugs at the mention of race. “I do believe in being a good role model,” he told the New York Times, “But I’ve generally just operated on doing my job, and race and age and background has never really played into it very much, so I’ve just not focused on it.”

As a teenager, Nanula worked different jobs, including waiting on tables. His parents worried that he was doing too much and felt that the demands of work, sports, and friends left Nanula little time for his studies. However, their son turned into a serious student at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. Subsequently, Nanula was given deferred acceptance to the Harvard Business School. Before entering the program, he worked at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells in Atlanta and became an accountant.

While at Harvard, Nanula met Barry S. Sternlicht, who would later become the chairman of Starwood. They watched football and played intramural basketball together, and developed a lasting friendship. It was Sternlicht who inadvertently helped Nanula get his start at Disney. During their second year together at Harvard, Sternlicht led a field study project at Disney that explored the viability of creating mini-factories as theme-park attractions. Nanula joined his classmate in the project and performed so impressively that Disney executives offered him a job before the group made its final presentation.

Joined Disney

In 1986, Nanula joined Disney’s strategic planning team. He was named director of strategic planning two years later. By 1989, he was a vice president and treasurer. He was promoted to chief financial officer in 1991, becoming the youngest CFO in Fortune 500 history. As chief financial officer, Nanula made important contributions to Disney. In 1993 he launched the sale of $300 million in 100-year bonds, which came to be called “Sleeping Beauty” bonds because of their extremely lengthy maturity date. He also helped to breath life into the struggling Disneyland Paris (formerly known as Euro Disney) and shared responsibility for financially restructuring the theme park.

In 1994, Los Angeles Times writer James Bates identified Nanula as “one of the most senior black executives in the entertainment business.” This appraisal came on the occasion of Nanula’s reassignment as president of Disney Store Worldwide, then a 335-store retail outlet chain and one of Disney’s strongest divisions. As described by the Daily News Record, this put Nanula in charge of “day-to-day operation, marketing, business strategy and expansion.” The move was a response to other staffing changes, but was also motivated by Disney chairman Michael Eisner’s desire to give Nanula greater operational experience in preparation for further advancement. One year later, Nanula was promoted to senior executive vice president and renamed chief financial officer of Disney. This move was prompted by the departure of CFO Stephen Bollenbach, who was hired by the Hilton hotel chain to serve as president and CEO. Although Bollenbach was responsible for handling Disney’s acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC, it was Nanula’s responsibility to make the merger work.

Lured Away by Starwood

Nanula, by all accounts, was very happy at Disney, but could not turn down Starwood’s extremely attractive offer. He told Black Enterprise, “I’ve enjoyed every minute of my 12 years at Disney with Michael Eisner (chairman and CEO). It was a difficult decision to leave him, a great future and all my friends at Disney. But the opportunity at Starwood, with its outstanding portfolio of globally renowned brands, was irresistible.” At the age of 37, he was named president and chief executive officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in April of 1998. The company owned the Westin and Sheraton hotel brands and was a $10 billion corporation. In early 1998, Starwood included some 650 hotels and resorts and 14 casinos (including Caesars World Casinos) in 70 countries. The company’s size increased when it purchased ITT Corporation for $14.6 billion. Christina Binkley and Bruce Orwall of the Wall Street Journal, remarked that Disney’s extensive hotel holdings were an important part of the experience Nanula brought to Starwood. They stated that he was “expected to fill a top-level management void. The company has grown at breakneck speed through acquisitions in the past year, changing from a little-known real estate investment trust to the world’s largest hotel company.”

Nanula’s challenge at Starwood was to effectively guide a company that was experiencing growing pains. He began by renegotiating contracts and using the company’s size to gain discounts on things such as hotel furnishings and long distance service. He also sought to link reservations systems and frequent-guest programs in order to increase revenue. An even greater challenge would be to follow a directive from the federal government which required Starwood to create a new corporate structure to fit its new size.

As Nanula settled into his prestigious job and faced its many challenges and demands, the hotel industry was both impressed and surprised by his change in titles. As Fortune writer Roy S. Johnson noted, Nanula just missed making history. Franklin Raines became the first African American to run a Fortune 500 company when he was named CEO of Fannie Mae in April of 1998. Nanula received his job at Starwood one day later. Others marveled that Nanula had actually left Disney, given that he was possibly being groomed for even greater advancement. Binkley and Orwall summarized the debate over Nanula’s future at Disney: “some have pegged him as a solid but traditional financial practitioner who lacks the vision to make the big deal. But other Disney insiders suggest that Mr. Nanula had the respect and the ear of Mr. Eisner, and because of his youthful age may have been in line to lead the entire company one day. That opportunity could still exist, these insiders say.” Meanwhile, Nanula was enjoying the opportunity to work with his friend Barry Stemlicht and the process of charting Starwood’s future course.