L-R Paul Ochieng, Dean of Students (SU), Eric Kathenya, Communication Manager (SU), Robert Gary Dodds, VP Human Resources MEA (Marriott International), Sayed Haggag, Director Talent Management MEA (Marriott International)

Marriot Corporation is set to open a hotel in Kenya. Speaking during a visit to the University on Thursday November 24^th, Mr. Robert Gary Dodds, the Vice President – Human Resources Middle East and Africa said Marriot will open hotels in Kenya and that the preliminary work on the hotels was nearing completion.

Mr. Dodds was accompanied by Marriot’s Director of Talent Management in Middle East and Africa Mr. Sayed Haggag. Mr. Haggag gave a brief on Marriot’s history, careers, training opportunities, and philosophy to some final year students in the School of Management and Commerce (SMC).

Most of the students were drawn from SMC’s Centre for Hospitality and Tourism. Apart from Kenya, Marriot plans to open hotels in Rwanda, Cameroon, and Benin. Marriot sees Kenyans taking a leading role in providing managers to lead these hotels because of the country’s robust education system.

Both Mr. Dodds and Mr. Haggag described Marriot’s corporate culture which puts its staff first. “In Marriots, we don’t use the word staff. We use associates,” Mr. Haggag said.

Mr. Dodds said Marriot would be happy to partner with the University as the two institutions share core values of the dignity of a person and spirit of service. Watch out for Marriot’s stand at the University’s Career Fair on February 3rd!

“The core values established by the Marriott family over 80 years ago have served our company well and will continue to guide our growth into the future. Foremost of these core values is the enduring belief that our associates are our greatest assets,” reads Marriot’s website.

For the fourth year running, Marriott was this year named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for engaging in business practices and initiatives that are instrumental to its success, benefitting the community, and raising the bar for ethical standards within the industry.

Marriott has grown from two employees in 1927 to over 300,000 today. “We’ve expanded from a nine-stool root beer stand to about 3700 hotels in 71 countries. We’ve been able to do this because of our core values one of which is conducting business with integrity,” says Bill Marriot Jr., the Chairman of Marriot Corporation and son of the founder of Marriot chain of hotels.