BETHESDA, MD—Jim Kauffman, president/United States and Canada Full-Service Hotels at Marriott International, will retire at the end of the year after 37 years of service with the company.
Kauffman joined Marriott in 1977 as a sales manager, subsequently taking on various leadership roles at the hotel, regional and corporate levels. He held roles as general manager, including assignments at the former Marriott Mandalay Hotel in Dallas and the Philadelphia Marriott. In addition, he was market VP for Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware; VP/market management for Northern California; regional VP for Marriott’s franchise division in Washington, DC; and EVP for the Western Region. In 2010, Kauffman was named chief operations officer, The Americas, Western Region.
In his current role as president for full-service hotels in the U.S. and Canada, Kauffman is responsible for strategy and its execution at hotels in the region.
Kauffman also serves on the board of the School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University; the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Ohio; Boston University School of Hospitality; as well as Visit California.