Ex-Starwood exec lands online
O, how the mighty have fallen. Former Starwood Hotels CEO Steve Heyer recently joined Vitrue, a company that creates online video communities to leverage the social media craze into marketing opportunities for consumer companies. Heyer will be vice chairman and is an investor in the obscure Atlanta-based firm.
Earlier in the year, Heyer resigned from his much-higher-profile Starwood post reportedly at the insistence of the company’s board of directors. By all accounts, Heyer achieved little while at the helm of Starwood except the enmity of other executives and employees who found him unapproachable, imperial and detached. Among other grievances that led to his demise, Heyer refused to move from Atlanta to Starwood’s HQ in New York.
Former Nike executive Frits van Paasschen assumed the top job at Starwood in September.
