Memorial
Marriott’s Dave Sampson: Remembering a
Leader Who Brought Everyone to the Table
There’s an old adage that all we
can hope to do is leave the world a
better place than when we entered
it. Dave Sampson, senior vice president of diversity initiatives at
Marriott International, who worked
for Marriott for 25 years and was
the hotel company’s first officer of
color, lived his life that way.
Sampson, who pioneered diversity initiatives such as pipeline
development and supplier diversity,
passed away unexpectedly in
March. He was 58 years old.
Sampson’s impact was felt
throughout Marriott, No. 46 on The
2007 DiversityInc Top 50
Companies for Diversity® list. Those
who worked closest with him say his
influence was pervasive.
“He would say, ‘I’m going to
make sure you get the exposure and
be on the upward-moving track,’”
recalls Maruiel Perkins-Chavis,
whom Sampson helped move from
manager of affirmative action to
director and finally to her current
position as vice president of work-force effectiveness and diversity.
“I would characterize him as a
true selfless leader,” says Priscilla
Hollman, vice president of diversity relations at Marriott. Hollman
first met Sampson when he was
regional director of human
resources for the Northeast region
of Marriott Hotels in 1985 and she
was a director of human resources
for one of the hotels.
Sampson used his access to senior leaders to highlight the people
of color he knew throughout
BY YOJI COLE
Marriott. He was instrumental in
creating Marriott’s Committee for
Excellence, a board-of-director-level committee, where he served
as co-chair.
Sampson was key in making
Hollman aware of opportunities in
D.C. and later in her career as a vice
president in the company—a level
Hollman never expected she’d reach
because she is black.
“Had he not [mentioned my
name], I wouldn’t have been on
anyone’s radar,” she says. “This is a
man who had a vision for me that I
didn’t have for myself.”
Sampson was the first executive
at Marriott to make the business
case for diversity, says Norm Jenkins,
senior vice president of North
American lodging development.
“I viewed him as a leader and an
example of an executive who did
things the right way and had impeccable credibility with lower and senior executives of the company,” says
Jenkins. “We created a Diversity
Ownership Initiative, and had Dave
not done the work on the work-force and supplier side and developed relationships with external
organizations, I don’t think the company would have recognized the
benefit of developing franchise owners of color.”
Sampson was truly a one-of-a-kind executive at Marriott, one who
easily crossed barriers of race, age
and other personal attributes that
block many relationships. “He could
teach me and I’m a 61-year-old white
male who spent 20 years in the
Army,” says Steve Bauman, vice president of talent acquisition and selection at Marriott. “Each time I had an
opportunity to learn something, I had
comfort in talking to Dave about the
perspective of the African-American
community,” says Bauman.
“Dave Sampson was passionate
about the business case for supplier
diversity,” says Luke Visconti, partner
and cofounder of DiversityInc. “He
gave us example after example of how
Marriott brought in business through
communicating superior supplier-diversity efforts—the deciding factor
in billions of dollars in contracts. His
plan to diversify the ownership of
franchisees was broad in scope and
exacting in meeting goals. Diversity
management is diminished by his
death, and I will always draw strength
from the memory of his quiet, confident and forceful leadership.”
“Dave Sampson was an enormous
supporter of DiversityInc,” adds
Foulis Peacock, partner and
cofounder of DiversityInc. “Many
people talk about ‘partnership,’ Dave
was a partner in fact. I’ll miss his
quiet confidence and vision.” DI
