Starwood Hotels & Resorts has appointed Even Frydenberg to the role of Senior Vice President, Western Europe and Global Initiatives. Mr. Frydenberg has 20 years of experience with Starwood and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Operations and Global Initiatives for the Europe, Africa & the Middle East (EAME) division.

Guido De Wilde, regional vice president, Middle East, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, speaks to Breaking Travel News at Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 2013.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Majid Al Futtaim Properties have celebrated the opening of Sheraton Dubai Mall of the Emirates Hotel. With this opening, Starwood now operates 14 hotels in Dubai, representing the highest concentration of Starwood hotels in any individual city outside of New York.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced it signed more hotels in 2012 than in any year since the start of the economic crisis. Despite ongoing macroeconomic and geo-political uncertainty, the company expects to have signed in excess of 125 new hotel management and franchise agreements by year-end, surpassing last year’s deal signings by approximately 13 per cent.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced it has completed the sale of the 665-room Manhattan at Times Square Hotel in New York City to affiliates of Rockpoint Group, Goldman Sachs’ Real Estate Principal Investment Area, and Highgate Holdings for $275 million in cash.

In a move to emphasize Starwood’s approach to cultivating a more global culture, the company has said it will relocate its Senior Leadership Team from the company’s United States-based headquarters to the Middle East in 2013 for a month-long managerial endeavour. During the relocation, Starwood president and chief executive Frits van Paasschen and more than a dozen of the company’s top executives will be headquartered in Dubai where they will conduct day-to-day business on an eight-hour time difference with their “usual” home office in Stamford, Connecticut.