Hubert Joly

President and Chief Executive Officer
Carlson

Hubert Joly became president and chief executive officer of Carlson in March 2008. With headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Carlson operates four businesses: Carlson Hotels, with Regent Hotels & Resorts, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, and Park Inn hotels; Carlson Marketing, a leader in loyalty programs and Engagement & Events; Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT), the world's leading travel management company, and T.G.I. Friday's restaurants.

Carlson was founded in 1938 as the Gold Bond Stamp Company. As its businesses diversified, the company changed its name to Carlson Companies in 1973, and it is now known as Carlson.

Joly, 48, previously served for more than three years as president and chief executive officer of CWT. Under his leadership, CWT grew its sales from $8.9 billion in 2003 to $25.5 billion in 2007. He recently became chair of the CWT Board of Directors.

With broad international experience, Joly came to CWT from Vivendi Universal, where he was a member of the executive team that led the company's recovery, serving as executive vice president with responsibility for overseeing the company's American assets. Previously, he was CEO of Vivendi Universal Games, the video games division of Vivendi Universal, headquartered in Los Angeles.

Before joining Vivendi, Joly worked in the technology sector from 1996 to 1999 as vice president of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Europe and president of EDS France. Prior to joining EDS, he was a consultant and then a partner with McKinsey & Company from 1982 to1996 and specialized in the high-tech sector.

Born and raised in France, Joly spent seven years working in the United States, including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and has traveled extensively around the world in his diverse functions, working across geographic and cultural boundaries.

Joly is a business administration graduate of HEC Paris and a public administration graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He is vice chair of the Rezidor Hotel Group Board of Directors. In addition, he is a member of the supervisory board of the Aspen Institute France, a non-partisan, international forum designed to promote the exchange of ideas of economic, social and political issues. He is also a board member of the American Chamber of Commerce in France.

Joly was honored as one of the 25 Most Influential Executives of the Business Travel Industry (2006) by Business Travel News magazine. He was also elected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum (Davos, 1997-1999), and chosen as a young executive of the year by L'Expansion magazine (1996) and IT CEO of the Year in France (1998).