The selection of van Paasschen ends a five-month search toreplace former Coca-Cola CEO Steven J. Heyer, who ended a stormytwo-and-a-half year stint as Starwood's CEO in April of this yearwhen the board of directors of the locally based firm lostconfidence in his leadership. Heyer replaced company founder BarryS. Sternlicht.

The 46-year-old van Paasschen will officially join Starwood onSept. 24. He will replace Starwood chairman Bruce W. Duncan, whoserved as interim CEO since April. The new leader of Starwoodserved as president and CEO of Coors Brewing Co., a division ofMolson Coors Brewing Co., for two-and-a-half years. Previously, vanPaasschen spent seven years at Nike Inc, where he was most recentlyresponsible for its business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa,and increased revenues from $2.5 billion to nearly $4 billion anddoubled profits over a four-year period, Starwood officials say.Prior to joining Nike in 1997, he spent two years as vicepresident, finance and planning at Disney Consumer Products andalso served as a management consultant for eight years at McKinsey& Co. and the Boston Consulting Group.

Commenting on van Paasschen's selection, Starwood's Duncan says,"Frits is an extremely talented and proven leader with demonstratedsuccess in driving both top and bottom-line growth on a globalscale across a variety of leading consumer lifestyle companies. Ourcompany has never been in a stronger position, with a robustpipeline of approximately 105,000 rooms, of which over 70% are inthe upper upscale and luxury segments and approximately half ofwhich are outside of North America. We remain focused on developingand opening new properties, with 80 new openings planned for thisyear and over 100 for next year."