Thank you for visiting the Westin Alumni Association (WAA) website!

From its founding in 1991 the sole purpose of the WAA was to provide means for former Westin associates to stay in touch, i.e., friends keeping in touch with friends. That remains our purpose to this day. 

With the purchase by Starwood in 1998 the company, Westin Hotels & Resorts, founded in 1930, ceased to exist, thus the association focuses on the years that Western Hotels operated as a company, namely 1930-1998.

Until May of 2018 membership was restricted to those who had worked in the corporate, regional sales, and affiliate offices such as Westin Service & Supply, which was later named FORMA. Within hotels membership was restricted to General Managers, Executive Assistant Managers and Division Heads.

Then, with the concurrence of the WAA board in March 2018, potential membership was expanded to include those who had worked in any capacity for the company for 5 or more years. The group selected five years as a time period that would allow an associate to learn the history of the company and to understand its culture and values.

Over the years various groups of alums dispersed around the globe have arranged to meet for lunch, dinner or even for a weekend. Events have taken place in Tokyo, Oslo, Denver, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Johannesburg, Vancouver, Ottawa, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Bellevue (2006) and Las Vegas (2016 & 2019). The latter three were weekend events that drew hundreds of members from around the globe.

We hope that you will enjoy the history, photos, stories and trips down memory lane as you view the website content.

Western Hotels, later Western International Hotels, Westin Hotels, and Westin Hotels & Resorts was an innovative and storied company populated with outstanding people!

Yes, people did make the difference!

Sincerely,

Ray Sylvester
President
Westin Years 1965-1998

Take a look at some of the past Front magazine covers. Jay Aven saved 59 Front magazines and has contributed them to the Westin Collection.
The magazines from 1947-1977  are now available on the University of Houston server, here