Ex-Starwood chief sells stock

Friday, May 28, 1999 | 11:37 a.m.

Richard Nanula, who resigned as president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. last month, is selling about $16 million of his Starwood shares.

Nanula filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission Thursday to sell 451,518 shares valued at $15.9 million. The filing didn't disclose whether he will have any shares remaining.

But when Starwood Chairman Barry Sternlicht hired him, Nanula's compensation agreement included options to buy 3 million shares of stock. At least some of those options recently vested at $24 a share.

Starwood stock was trading at $32.625 a share at midday today, up 43.75 cents.

Sternlicht lured Nanula, his Harvard Business School classmate, away from Walt Disney Co. in early 1998 to help run Starwood, then the world's largest gaming and lodging business.

But the mercurial Sternlicht was angered by a New York Times profile that described Nanula in glowing terms, and relations between the two quickly became strained.

In announcing Nanula's resignation last month, Sternlicht said Starwood's evolution since Nanula arrived at the company -- principally, the decision to sell the Caesars World gaming operations Nanula had been running -- led the executives to conclude "our interests were best served by pursuing our careers separately."