Gary L. Wilson is an American business executive. He served as chairman of the board of

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

, chief financial officer of

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and chief financial officer of

Marriott Corporation Marriott Corporation was a hospitality company that operated from 1927 until 1993, founded by J. Willard Marriott and Frank J. Kimball as Hot Shoppes, Inc. In 1957, Marriott Corporation opened its first hotel in Arlington County, Virginia, ...

Early life

Wilson was born and raised in Alliance, Ohio. He graduated from Alliance High School 1958. Wilson attended Duke University where he played football. Wilson was a running back on the Duke team that won the Cotton Bowl in 1960. Wilson earned a bachelor's degree from Duke in 1962, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

in 1963. He received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and ...

in 2005. His eldest son Derek Wilson earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Duke in 1986 and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business in 1990. Derek's mother, Susan Moody Wilson, graduated from Duke in 1962. Derek's daughter, Trinity, is a 2015 Duke graduate. Wilson's youngest son, Hale Thornhill Wilson, graduated from Duke in 2020.

Career

Wilson began his career in 1964 in Manila as CFO of Trans-Philippines Investment Corp. (TPIC), a leveraged buyout of one of the world's largest sugar companies. He created and was CEO of a sugar-trading subsidiary that produced 20 percent of TPIC's profit with no capital invested. He recommended and implemented the transformation of the firm from a sugar company to one of Asia's largest construction companies by acquiring Atlantic Gulf & Pacific (AG&P) in 1969, while selling the sugar mills. After returning from Asia, he joined Marriott in 1974, as executive vice president for finance, strategy and development. While there, Marriott's market capitalization increased from $200 million in 1974 to $3.6 billion in 1987 for a 24 percent IRR. Among his accomplishments were creating and developing the Courtyard Hotel concept, as well as Marriott time sharing. He led the 1978 repurchase of one-third of Marriott shares, which at the time was the second largest

stock buyback Share repurchase, also known as share buyback or stock buyback, is the re-acquisition by a company of its own shares. It represents an alternate and more flexible way (relative to dividends) of returning money to shareholders. When used in coord ...

in history. In 1985, Wilson joined the

as executive vice president of finance, strategy and development when the

Bass Brothers Bass Brothers is the professional name for the team of Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit producers responsible for helping Eminem with his early career and collaborating on much of his subsequent music. Before that, they worked with George Clint ...

acquired control. During his tenure there, market capitalization increased from $2 billion to $20 billion, an IRR of 58 percent, primarily by expanding hotel and theme park assets while increasing prices. Among his accomplishments were increasing hotel rooms from 4,000 in 1985 to 18,000 rooms in 1992 and introducing time-sharing based on the Marriott model. He developed the

Euro Disney Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...

theme park complex in Paris from site selection to financing, gaining major concessions from the French government and culminating in one of Europe's largest

IPOs In demonology, Ipos is an Earl and powerful Prince of Hell (a Duke to some authors) who has thirty-six legions of demons under his command. He knows and can reveal all things, past, present and future (only the future to some authors, and past an ...

. He financed films through innovative public partnerships that shifted ownership risk to investors while Disney retained distribution fees and a share of appreciation. Wilson led the buyout of Northwest Airlines in 1989. With partner KLM, Northwest Airlines created code-sharing which allowed passengers to fly on several airlines on a single ticket thus creating airline alliances that now permeate the industry. SkyTeam, Oneworld and Star Alliance now cover the world. In 1997, Northwest acquired control of Continental Airlines. In 2004 as a director of KLM, he helped negotiate their merger with Air France. Prior to the September 11 attacks and the subsequent fallout on the airline industry, Northwest's market capitalization reached $6 billion, providing investors with handsome returns on their $300 million initial equity investment. He served as chairman or co-chairman of Northwest from 1991 to 2007. Wilson successfully acquired other companies, including

Progress Rail Progress Rail Services Corporation , a fully owned subsidiary of Caterpillar since 2006, is a supplier of railroad and transit system products and services headquartered in Albertville, Alabama. Founded as a recycling company in 1982, Progress ...

in 2004, and is the creator and general partner of several

private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity. ...

s: Manhattan Pacific Partners, an investment fund; Thayer Lodging, a hotel investor; and KAILAI Investments, which invests in Chinese companies. Wilson's group acquired Coldwell Banker's commercial real estate company in 1992, which through many acquisitions became CBRE Group, Inc., the world's largest real estate firm. He served on the CBRE board until 2016. “Leadership and management are a business’s most important asset. They are not on the balance sheet, but they can quickly produce results. Be aggressive about who you work for and hire people better than you are.” — Gary L. Wilson during a speech in 2005 at the University of Southern California.

Boards

Wilson is Chairman of the Board of TruthMD. He is trustee emeritus of Duke University and serves on the board of overseers of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He previously served on the boards of directors of Northwest Airlines, Inc., The Walt Disney Company and Yahoo! Inc.

Philanthropy

In 1990 Gary established The Wilson Foundation. Its objective is helping the disadvantaged with a focus on education and criminal justice reform. The Wilson Foundation partnered with the Koch family to establish the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law. The Foundation is the prime sponsor of Strive, a school for the under-privileged in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Gary established the Elvin J. Wilson-Duke University Scholarship in memory of his late father. Awarded annually to an Alliance High School student who is enrolling at Duke University. Duke pays half of the scholarship with Wilson contributing the other half. The program has 14 graduates. Wilson has contributed over $10 million to Duke University.

Personal

Gary has three sons, Derek, Christopher and Hale, and five grandchildren. He is married to Jane Booke, a fashion designer. They live in Los Angeles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Gary L. Duke University alumni Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni Keck School of Medicine of USC people Living people Directors of Yahoo! American corporate directors American chairpersons of corporations American company founders Marriott International people American chief financial officers Year of birth missing (living people)