About

The legal team for Marriott International’s Asia Pacific region is led by chief legal counsel Yibing Mao, and spreads across five offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and India, with a total composition of 29 lawyers and 27 non-legal professionals. Yibing’s team is responsible for overseeing a wide range of practice areas, including development, asset management, lodging operations, compliance, and employment. Key individuals within the team include vice president and assistant general counsel Karin Trantallis who is responsible for development, vice president and assistant general counsel Nancy Kupfer, responsible for asset management and lodging operations and Nan Wang, responsible for Chinese legal matters. Also highlighted are Jamilia Greer, vice president and senior counsel, responsible for compliance, Sahiba Chait, vice president and senior counsel, responsible for India legal matters and Jim Wu, vice president and senior counsel, responsible for employment matters. The team is responsible for negotiating and drafting management and franchise contracts, branded residences projects, as well as ensuring contracts are enforceable in line with local laws, dealing with issues relating to land title, licensing and zoning and the registration and licensing of intellectual property rights. On lodging operations the team advises on guest claims brought against individual hotels to supporting the opening of hotels throughout the Asia Pacific region and developing a uniform hotel guest registration form to be used in over 20 countries in the Asia Pacific region which is compliant with data privacy and data consent laws in those jurisdictions. The team also provides similar assistance to the asset management team including dealing with situations where an owner has failed to honour its obligations under a management contract or franchise contract, such as failure to pay management fees or interference with hotel operations among other matters. Recently, Marriott has undergone a major change caused by its merger with Starwood Hotels, creating the largest hotel company in the world. The legal team reflects this as it grew from approximately 14 lawyers at the time of the merger to 29 lawyers at present including some legacy Starwood lawyers and non-lawyers. The legal team has also been actively involved in Marriott’s digital innovations. In August 2017, Alibaba and Marriott established a joint venture to redefine the travel experience for Chinese travellers. It will also market directly to Alibaba’s customer base, provide a link between Marriott’s loyalty programs and Alibaba’s loyalty program and support Marriott hotels globally with contents and promotions customised for the Chinese traveller. On Yibing’s leadership of the expert Asia Pacific-based team, a nominator says: ‘[She] joined Marriott 22 years ago as Corporate Counsel, in the Development Team. Back then Ms. Mao was the first counsel hired for China market development, and there were only eight hotels under Marriott brand, [now] there are more than 600 hotels in Asia under Marriott’s brand and there are more than 500 plus in the pipeline’.