About

Marriott International is a multinational diversified hospitality company that manages a broad portfolio of over 7,000 hotels and related lodging facilities spanning 131 countries and territories. Yibing Mao is the chief legal counsel for Asia Pacific and leads the regional legal team comprised of 27 lawyers and 24 supporting staff. During the past year the Asia Pacific legal team has expanded from five to seven offices including Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Japan. The legal team has dealt with a number of significant deals recently. For example, in 2018, the team supported over 150 new hotel management and franchise projects in the region. These projects represent over 30,000 new rooms, which is a high record in Marriott’s history in Asia Pacific. Some of the major signings included the Westin Yokohama in Japan and the first St. Regis hotel in Melbourne. In addition, the team has successfully delivered over 100 hours of trainings to more than 1,800 staff across the Asia Pacific region in the past months in 2018 in various legal aspects to ensure that they possess the latest knowledge and they are able to tackle specific legal issues independently. The team also quarterly publishes an internal newsletter to raise awareness and help hotel staff with various legal issues they might encounter in an easily digestible format. Due to the growing uncertainty in the global economic and political environment, the team anticipates several big challenges to be faced by the team in the next 12 months, such as increasing regulatory oversight and enforcement. The legal team is dealing with over 25 jurisdictions and there are many reforms carried out across the region such as recommended reforms to Australia’s franchising regulatory framework, changes in Korea’s franchise regulations, and revisions to Indonesia’s IP regulations. The team is commended for seamlessly handling matters whilst being affected by changes in data privacy, cyber security laws and enforcement across Asia Pacific, as well as increasing enforcement on anti-trust laws throughout Asia Pacific. These modifications create substantial work including updating internal policies and procedures, contracts and execution templates and delivery of learning and development programmes to associates on the latest hospitality trends and regulations. The legal team maintains a strong retention rate and is able to attract excellent individuals. ‘The key strategy to hire and retain talent is to create a strong corporate culture, to hire the people who are good fits to the culture, and to live with our core values of putting people first’, a team member states.