Kathleen Matthews

Executive Vice President and Chief Global Communications and 
Public Affairs Officer
Marriott International, Inc.
Bethesda, Maryland

Kathleen Matthews is the chief communications and public affairs officer for Marriott International, the leading global hotel company based in Bethesda, Maryland. She is responsible for the company’s external and internal communications including global brand and corporate public relations, corporate social responsibility and government affairs.  She co-chairs Marriott’s Executive Green Council and serves on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board to the Secretary of Commerce, as well as the boards of the U.S. Travel Association, the International Tourism Partnership, and the Economic Club of Washington. She is also currently active in the World Economic Forum Policy Councils.

Matthews is a 1975 graduate of Stanford University, and was a 2004 Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She has honorary degrees from the University of South Carolina and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.  Since 1980, she has been married to Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball and The Chris Matthews Show. They live in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and have three children. Matthews is active in her community, and has served on the boards of Catholic Charities, the Black Student Fund, Suited for Change, Ford’s Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Nantucket Film Festival and Dreamland Theater. 

Prior to her career at Marriott, she was an award winning news anchor at the ABC-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C., for 25 years, and hosted the nationally syndicated “Working Woman” television show. She has been named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine, and a “Woman Who Means Business” by the Washington Business Journal. She has also been awarded nine local Emmys and other top honors during her journalism career.