At the 2025 Great Place To Work Summit in Las Vegas, Marriott’s CEO Anthony Capuano showed a powerful moment that affirmed his leadership and values. Facing increasing political pressures for the Trump administration to step back from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and toward a more conservative approach, Capuano made a bold commitment that Marriott will never retreat from making everyone feel welcome and empowered no matter the political situation.

DEI hiring which the Trump administration opposes includes recruitment practices that focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace. DEI hiring efforts lead to a workforce that represents individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives and ensure that everyone is given equitable opportunities in the form of recruitment and advancement opportunities.

His public stance echoed well beyond the stages of the summit. Within 24 hours of the interview,  Capuano received 40,000 emails sent from Marriott employees around the world, thanking him for not backing down. The flood of “thank you” emails became an emotional testament to the values of Marriott associates.

Reason Behind the Gratitude:

Capuano’s message wasn’t simply corporate speak. As he said: “We welcome all to our hotels and we create opportunities for all—and fundamentally those will never change.” This commitment to inclusivity remains undeterred, in a scale of attacks against DEI programs happening in several state legislatures and in federal policy conversations.

“The day the [DEI] executive order came out, I sat with our senior leadership team and I said: given the industry-leading position we have, we ought to make sure we’re all aligned on, not only philosophically, how we think about this, which was the easy part, but what words we use, what language we use. We should talk with the board a little bit about it,” Mr Capuano said. 

For Marriott’s over 800,000 employees throughout the globe, these words signified more than just a defense of a company policy – they recognized them as people, acknowledged their contributions and value as individuals. The company’s strong workplace culture is evidenced by its placement in the top 10 on Forbes’ Best Companies to Work For list, along with an industry-leading 90% retention rate compared to the industry average of 57%.

Capuano’s choice to clamp down on DEI was not merely moral—it was also strategic. According to research from Great Place to Work, companies with high employee trust achieve almost 4x better performance overall, and boast better stock performance, as well.