Salt Lake City • Mitt Romney is running for re-election to Marriott International’s board of directors, but his campaign said Monday that he’ll resign from that post if elected in November to the U.S. Senate, which bars senators from serving as an officer or board member of any publicly held company.
The Utah Senate candidate and former Republican presidential candidate is one of 14 members of Marriott’s board running for another yearlong term, according to the hotel chain’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
The board members will be up for re-election at the corporation’s annual stockholder meeting on May 4.
The Republican, who is well-known and popular in Utah, is expected to win the race to replace retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Romney’s spokeswoman MJ Henshaw said Monday that Romney would comply with U.S. Senate rules and resign from the Marriott board if elected in November.
Marriott spokeswoman Connie Kim declined to comment.
Romney, who has longstanding ties to the Marriott family, has served on Marriott’s board off-and-on since 1993.
He resigned from the board in 2002 to campaign for Massachusetts governor. He later rejoined the board in 2009 but left again in 2011 to start his campaign for U.S. president.
Romney, whose full name is Willard Mitt Romney, was named after Marriott founder J.W. Marriott, a close friend of Romney’s father. Marriott’s full name was John Willard Marriott.
If Romney stayed on the board, the now 71-year-old would run up next year against the company’s mandatory retirement for board members at age 72.
The company’s SEC filings show Romney was paid $247,299 in 2016 in cash, stocks and other compensation.
The filings were first reported by Bloomberg on Friday.
