Edwin D. (Ed) Fuller
President, Laguna Strategic Advisors
Distinguished corporate leader, best-selling author and noted educator and speaker, Ed Fuller is Chairman and Co-Founder of Irvine, California-based Laguna Strategic Advisors, a global consulting firm focused on destination management, management leadership, transformational organizational engagement, risk management and delivering grounded business solutions .
His performance-driven corporate career with Marriott International spanned four decades culminating with the company naming him President & Managing Director for International Lodging. His career included extensive multi-faceted global experience in developing long-term strategies that applied corporate philosophies, delivered on brand promise and enabled ethical decision-making and sound direction. It resulted in his creating 76,000 new jobs worldwide, the formation and operation of 500+ hotels in 70+ countries worldwide, generated $7+ billion in annual sales, and the implementation of multiple environmental, youth and educational initiatives worldwide.
His colorful and real-world experiences are recounted in his top 20 best-selling business book, “You Can’t Lead with Your Feet on the Desk,” published globally by John Wiley & Co., in 2011.
Mr. Fuller is an active alumnus of Boston University and Vice Chairman of its Board of Overseers. He is a former President of the University’s Alumni Association and a former Trustee. He currently serves on the advisory boards of its hotel and business schools where he is Chairman of the Hospitality Board and on the University’s International Advisory Board. In 1998, received the Alumni Award, the University’s highest honor.
At the University of California Irvine, he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the University’s Merage School of Business and was recently appointed to the California State University Hospitality Industry Advisory Board.
He is a former Trustee of the International Business Leaders Forum; chaired the Governing Council of the International Tourism Partnership for nine years and currently serves on the Safe Kids Worldwide Board and formerly the Pacific Area Travel Association Foundation Board. In 2010, he was named Commissioner of Travel & Tourism for the State of California and, a year later, was named Emeritus member of the Travel Industry Management School Advisory Board at the University of Hawaii.
He is a Trustee of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation and a former Director of the United Way International Board. In 2008, he received the China Hotel Investment Summit Lifetime Achievement Award; in 2010, he was recognized with the Hotel Investment Forum India Aatithya Award; and earlier this year, he was presented with the International Hotel Investment Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Berlin. He was also appointed Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy Associates Foundation (FBINAA) this year.
Mr. Fuller served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and was awarded the Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal for service during missions in Vietnam and Germany.
