On the occasion of White Lodging’s 40th anniversary, Chris Anderson, its newly appointed chief operating officer, spoke to LODGING about the life and legacy of Bruce White, who founded the hospitality company in 1985. Anderson traced White’s not entirely direct path from washing dishes and hauling banquet tables for the opening of his father’s Holiday Inn as a teenager, to working at a Hyatt in California, to forgoing graduate school to help “fix” his father’s property. Ultimately, he built one of the country’s largest and most respected hospitality companies, which he led until his death in 2023. In addition to the thriving company and wealth of friends and family, his legacy includes significant philanthropic endeavors through the White family foundations, which support his community and his industry.
According to Anderson, White “got hooked” on the hospitality industry under circumstances that would cause most people to flee: With banquet personnel not yet hired, he and some friends were recruited to prepare for the opening of his father’s Holiday Inn in Northwest Indiana. The boys started in the morning loading fixtures and furniture into the hotel and continued working into the wee hours, busing tables and washing dishes—“steel-toed boots and all.” Afterwards, instead of being exhausted, he said he felt energized, that he had found his “calling.”
Despite his early attraction to the industry, upon graduating from Purdue, White intended to take a coveted job in the management training program at Ralston Purina—that is, until he visited a relative in California who worked at Hyatt. Succumbing to the lure of the industry, he instead accepted a position at Hyatt, where he remained for a year before returning to Indiana.
Although his plan then was to attend graduate school, White agreed to help his father, Dean, with his Holiday Inn and other small hotels he owned. There, the younger White paved the way for his next move: In 1985, Bruce White negotiated his own management contracts with his father, marking the beginning of White Lodging.
Building the Company
After fortunately securing the very first Fairfield Inn franchise with Marriott, White forged ahead to grow his company. Anderson described a kind of “formula” that White developed and used successfully to acquire dozens of properties. It involved purchasing hotels that were run down but had “good bones” that could be renovated and converted into Marriott brands, which were promptly refinanced to invest the cash in more hotels.
Anderson spoke, too, about how White loved the challenge of building more complex hotels as the company grew, including the addition of luxury and lifestyle properties, which eventually became the focus of all White Lodging’s development.
Of course, there were challenges. With each development, there was the risk of failure. Recessions and industry-wide catastrophes such as Sept. 11 and COVID presented further obstacles. During the latter, he created a fund to help support associates who were off work while the hotels and restaurants were closed. He wanted them ready to come back with a phone call’s notice.
Giving Credit Where It’s Due
Anderson said White didn’t hesitate to credit several mentors—his father first among them. They included: Gary Theraldson, CEO and founder of Theraldson Hospitality, who, in White’s early years, shared lessons from his own experience in the hospitality industry; Richard Melman, CEO and chairman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, who helped Bruce transform White Lodging’s food and beverage offerings into concepts that could compete with standalone restaurants; and Al Friedman, CEO and chairman of Friedman Properties, who remains an important partner in White Lodging’s Chicago hotels. Finally, representing White Lodging’s long and fruitful association with Marriott, there is Liam Brown, group president, U.S. & Canada, Marriott International.
Thinking Outside the Box
Anderson ticked off some of the many ways White challenged conventional thinking, especially about Marriott franchise operations.
He recognized that franchisees could theoretically outperform Marriott-owned properties because they were nimbler, mainly due to being owned by individual entrepreneurs, not a corporate behemoth.
He convinced Marriott, which had previously restricted ownership and management of their full-service convention hotels to the company, to allow a management company—his, of course—to own and manage one of their full-service convention hotels, the highly successful Indianapolis Marriott Downtown.
He was the first franchisee to introduce dual- and tri-brand hotels in the United States, starting with the Courtyard/Residence Inn Austin Downtown in 2006.
He helped create the only student-run Autograph hotel with the transformation of the Union Club Hotel at Purdue University.
White Lodging, which this forward-thinking hotelier ran for nearly four decades, remains a family company with Bruce White’s wife, Beth White, as chair, and son Conner White as chief investment officer. The Whites’ other adult children, Corinne and Otis, remain involved as stewards of the company’s culture through associate development and employer marketing. All serve on the company’s Board of Directors.
By nearly all accounts, White Lodging Founder Bruce White was a visionary whose legacy goes far beyond the company he founded and grew over 40 years. He improved the industry at large with bold and innovative concepts that he successfully implemented, leading the way for others to do the same. Among other ways he raised the industry by supporting the education of future hoteliers through a foundation that provides scholarships to attend Purdue University’s White Lodging–J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
These achievements and the success that enabled him to give so generously to others were rooted in a deep understanding of what it took to succeed in the hospitality industry, which he described as a 24-hour/365-day job. As Anderson put it, White always emphasized that “If you’re not willing to work hard, you’re in the wrong industry.”
The recently published book Hospitalitarian: Bruce White’s Legacy, by Kathi Ann Brown, Anderson said, delves into White’s many accomplishments and contributions. In its forward, White’s longtime friend JW (Bill) Marriott, Jr., wrote, “As one of Marriott’s first franchisees, Bruce White built a highly successful and widely respected hospitality company. From roadside hotels to some of the largest and most experiential urban hotels in the United States, White’s visionary leadership led to the development of over 200 hotels and 60 independently branded restaurants across the country.”
Giving Back: Spreading the Wealth
The White family supports community, education, and the hospitality industry. White Lodging Founder Bruce White was a big believer in giving back. He continues to spread the wealth born of his success through his White family foundations to benefit his community and the hospitality industry.
Much of White’s philanthropy was directed at his alma mater, Purdue University. Through an endowed gift from White family foundations, a select number of White Family Scholars receive full scholarships to attend The White Lodging–J.W. Marriott, Jr. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Foundation funds were also used to transform the historic Union Club Hotel into a luxury hotel and use it as a learning laboratory for hospitality students. White family foundations dollars were also behind the business school’s Dean V. White Real Estate Finance Program and the Bruce White Undergraduate Institute, which is part of the Mitch Daniels School of Business.
The White family foundations, which have invested or pledged more than $300 million in legacy investments, also support a wide range of community projects across health and wellness, quality education, public safety, and community development, the largest of which was a $150 million gift to the Big Shoulders Fund to transform K-12 education.
