According to goodreturns.in, Sternlicht showed strong academic promise from a young age, graduating magna cum laude from Brown University in 1982, where he also met his future wife, Reichert Sternlicht. Following his graduation, he worked as an arbitrage trader on Wall Street before earning his MBA degree from Harvard Business School in 1986. Sternlicht and Mimi Reichert, who share three children, were married until their divorce in 2016.
BARRY STERNLICHT’S NET WORTH
According to Forbes, billionaire Barry Sternlicht, chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group, has an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion as of November 2025. Under Sternlicht’s leadership, as quoted by goodreturns.in, Starwood Hotels and Resorts expanded rapidly through a series of strategic acquisitions. In January 1995, the company purchased Hotel Investors Trust, with Sternlicht assuming the role of CEO. Two years later, in 1997, Starwood made a landmark deal by acquiring Sheraton Hotels and Resorts for $13.3 billion, outbidding Hilton Worldwide.
BARRY STERNLICHT’S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
After earning his MBA from Harvard, Sternlicht began his real estate career at JMB Realty in Chicago but was laid off during the early 1990s recession, reported goodreturns.in. In 1991, he co-founded Starwood Capital Group with Bob Faith, focusing on acquiring apartment buildings from the Resolution Trust Corporation, raising $20 million from prominent investors. His breakthrough came in 1994 with the $561 million acquisition of Westin Hotels & Resorts, leading to the creation of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, where he served as chairman and CEO from 1995 to 2005. Under his leadership, Starwood acquired Sheraton Hotels for $13.3 billion and launched innovative concepts like W Hotels and the Westin Heavenly Bed. Through his family office, JAWS Capital, Sternlicht also invests in ventures and multiple SPACs. Since 2020, Sternlicht has launched five SPACs, including one that brought senior care provider Cano Health public in June 2021.
STERNLICHT BLASTS MAMDANI’S RENT FREEZE PLAN IN NEW YORK
In an interview with CNBC, billionaire Sternlicht warned that New York City could ‘turn into Mumbai’ under newly-elected mayor Zohran Mamdani’s leadership, arguing that a rent freeze would encourage tenants to stop paying rent. The real estate sector has long cautioned that freezing rents on stabilized apartments would make it difficult for landlords to maintain and improve buildings while deterring new investment.
Mamdani, who campaigned on addressing affordability issues, won the election with a promise to implement a citywide rent freeze, citing stagnant tenant incomes and the urgent need to provide financial relief to residents.
“The far-left gets really nuts and says the tenants don’t have to pay. Well, you can’t kick them out if they don’t pay,” Sternlicht told CNBC.
“So, the neighbour finds out the neighbour isn’t paying, and they don’t pay, and the next guy doesn’t pay, and then you’re basically going to turn New York City into Mumbai,” Sternlicht added.