Disney Chairman Plans to Step Down From Starwood Hotels & Resorts Board

Former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, recently tapped as chairman of Walt Disney Co., is scaling back another board commitment.

Mitchell will leave the board of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., the owner of the Sheraton and Westin chains, at its annual meeting May 7, according to a regulatory filing.

Neither Starwood nor Mitchell commented on the reason for his retirement.

Mitchell, 70, joined the board of the White Plains, N.Y.-based company in 1997. He chaired the company’s governance committee in 2003.

The move comes as Mitchell faces increasing demands on his time at Disney, where he was elevated from presiding director to chairman in March. The Disney board decided to split Michael Eisner’s dual roles as chairman and chief executive after a large dissenting vote from shareholders in Philadelphia.

Mitchell, who sat on eight boards three years ago, has been steadily reducing his directorships in recent years.

The former Senate majority leader remains a director of overnight delivery service FedEx Corp. and office supply company Staples Inc., where he also receives consulting fees. Those arrangements have been criticized by corporate governance experts.

Mitchell has said that his consulting work at Staples and Fed- Ex does not compromise his independence.

Disney ended its consulting deal with Mitchell in November 2001 after some investors questioned the practice.

Mitchell did not receive consulting fees at Starwood. His Washington law firm, Piper Rudnick, was retained by Starwood, regulatory filings show. Starwood’s board determined that the relationship did “not interfere with Sen. Mitchell’s independence,” according to its just-released proxy statement.