"Shawn brings 18 years of proven experience in human resources, and will be an important contributor to the realization of Carlson’s Ambition 2015 strategy – particularly the objective to transform Carlson into the number one hospitality and travel company to work for,” Bastoni said.

Leavitt most recently was vice president, Benefits, at Safeway, Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s benefit plans, including health and retirement programs for about 30,000 employees.  Additionally, he had oversight responsibility for all health-improvement and wellness programs for Safeway’s 185,000 employees in the U.S. and western Canada.

Before joining Safeway, Leavitt was director, Global Compensation and Benefit Operations, for The Coca-Cola Company.  At Coca-Cola, he led the redesign of short- and long-term incentive plans, and created a standardized framework for designing, implementing and sustaining global compensation and benefit strategies and programs.

Leavitt has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Nebraska.

About Carlson
Carlson is a global hospitality and travel company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn. Carlson encompasses 1,068 hotels, including Radisson®, Country Inns & Suites By CarlsonSM, Park Inn by Radisson and Park Plaza®; more than 900 T.G.I. Friday’s® restaurants; and a majority stake in Carlson Wagonlit Travel®, the global leader in business travel management. Carlson operates in more than 150 countries and its brands employ about 170,000 people.  http://www.carlson.com