Linda Hilton was not just born into hospitality—she was born while her parents were living in a hotel. Her father, Eric Hilton, was the resident manager of the Shamrock Hilton in Houston at the time of her birth. “We lived in a spacious three-bedroom apartment on the 17th floor,” she recalled. “My birth certificate doesn’t list an actual street address—only the hotel’s name.”
As the granddaughter of company founder Conrad Hilton, Linda had a front-row seat to the ins and outs of the hospitality industry. “I was also able to witness Conrad and the different roles he played in society,” she said. Her grandfather’s different roles included “businessman, politician, socialite and humanitarian”—which exposed her to a wide range of perspectives and insights. “He was a true gentleman: warm, humorous and humble,” she said. “The values and influence he imparted to me continue to guide my life today.”
Generations
Linda Hilton grew up with stories about her famous grandfather and his influence on the industry. Conrad’s father, a Norwegian immigrant, opened a mercantile store in San Antonio during the mining boom of the 1800s. “At 13, Conrad began working in the store, where he learned the fundamentals of business from his father—primarily that earning a profit was important, but that money saved in the bank would grow the fund through interest.”
Across the street from the store, Conrad would meet and greet train passengers to encourage them to visit the shop. “The ancillary benefit was discovering their needs,” his granddaughter recalled. “In fact, people wanted a place to stay, so his father built a room in the back of the store. This is where Conrad learned to become a servant leader and was an unforeseen foreshadow to his future.”
Following that early foray into hospitality, Conrad acquired his first hotel in 1919, opened the first Hilton-branded hotel in 1925, expanded the company and formed the Hilton Hotels Corp. after World War II.
The company’s growth was a multigenerational effort. “My grandfather … was in the process of expanding the company internationally and my father was responsible for the beginning of venturing into domestic franchising, marking a significant period of growth,” she said.
Her father, at the time, was vice president of the Southwest and Western region of what was then Hilton Inns, and as the previous generations had done, he brought his daughter into the family business when she turned 13.
“I started as a receptionist and quickly advanced to secretary,” Linda said of working in her father’s office. “Back then, we were using manual typewriters and telex machines, and shorthand was essential.” After four years, she left to attend college, planning for a career in commercial real estate. “However, the Gulf War shifted my plans, prompting my father to encourage me to apply for the Hilton Professional Development Program.”
This program offered up-and-coming hotel professionals six months of hands-on hotel operations training followed by six months in a chosen department. Once she had completed her internship at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, the hotel’s leaders offered her a job. “Though I initially wanted to focus on human resources, my father persuaded me that sales was my true calling.” With her father’s encouragement, she became a conference-center manager at the property, planning to stay for one year. Instead, she spent 30 years in various sales roles within the company.
Sales, Linda added, is not a department for the faint of heart. “It demands meeting high quotas, coordinating with various departments and building strong customer relationships while fulfilling contractual obligations.” She worked at several of the company’s Los Angeles properties, transitioning from conference center manager to manager of corporate sales to director of executive business service sales, eventually joining the corporate team and becoming national sales director.
“One of my proudest moments was transforming two key accounts from last place in market share to number one within 18 months,” she said.
And 20 years after she began working in sales, Linda achieved her goal of working in human resources when she was appointed director of communications in the company’s HR department in California—two days before Hilton was sold to Blackstone.
“It ended up being exactly what Conrad had taught us,” she said. “‘You are where you are supposed to be.’ I held many different positions in the transition, from creating recruitment materials to our first global employee survey, leading me to be named HR’s director of culture and values once the company settled in McLean, Va. Like Conrad, I learned early on that embracing change is crucial for success.”
A Family Legacy
Conrad Hilton founded his eponymous charitable foundation—which operates independently from the company—in 1944, and left the majority of his wealth to the foundation upon his death in 1979. In 2005, the Foundation’s board of directors—led by Conrad's second son Barron Hilton—determined to keep the family involved in its operations.
“I had been involved in volunteer work for years, and when I was contacted by the Foundation to serve on the board of an affiliate fund, called the Conrad N. Hilton Fund for Sisters, I accepted and served for nine years,” Linda said. This position trained her for a larger role within the Foundation and prepared her to join the board as an intern in 2012. “The training I received in my internship allowed me to succeed Barron Hilton when he stepped down in 2014 for the vacated family seat,” she said. “Over the past eleven years, I have transitioned from director to vice chair [in 2021] to chair of the board [in 2024].”
Since she started working with the board as a director in 2014, Linda said she has witnessed an “ongoing evolution” as the foundation progressed from a direct-service model to being more strategic. “We’ve grown from a team of six to 169 people,” she noted. “Our initiatives address some of the most critical humanitarian crises in the world. It has been fulfilling to me in my new role as chair, to bring greater focus and measurable impact to the work we do in honor of our donors’ intent.”
Changing Times
Having spent decades in the industry—and learned about previous decades from family stories—Linda is aware of how hospitality has evolved over the years. Technology, she said, has been the most significant change in the industry, going back to when Conrad installed air conditioning in his eight Texas hotels in 1927. “The introduction of the fax machine marked a shift toward faster communication, and it evolved into the digital booking systems we have today,” she added.
Linda believes that change is constant, and complacency can lead to obsolescence. “Conrad emphasized that we should not cling to the past, as yesterday is gone.” She noted how the company began allowing bookings for 90 days in advance in the mid-1950s, describing the idea as “a revolutionary concept at the time.” This semi-manual technology laid the groundwork for today's digital booking systems, she said.
In her role at the Foundation, Linda Hilton considers herself “a steward” of her forefathers’ wishes, which she views as “the greatest honor.” When Conrad was young, she said, he learned to understand different cultures and to accept people for who they are and where they are in life.
“He believed strongly that world peace could be solved through international travel and innkeeping,” she said. “Through my hospitality journey, like him, my favorite part has been the opportunity to connect with people from all walks of life, creating memorable experiences and contributing to their travels.”