Once a Wanderer, Hotel Heir Is at Home at the Family Foundation

Steven M. Hilton wasn’t thinking about a career in philanthropy when he quit the family business a quarter century ago. A grandson of the Hilton Hotels magnate Conrad N. Hilton, he had spent five years working for his grandfather’s company and simply wanted to explore the world outside the confines of the hotel business.

His travels took him to Australia, where he meandered across the country in a Volkswagen camper with his surfboard and a camera. He then moved to Hawaii, where he landed a job on an oyster farm on the island of Oahu.

But when the oyster farm went bust in 1983, Mr. Hilton decided that he needed to find a more stable and fulfilling career. He found it at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Los Angeles, a charitable foundation founded by his grandfather with the mission of helping the poor and vulnerable around the world.

“They offered me the opportunity to work at the foundation to see if that was the right fit,” Mr. Hilton says. “That was 22 years ago. So it was the right fit.”

Now 54, Mr. Hilton has become the philanthropic face of one of the world’s richest families, directing a foundation that aids homeless people who are blind or mentally ill, helps poor countries develop environmentally sound water systems, and supports programs that stimulate early-childhood development.

As he ascended to the position of the foundation’s vice president in charge of programs and, later, its president, Mr. Hilton helped build an organization with nearly $2.5-billion in assets and a global reach.

Mr. Hilton is now in the midst of a significant transition at the foundation. He is replacing the foundation’s longtime chairman and chief executive, Donald Hubbs, who retired in August. Mr. Hubbs joined the Hilton foundation in 1969, had worked as its president from 1981 to 1998, and became chairman and chief executive in 1998.

The foundation’s board chose Mr. Hilton, who last year made $221,000 as president of the philanthropy, to succeed Mr. Hubbs — and he has since been working to fill the void left by a leader who helped define the foundation’s mission and expand its breadth after Conrad Hilton died in 1979.

Steven Hilton gives the foundation something different, a leader who is linked by name to its founder. And that link was important when the board decided to appoint Mr. Hilton to the top job, says James Galbraith, a foundation board member and retired senior executive of Hilton Hotels.

“He has a very strong allegiance to what Conrad Hilton was trying to do,” Mr. Galbraith says. “A non-Hilton can say the same words. But if they come from a Hilton, they have more bearing. They have more weight.”

Mr. Hilton says he has no plans to have the foundation deviate from the path set forth by Mr. Hubbs or his grandfather. The organization, he says, has been successful because it focuses its resources on a small stable of issues and searches for like-minded organizations to collaborate with. In making grants to establish water systems in Africa, for instance, the foundation not only provides money, but also works with the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev., to find cutting-edge methods for creating those systems.

In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Hilton discussed his experience growing up in a famous family and his goals as the new chairman of his family’s foundation.

What made you leave the family business?

It’s a great learning environment because there are so many different people and situations and it’s constantly moving and changing. That I found exciting and stimulating. But, looking forward 15, 20 years, I didn’t feel it was the right lifestyle for me.

What did you learn from that experience?

Hotels, because they are so people-intensive, are a great laboratory for learning how to work with people and the whole art of management. It’s a very complicated organization. They are almost like little towns with all of the complexities.

How did customers react when they found out you were a Hilton?

Generally, it made people feel that the hotel was more real. On the other hand, I found that some employees would be jealous and almost spiteful because they see you as kind of a rich, spoiled brat with a silver spoon. When they walk into a room, they don’t see you as who you are. You project that image. That was sometimes difficult to deal with. But you learn to adjust to the people around you and, hopefully, their image is incorrect and you don’t come across as a spoiled brat and they warm up.

What are some of your biggest goals at the foundation?

One of the biggest things I hope to accomplish is not to blow it. The foundation’s philosophy set by my predecessor is as valid today as it was twentysomething years ago. He called it the major-project approach. Rather than taking the foundation’s monies and spreading them over many organizations in one-year grants, we thought we’d be more effective if we selected an area where there is a great need that might have been overlooked. Then we’d focus our attention and make one big grant.

For example, we’d take $5-million over five years and use it to create clean water in Africa. If the project was successful, we would continue to fund it. That is very different from the typical foundation. At that time, that was very unique among foundations, which tended to do a lot of small grants over one or two years.

If I had to say what was one other goal or vision that I have it’s to try to engage the younger Hilton generation so they become more aware of philanthropy and encourage them to give and to be involved.

Recently, we had a board retreat and the directors agreed that a majority of the board would be Hilton family members. Part of my goal is to make sure that whoever replaces me has some experience in philanthropy so that when they are invited to be on the board, they will have a good foundation they are building on.

Would that include a place for your niece, Paris Hilton?

Paris, with her name, could do an incredible amount of good for organizations trying to raise their visibility. She is a name that gets attention. Regardless of how you view the type of attention she gets, she gets attention. She’s welcome.

In much the same way you have been, correct?

I really have to thank my father, Barron Hilton, who is a board member. Without his blessing and vote of confidence, this wouldn’t have happened.

I’m a great fan of nepotism. Hopefully, I’m able to add to what we do here not because of my name but because of my passion for what I do.

ABOUT STEVEN M. HILTON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CONRAD N. HILTON FOUNDATION

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Previous employment: Worked for five years as a manager at the Hilton Hotels Corporation. He later worked in aquaculture before joining the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 1983. Since then, he has worked as a program assistant, program associate, and vice president of programs. Mr. Hilton was named president in 1998.

What he’s reading: Generations of Giving: Leadership and Continuity in Family Foundations, by Kelin E. Gersick.