Larry Cuculic, BWH Hotel Group’s president and CEO, has lived a deliberate life—as befits his background as a military lawyer and judge, perhaps. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t lived life to the fullest. Cuculic has served his country, lived overseas, had a wide-ranging career and become a father and grandfather, all with Mary Jo, his wife of 44 years, by his side.
And not only has he never stopped being grateful to the people who helped him along every step of his journey, he also makes it a point to pay that assistance forward.
Starting Out
Cuculic grew up in Whiting, Ind., an industrial town right outside of Chicago. “My dad was a bricklayer and his father and my wife's father were bricklayers as well,” he said. “My dad laid brick in the steel mill lining blast furnaces for over 40 years. That's hard, heavy, hot work. My dad was somebody who [did] 12-hour shift work, and if Christmas was on a Sunday, he would volunteer because then he got double time and a half. My dad was just a hard-working guy and I grew up watching his dedication to his job and just never complaining about it.”
He decided to take a different direction than bricklaying, receiving a congressional nomination to attend the United States Military Academy West Point, partially because of his athletic abilities. He ran cross country in the fall, played basketball in the winter and finished up with track in the spring.
Not only was his father in full support of Cuculic not following in the bricklaying tradition, he also helped nudge him in the right direction.
“When I was thinking about going to West Point, my dad was in the bricklayers’ union and their union lawyer was a gentleman named Adam Benjamin. He was a West Point grad,” Cuculic said. “My dad [arranged for me] to meet with Adam Benjamin on a Saturday morning. [Adam] talked to me about the possibilities of West Point and one of the things we talked about was after you graduate from West Point, the Army had this funded legal education program where the Army would then send you to law school if you were good enough for that. That planted the seed for me and he encouraged me to see that potential that was out there if you did well and performed well and as a leader in the Army.
“I looked at that as an opportunity to get a great education, because it is a great education, and to grow into who I am today,” Cuculic said. “When I made my recruiting trip to West Point, my dad went with me and he saw it as a tremendous opportunity to become a better version of myself because West Point takes a young man and turns them into a leader in the military.”
Cuculic’s stint at West Point was so successful that the Army did pay for him to attend law school, and he earned a Doctor of Law degree at Notre Dame University. This led to a nearly 14-year career as a full-time Army lawyer, starting as a prosecutor and special assistant U.S. attorney to deputy staff judge advocate, independent legal advisor to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Special Operations Command and circuit judge presiding over U.S. courts martial.
During this time one constant was Mary Jo—the two met as freshman and dated through high school and West Point. Cadets are not allowed to marry, so Cuculic graduated on a Wednesday and they got married three days later. “We went back to Whiting, Ind., and my wife and I got married. I had a Polish band and everything and it was from there I started my career as a military officer.” And Alan Benjamin, now a congressman, was in attendance.
Civilian Life
When it was time to move on from the military (Cuculic wanted his son to be able to finish high school without moving yet again), he joined a law firm, becoming partner within a year and a half. About 90 percent of his practice was representing Wabash National, handling its wrongful death suits, and after a few years he joined Wabash full time as corporate counsel. He followed that up with a stint at American Commercial Barge Line as VP legal and corporate secretary before rejoining Wabash National as SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary.
Then came the call in 2009 from a headhunter about the SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary job at Best Western.
“At this point, my parents had moved to Tucson, and I had a sister and a brother and they had also moved to Tucson, so it kind of made sense as my parents were getting older to kind of move closer to them. And I've never lived in the Southwest. All my other jobs in the military generally were in the Southeast so this allowed me to try something new,” he said. “It's a long and winding road how you get to where you get but there are certain common threads throughout mine which made me recognize the importance of doing a good job and that relationships, over time, matter. If you treat people fairly and justly and treat people with dignity and respect, that reputation follows you.”
While his military and transportation company background might not seem at first glance to be a smooth transition, Cuculic said that from a lawyer’s perspective, the issues aren’t that different.
“I went from a co-counsel of a commodity to general counsel of a culture of hospitality,” he said. “I welcomed that opportunity because, to me, the hospitality business fits me well because I recognize that travel can impact someone's life and create memories. I like that. I think that's important. And the military is really about people and taking care of people. It’s taking care of your troops, taking care of the troops’ families. The legal part isn't that different. What I love about it is the cultural difference.”
Cuculic added the overall BWH Hotel Group, including its WorldHotels division, to his purview in 2019, becoming president and CEO of BWH in December 2021. He believes his time as general counsel prepared him for the top role by allowing him to work across the breadth of the company.
“The sales team needed to work with me and the marketing team and the development team, brand management and supply and design—I've worked with all of them,” he said. “I like to believe that I became kind of their sounding board by giving them not just legal advice, but someone they could just sit in my office with and we can talk about how to move the brand or their department forward. Have those kinds of common-sense discussions about where we should take the business and the company.”
Eventually, the call center, the human resources department, the development administrative team and other groups reported to Cuculic, which provided him with even more insight into the company: “I wasn't just the lawyer; they entrusted me with—and let me get more involved in—the business itself, which I think was also important in understanding the Best Western business.”
Finding Purpose
Cuculic said he believes he has made a difference at Best Western and he hopes to continue to make a difference during the rest of his tenure.
“I would think that this is my last job because I don't know what else would top it,” he said. “Quite honestly, from a professional perspective and a family perspective, it's everything I ever dreamed of or [dreamed of] wanting to be.”
But he’s not ready to retire yet—he has more to accomplish at BWH.
“My goals are always to leave a place better than it was, to have a culture of this organization that people know they're truly valued. My purpose in life is to help others find their [purpose] and to make sure that they enjoy their life and they have a successful professional but also family life. I think that's so, so very important. I don't talk about it in terms of work life balance because to me, they're separate and distinct. But I think you can have a successful professional career but then also have a very successful family and life away from business.
“I define or success as making sure people reach their true potential and find their purposes and have successful lives that they can look back on and be proud of. Adam Benjamin and others did [that] for me. They helped me find my purpose.”