Marilyn Carlson Nelson is co-owner and leader of one of America's largest privately held companies, with systemwide sales under its brands totalling $20.9 billion in 2003. Those brands include Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Park Inns and Park Plaza hotels, and T.G.I. Friday's and Pick Up Stix restaurants. Carlson brands are present in more than 140 countries and employ more than 190,000 people worldwide.

Carlson Nelson is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and in 2004 co-chaired the forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. In 2002, she was appointed by President Bush to chair the National Women's Business Council, which serves as an independent source of advice to the White House and Congress on issues affecting women in business. In 2004 and 2005, Forbes magazine selected Marilyn as one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” She currently serves on the boards of Exxon Mobil, the Mayo Clinic Foundation and the Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy, and is a member of The Business Roundtable.

Carlson Nelson graduated from Smith College with a degree in international economics,and then attended the Sorbonne in Paris and the Institute des Hautes Etudes Economiques et Politiques in Geneva, Switzerland, to study political science and international economics.