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Senior Management
Monty J. Bennett Chairman Of The Board, Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Bennett serves as Founder, Chairman of the Board, & Chief Executive Officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) formed in August 2003. Ashford focuses exclusively on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and at all levels of the capital structure, including direct hotel investments, first mortgages, mezzanine loans, and sale-leaseback transactions. Ashford went public with six hotels valued at $130 million. Today, Ashford has over $5 billion in assets and has outperformed its peers in total shareholder return looking back 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years.
Mr. Bennett is a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) and the Urban Land Institute’s Hotel Council. Formerly, Mr. Bennett served as a Board Director for Christian Union, a ministry serving Ivy League Universities. Mr. Bennett is a frequent speaker and panelist for various hotel development and investment conferences.
Mr. Bennett holds a Masters in Business Administration from Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management and received a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction from the School of Hotel Administration also at Cornell. He is a life member of the Cornell Hotel Society and resides in Dallas, Texas.
David A. Brooks Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Secretary
Mr. Brooks is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. He had previously served as the Chief Legal Officer, Head of Transactions and Secretary of the Company; Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Company's predecessor and served in the same capacity for Ashford Financial Corporation where he was responsible for the management and oversight of the asset management department, the acquisition group, financing, development and the legal affairs of both companies. Prior to that time, Mr. Brooks served as a partner with the law firm of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay.
Douglas A. Kessler President
Mr. Kessler is the President of Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT). He had previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Acquisitions for the Company. Mr. Kessler has spearheaded virtually all of Ashford's key initiatives including: investments, sales, capital market activities, property financing, corporate credit facilities, joint ventures, and strategic direction.
Previously, Mr. Kessler was a Managing Director of the Company’s predecessor before leading Ashford’s initial public offering. Prior to that time, Mr. Kessler spent approximately 10 years with Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds where he asset managed more than $11 billion of real estate and served on the Board or Executive Committee of several companies. Formerly, Mr. Kessler also worked at Trammell Crow Ventures. Mr. Kessler has over 25 years experience in real estate strategy, investments, sales, finance, asset management, and capital markets.
Mr. Kessler earned his MBA and BA from Stanford University.
David J. Kimichik Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Mr. Kimichik has served as the Chief Financial Officer for Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. since May 2003. He has been associated with the principals of the Company's predecessor for the past 24 years and was President of Ashford Financial Corporation from 1992 until August 2003. Mr. Kimichik previously served as Executive Vice President of Mariner Hotel Corporation, in which capacity he administered all corporate activities, including business development, financial management and operations. During his involvement with Ashford Financial Corporation, Mr. Kimichik played an integral role in the acquisition of 160 hotel assets and mortgage loans secured by hotel assets with book values in excess of $800 million.
Mark L. Nunneley Chief Accounting Officer
Mr. Nunneley has served as the Chief Accounting Officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust since May 2003. From 1992 to 2003, Mr. Nunneley served as Chief Financial Officer of the Company's predecessor. He previously served as a tax consultant at Arthur Andersen & Company and as a tax manager at Deloitte & Touche. During his career, he has been responsible for the preparation, consultation and review of federal and state income tax, franchise and sales and use tax returns for hundreds of partnerships, corporations and individuals. Mr. Nunneley is a certified public accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Texas Society of CPAs and Dallas Chapter of AICPAs.
Jeremy Welter Executive Vice President of Asset Management
Mr. Welter became our Executive Vice President of Asset Management in January 2011. Prior to joining Ashford, Mr. Welter served as Remington’s Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Remington in 2005, Mr. Welter was an investment banker at Stephens, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions as well as public and private capital raises for public and private companies. Before working at Stephens, Mr. Welter was part of Bank of America’s Global Corporate Investment Banking group.
Board of Directors
W. Michael Murphy Lead Director
Mr. Murphy is Head of Lodging and Leisure Capital Markets of the First Fidelity Mortgage Corporation. From 1998 to 2002 Mr. Murphy served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer of ResortQuest International, Inc., a public, NYSE-listed company. Prior to joining ResortQuest, from 1995 to 1997, Mr. Murphy was President of Footprints International, a company involved in the planning and development of environmentally friendly hotel properties. From 1994 to 1996, he was a Senior Managing Director of Geller & Co., a Chicago-based hotel advisory and asset management firm. Mr. Murphy has twice been Co- Chairman of the Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) of the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Benjamin J. Ansell, MD
Dr. Ansell was elected to the board of directors in May 2009. Dr. Ansell is the founder of and currently Director and Chairman of the Board of the UCLA Executive Health Program, where he has been responsible for marketing and selling executive health program services to more than twenty-five Fortune 500 companies and 3,000 individual customers. Dr. Ansell also founded and serves as the Director of UCLA Medical Hospitality, which coordinates health services, concierge and some hospitality functions within the UCLA Health System. Dr. Ansell is also the senior practice physician specializing in cardiovascular disease prevention and early detection strategies. Over the past 14 years, Dr. Ansell has acted as senior advisor to the pharmaceutical industry and financial community with respect to U.S. marketing, sales and branding strategies for cholesterol medication.
Monty J. Bennett
Mr. Bennett serves as Founder, Chairman of the Board, & Chief Executive Officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) formed in August 2003. Ashford focuses exclusively on investing in the hospitality industry across all segments and at all levels of the capital structure, including direct hotel investments, first mortgages, mezzanine loans, and sale-leaseback transactions. Ashford went public with six hotels valued at $130 million. Today, Ashford has over $5 billion in assets and has outperformed its peers in total shareholder return looking back 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 years.
Mr. Bennett is a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) and the Urban Land Institute’s Hotel Council. Formerly, Mr. Bennett served as a Board Director for Christian Union, a ministry serving Ivy League Universities. Mr. Bennett is a frequent speaker and panelist for various hotel development and investment conferences.
Mr. Bennett holds a Masters in Business Administration from Cornell’s S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management and received a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction from the School of Hotel Administration also at Cornell. He is a life member of the Cornell Hotel Society and resides in Dallas, Texas.
Thomas E. Callahan
Mr. Callahan is currently Co-President and CEO of PKF Consulting, Inc., a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ: FSRV) and a national real estate advisory firm specializing in the hospitality industry, with responsibility for the overall operations and management of the Company. Prior to forming PKF Consulting, Inc., in 1992, Mr. Callahan was Deputy Managing Partner of Pannell Kerr Forster, an international public accounting firm specializing in the hospitality industry.
Martin L. Edelman
Mr. Edelman is Of Counsel to Paul, Hastings, Janofsky Walker LLP, specializing primarily in international real estate and corporate transactions. The focus of Mr. Edelman’s practice has been large, complex negotiations involving acquisitions, dispositions and financing. He has been involved in the early stages of Legal development of many pioneering financial structures including participating mortgages, institutional joint ventures in real estate and joint ventures between foreign financial sources and U.S. real estate companies. He has broad international experience in the hospitality business. He has done extensive work in Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Japan and China and the Middle East. Mr. Edelman is a frequent lecturer at various institutionally sponsored seminars. In 2011 he was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the 34 most influential lawyers in the country.
Mr. Edelman has been a real estate advisor to Cypress Grove Real Estate Partners, and is one of the managing partners of Grupo Chartwell de Mexico, a privately owned hotel and development company. He is director of Avis/Budget Corp., Capital Trust and Ashford Hospitality Trust. He is a senior advisor to Mubadala, the strategic investment arm of the government of Abu Dhabi.
He is one of the founders of The Jackie Robinson Foundation and was one of the original lawyers who worked on bringing the Intrepid to New York. He continues to serve on the Intrepid Board as Vice-Chairman and the Boards of the Fallen Heroes Fund, Fisher House Foundation, The Fisher Alzheimer Foundation and the Tribeca Film Festival. He was awarded the Department of the Army Public Service Award.
Mr. Edelman is a graduate of Princeton University (1963) and Columbia University School of Law (1966).
Kamal Jafarnia
Kamal Jafarnia serves as counsel in the Financial Services & Products Group for Alston & Bird LLP, and is a member of the firm's REIT team.
Mr. Jafarnia is an accomplished securities attorney who has two decades of experience both as an attorney and as a compliance professional for investment program sponsors, broker dealers, investment advisers and registered associates. In that time, he has served as the chief compliance officer (CCO) for several registered investment advisory firms and FINRA broker dealer member firms, focusing on a vast array of regulatory and compliance issues. While in industry, he held numerous securities registrations, including that of a general securities principal (i.e., FINRA Series 6, 7, 24, 63 and 65 licenses).
Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Mr. Jafarnia served as a senior executive, as CCO and as in-house attorney for several alternative investment program sponsors including, most recently, having worked as counsel at American Realty Capital (ARC) and as CCO of its affiliated broker dealer, Realty Capital Securities. Prior to ARC, he served as executive vice president of Franklin Square Capital Partners, as CCO of FB Income Advisor, LLC, as assistant general counsel for Behringer Harvard, as CCO for Behringer Securities, LP, as VP, legal for CNL Capital Markets, Inc., and as CCO for CNL Fund Advisors, Inc. where in each case he was responsible for overseeing the regulatory compliance programs.
Mr. Jafarnia received his LL.M. in securities and financial regulation in 2011 from Georgetown University Law Center and his J.D. from Temple University School of Law in 1992.
Douglas A. Kessler
Mr. Kessler is the President of Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT). He had previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Acquisitions for the Company. Mr. Kessler has spearheaded virtually all of Ashford's key initiatives including: investments, sales, capital market activities, property financing, corporate credit facilities, joint ventures, and strategic direction.
Previously, Mr. Kessler was a Managing Director of the Company’s predecessor before leading Ashford’s initial public offering. Prior to that time, Mr. Kessler spent approximately 10 years with Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds where he asset managed more than $11 billion of real estate and served on the Board or Executive Committee of several companies. Formerly, Mr. Kessler also worked at Trammell Crow Ventures. Mr. Kessler has over 25 years experience in real estate strategy, investments, sales, finance, asset management, and capital markets.
Mr. Kessler earned his MBA and BA from Stanford University.
Philip S. Payne
Mr. Payne is the Chief Executive Officer of Babcock & Brown Residential LLC, a role he assumed in February 2007, when BNP Residential Properties, Inc. an AMEX-listed real estate investment trust of which Mr. Payne was Chairman, went private. Mr. Payne joined BNP Residential in 1990 as Vice President Capital Market Activities and became Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in January 1993. He was named Treasurer in April 1995, and a director in December 1997, and was elected Chairman in 2004. Mr. Payne maintains a license to practice law in Virginia. He is a member of the board of directors and chairman of the audit committee for Meruelo Maddux Properties, Inc., a NASDAQ Global Markets listed company that focuses on residential, industrial and commercial development in southern California.
Alan L. Tallis
From March 2008 through February 2011, Mr. Tallis served as Executive Vice President, Asset Management for the Company. From February 2011 through January 2012, Mr. Tallis continued to serve as a consultant to the Company. Prior to joining the Company in March 2008, Mr. Tallis served as a senior advisor to Blackstone Real Estate Advisors following their acquisition of La Quinta Corporation from June 2006 to May 2007. From July 2000 until May 2006, Mr. Tallis served in various positions with La Quinta Corporation, most recently serving as President and Chief Development Officer of LQ Management LLC and President of La Quinta Franchising LLC.
Chairman Emeritus
Archie Bennett Jr.
Mr. Bennett began his career in the hotel industry in 1968 with the development and management of the Holiday Inn in Galveston, Texas. Since that time, he has been involved with the development, acquisition and management of hundreds of hotel properties, the value of which exceeds $1 billion. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a recognized authority on the subjects of hotel development, finance, acquisitions, sales, and management. He has been featured in national business and industry publications including National Real Estate Investor, Hotel/ Motel Management, Lodging Hospitality and Commercial Real Estate News. Mr. Bennett was a founding member of Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC) of the American Hotel & Motel Association and served as its chairman on two separate occasions.
