Bob McCarthy, Marriott International’s former
Chief Operations Officer, Brings More Deep Operational Expertise
and Lodging Industry Leadership to RLJ’s Board
The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of RLJ Lodging Trust (“the
Company”) (NYSE:RLJ) has, on the recommendation of the Board’s
Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, appointed Robert J.
“Bob” McCarthy, former Chief Operations Officer and Group President
at Marriott International, as a Trustee. His appointment as a new
independent member of the Board is effective immediately, and he
will join the Board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance
Committee. Mr. McCarthy will stand for election as a
Board-recommended nominee at the 2018 Annual Meeting of
Shareholders. Mr. McCarthy is the fourth new Trustee welcomed to
the Board within the past one and a half years and follows the
appointment of Patricia Gibson, a seasoned investment professional
with more than 24 years of experience in the real estate space, to
the Board in September 2017. The Board’s average tenure is 4.1
years.
RLJ believes Mr. McCarthy will add immediate value in overseeing
and guiding RLJ’s strategies for unlocking value. Prior to becoming
the Chairman of Hotel Development Partners, LLC (“HDP”) in March of
2014, Mr. McCarthy’s thirty-eight year career at Marriott
International culminated in service as Chief Operations Officer,
where he oversaw Global Lodging Services and The Ritz Carlton, and
shared reporting responsibilities for Marriott’s four continental
operating divisions spanning 4,000 hotels across 20 lodging brands.
Before becoming COO, Mr. McCarthy served as Marriott
International’s Group President of the Americas, where his
responsibilities included the oversight of more than 3,000 hotels
and 120,000 associates. He has multifaceted operational experience,
including oversight of revenue management, sales, marketing, brand
management, operations, architecture and construction, and
information services functions.
In addition to serving as Chairman of HDP, Mr. McCarthy is an
investor and board member of MeetingPlay, a technology company
serving the hospitality industry. He is also a partner and an
advisor in Armature Works, a Washington, D.C. mixed-use development
project that includes hotel, condominium, apartment and retail
components.
“We are delighted to welcome Bob McCarthy to RLJ’s Board of
Trustees,” said Robert L. Johnson, founder and Chairman of the
Company. “Bob has had a stellar track record of success in the
lodging industry, and his unparalleled operations expertise,
combined with his leadership and hotel development experience will
be of tremendous value to the Company and shareholders in both the
near- and long-term.”
“Over the last seven years, I have watched RLJ establish itself
as a premier lodging REIT in the industry,” said Mr. McCarthy. “It
will be a privilege to put my decades of lodging operations,
marketing and brand experience to work on behalf of the Company and
shareholders, and to serve alongside such a talented and engaged
group of trustees.”
“As a Board, we are always looking for world-class individuals
to complement the diverse and strategically relevant skillsets
represented on our Board, and Bob is an example of the high
standards we set,” said Senator Evan Bayh, Chairman of the
Company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. “After our
discussions with him, it became clear to me and the other members
of the Board that Bob McCarthy would hit the ground running and be
an invaluable asset to the Company and to RLJ’s investors as we
drive forward in creating value for all of our shareholders.”
Mr. McCarthy’s appointment increases the size of the Company’s
Board from eight to nine members. Recent shareholder-aligned
actions at RLJ include adding new independent Trustees to the Board
of Trustees, providing investors with a clear strategic roadmap and
associated timeframes for unlocking value, appointing a new senior
vice president of corporate strategy and investor relations and a
new executive vice president of asset management (each reporting to
our Chief Operating Officer), working closely with our Trustees to
ensure strong shareholder engagement practices, implementing
majority voting for Trustee elections, granting shareholders the
right to amend the Company’s bylaws, and adopting performance-based
equity award programs under which payouts are based on satisfying
both absolute and relative total shareholder return metrics.
About Robert J. McCarthy
Mr. McCarthy has served as the Chairman of HDP since March of
2014. From 1975 until his retirement in 2014, Mr. McCarthy worked
for Marriott International, where he served in a variety of
leadership positions, including Senior Vice President, Northeast
Region from 1995 to 2000; Executive Vice President, Operations from
2000 to 2002; President, North America from 2003 to 2009; Group
President from 2009 to 2011, and Chief Operations Officer from
March 2012 until February 2014. Mr. McCarthy is a director of
Santander Consumer USA Holdings, Inc., where he serves on the audit
and compensation committees, and leads the regulatory and
compliance oversight committee.
Mr. McCarthy holds a bachelor’s degree in Business
Administration from Villanova University, where he is also a member
of the Board of Trustees. Mr. McCarthy is also a graduate of the
Advanced Management Program at the Wharton School of Business at
the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Mr. McCarthy served as
a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board at Cornell University School
of Hotel Administration, the Dean’s Advisory Board at Villanova
University School of Business and as a founding board member, as
well as Chairman, of Avendra, LLC, the procurement company serving
the hospitality industry.
About Us
RLJ Lodging Trust is a self-advised, publicly traded real estate
investment trust focused on acquiring premium-branded,
focused-service and compact full-service hotels. The Company’s
portfolio consists of 157 hotels with approximately 30,800 rooms
located in 26 states and the District of Columbia and an ownership
interest in one unconsolidated hotel with 171 rooms.
For additional information or to receive press
releases via email, please visit our website:
http://rljlodgingtrust.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains certain statements, other than purely
historical information, including estimates, projections,
statements relating to the Company’s business plans, objectives and
expected operating results, and the assumptions upon which those
statements are based, that are “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the
use of the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,”
“estimate,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “will continue,” “intend,”
“should,” or similar expressions. Although the Company believes
that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements
are based upon reasonable assumptions, beliefs and expectations,
such forward-looking statements are not predictions of future
events or guarantees of future performance and the Company’s actual
results could differ materially from those set forth in the
forward-looking statements. Some factors that might cause such a
difference include the following: the current global economic
uncertainty, increased direct competition, changes in government
regulations or accounting rules, changes in local, national and
global real estate conditions, declines in the lodging industry,
seasonality of the lodging industry, risks related to natural
disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, hostilities,
including future terrorist attacks or fear of hostilities that
affect travel, the Company’s ability to obtain lines of credit or
permanent financing on satisfactory terms, changes in interest
rates, access to capital through offerings of the Company’s common
and preferred shares of beneficial interest, or debt, the Company’s
ability to identify suitable acquisitions, the Company’s ability to
close on identified acquisitions and integrate those businesses and
inaccuracies of the Company’s accounting estimates. Given these
uncertainties, undue reliance should not be placed on such
statements. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no
obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events
or otherwise. The Company cautions investors not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements and urges investors to
carefully review the disclosures the Company makes concerning risks
and uncertainties in the sections entitled “Risk Factors,”
“Forward-Looking Statements,” and “Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in the
Company’s Annual Report, as well as risks, uncertainties and other
factors discussed in other documents filed by the Company with the
SEC.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180213005913/en/
RLJ Lodging TrustLeslie D. Hale, 301-280-7774Chief Operating
Officer and Chief Financial Officer
RLJ Lodging (NYSE:RLJ)
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