Seminar: 3-5:15 PM
Cocktail Reception: 5:15-7 PM
Panels and Presentations:
Market Update
The Capital Markets: When Will the Bubble Burst?
AH & LA and Government Affairs Update
State of the Industry
Mr. Kessler is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ashford Hospitality Trust (NYSE: AHT) and the President of Ashford Inc. (NYSE MKT: AINC). He also previously served as the President of Ashford Hospitality Prime (NYSE: AHP). Mr. Kessler has been with AHT since its formation, having led its IPO, and has served in various other capacities including its Chief Operating Officer. He has spearheaded virtually all of Ashford's key initiatives.
Mr. Kessler has an extensive background with over 30 years of diverse experience across many real estate sectors and operating companies in terms of acquisitions, development, dispositions, finance, asset management, and capital markets. Over those years, Mr. Kessler has served on several corporate boards or executive committees including both the AHT and AHP Board of Directors. Previously, Mr. Kessler spent ten years with Goldman Sachs' Whitehall Funds and five years with Trammell Crow.
Mr. Kessler earned both his MBA and BA in Economics from Stanford University.
Cindy Nelson chairs Gardere’s hospitality industry team. She handles sophisticated real estate and financing transactions, often involving iconic properties, and represents owners, REITs, opportunity funds and developers, especially in the hospitality and lodging sector. She has represented clients in the acquisition, disposition, leasing and financing of commercial enterprises both domestic and foreign, including hotels and mixed-use developments, shopping centers, multifamily housing developments, office buildings, industrial properties, unimproved land, and fractional and timeshare properties.
Cindy’s practice includes senior and mezzanine financing services, complex workout and debt restructuring, joint ventures, management agreements, franchise agreements, buying, selling, developing and ground leasing of all types of real estate products. She also assists investors with recapitalization of distressed borrowers and purchasers of troubled assets.
Dan Peek, located in Tampa, is a Senior Managing Director and is the Head of the Hospitality Practice Group of HFF. He is primarily responsible for institutional-grade hotel and resort property transactions throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. During the course of his career, Mr. Peek has completed over $11 billion in investment sale, debt and equity placement transactions.
Mr. Peek joined the firm in October 2007. Prior to HFF, he was a co-founder and Managing Director of Regent Street, an affiliate of The Plasencia Group, Inc. (TPG), a boutique firm specializing in sale, financing and advisory services for distinctive hotels and resorts throughout the Americas. He also served as Senior Vice President at TPG, handling hotel and resort property transactions in the Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions. Before TPG, Mr. Peek worked in hotel operations and consulting, including a variety of management positions with Marriott International and Wiengardner & Hammons, and as a consultant with HVS International in New York.
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