Unlocking the potential in high-quality, select service and extended stay hotel investing

Tom Barber

Chief Financial Officer

Tom brings decades of deep hospitality experience to Mission Hill. He served as Global Chief Development Officer of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the largest global franchisor of hotels, where he had direct global responsibility for Sales and Design and Construction. From 2012 to 2017, Tom served as Head of Corporate Development for Wyndham Worldwide, where he led the spinoff of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts from Wyndham Worldwide, the $2 billion acquisition of La Quinta Hotels & Resorts, and the $1.3 billion divestiture of European Rentals, among other transactions. His broad suite of expertise was formed during his years as Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at Credit Suisse and positions in strategy consulting and technology at Gemini Consulting and Microsoft, respectively. Tom earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of Washington. Mr. Barber is an accomplished tennis player, playing on the Varsity team at University of Washington and serves as the Treasurer of Cipriani Club Residences in NYC.

Tom lives in NYC with his wife, Mirella, and two sons, Hunter and Logan.

Ari Bennett

Executive Administrator & Operations Coordinator

Ari serves as the firm's Executive Administrator and Operations Coordinator. She brings a diverse background in administrative support with extensive experience working with owners and CEOs in both the hospitality and technology sectors. A lover of all things PNW she graduated with a Bachelor of Science from University of Oregon.

Ari lives in Denver with her Scottish-terrier mix Zoey. Outside the office she enjoys getting outdoors and attending live music events.

Emily Brown

Corporate Staff Accountant

Emily serves as the Corporate Staff Accountant at Mission Hill Hospitality, leveraging her solid foundation in corporate accounting. Prior to joining Mission Hill, she worked at Spectrum Retirement Communities and Mercy Housing, where her focus was on ensuring accurate financials, improving processes, conducting research, and performing analysis.

Emily has called Denver home for 17 years, and during her free time, she takes pleasure in weekend hikes and snowshoeing adventures.

Chandler Buckner

Staff Accountant

Chandler recently joined Mission Hill Hospitality as a Staff Accountant. Prior to joining the team, he held the same position at Gap Inc., working in the Revenue Accounting department as well as Accounts Payable.

Chandler earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of New Mexico.

He recently moved to Denver and is excited to experience all that the city has to offer. Outside of work, Chandler enjoys exercising, going to see the latest movie releases, and spending time with friends.

Sharon Curreri, CPA

Director of Accounting

Sharon is an accomplished certified public accountant who has worked with companies ranging in size from startups to large publicly and privately held enterprises. Sharon most recently was senior manager of shared services at Performance Food Group in Denver. She previously held a vice president of accounting position at CG Commercial Finance, and controller positions at Media Nation Enterprises, LLC, Traffic Control & Safety Corp., Capital Group, Nihon Kohden, and L.L. Knickerbocker Company, Inc. Sharon also spent two years as a consultant providing technical expertise for startups, mid-size and large publicly held companies.

Sharon earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Financial Accounting from National University, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

Melanie Dolan

Executive Assistant

Melanie serves Mission Hill Hospitality as an Executive Assistant, supporting Acquisitions and Strategic Operations. She brings diverse experience in client service and supporting senior executives. Previously, Melanie worked as a Senior Associate on the Institutional Business Development team at Owl Rock Capital in New York City. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Loyola University Maryland.

A resident of Denver since 2021, outside of work Melanie enjoys traveling, skiing and photography.

Mark Fraioli

Managing Director

Mark’s extensive experience in select service hotels includes roles in the Investment Sales division of JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group, with a special emphasis on select service hotels in urban and suburban areas. In his 12-year career as a hotel broker, Mr. Fraioli has advised the sales of hotels affiliated with all the major brand families, from mid-market transactions priced below $10 million to portfolio transactions over $100 million. During the most recent real estate cycle, he advised the sale of more than 65 hotels and portfolios, collectively valued at more than $1.8 billion. Prior to JLL, Mr. Fraioli worked for Marriott International from 2001 to 2006 in roles that included franchise sales, financial analysis, and management contract negotiation. Mr. Fraioli holds an M.B.A. from the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University (2001) and a B.A. from Brown University (1995).

Mr. Fraioli was licensed as a Certified Public Accountant for twelve years and is licensed as a real estate salesperson in California and New Mexico.

Catherine Hance

General Counsel

Catherine Hance joined Mission Hill Hospitality in 2023 as General Counsel. In this role, she oversees Mission Hill's legal matters and is actively involved in portfolio development and management. She brings a depth of legal experience, particularly in hospitality, real estate, finance and acquisitions. Previously, she was a partner in the real estate group of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP in Denver for over 20 years.

She is a member of the American, Colorado, Denver, and Colorado Women’s Bar Associations; she is a past chair of the Colorado Bar Association's Real Estate Section Council and currently serves on the Colorado Bar Association’s Title Standards Committee. She earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in History from the College of William & Mary.

Catherine is the past chair and a current member of the board of trustees of Mile High United Way. She is a resident of Denver, where she lives with her husband, Bruce. She enjoys playing tennis and hiking in her free time.

Alex Harvey

Vice President of Strategic Operations

Alex serves as Vice President of Strategic Operations and has extensive experience driving performance and maximizing value of institutional real estate. Previously, Alex was Asset Manager for Portman Holdings, overseeing a diversified portfolio of full- and select-service hotels, office, retail, and mixed-use developments. He began his career with PGIM Real Estate, assisting in the asset management of the firm's core plus PRISA II fund. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a B.B.A. in Real Estate. Outside of the office, Alex enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, and cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs with his wife, Caroline, and their springer spaniel, Hattie.

Patrick Kelly

Acquisitions Associate

Patrick joined Mission Hill as an Acquisitions Associate with a background in real estate finance and hotel operations. Previously, he served as an Associate in the investments group at Blackstone Real Estate: Hotels & Resorts, executing over $500M of transactions during his tenure. Prior to his time with BRE Hotels & Resorts, Patrick worked as an Investments Analyst at Olshan Properties covering their hotel and commercial portfolios.

Patrick holds a B.S. from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and serves as a mentor for current students exploring careers in real estate finance and operations.

Patrick lives in Cherry Creek and enjoys the Buffalo Bills, history and fishing.

Greg Kennealey

Chief Executive Officer

Greg is a former Principal and Head of Hospitality at KSL Capital Partners, a global leader in hospitality, travel, and leisure investing. He launched Mission Hill Hospitality in partnership with KSL in 2021. During his ten-year tenure at KSL, Greg served on the boards of directors for Davidson Hospitality Group and Outrigger Hotels & Resorts and led KSL's U.S. hotel and resort portfolio. Prior to KSL, Greg was Vice President of Asset Management at Strategic Hotels & Resorts where he oversaw an international portfolio of luxury hotels. Earlier in his career, Greg was an Associate at LaSalle Investment Management and held leadership positions at IBM Global Services and Forrester Research.

Greg holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Greg lives in Cherry Hills Village with his wife Shannon and their three daughters. Greg is an avid skier and enjoys coaching youth sports.

Alexander Krantz

Vice President of Accounting & Corporate Finance

Alexander is the Mission Hill Hospitality Vice President of Accounting & Corporate Finance where he oversees the firm’s accounting/finance department. He has extensive real estate experience, having spent twelve years working with some of Colorado’s most prominent real estate investment firms. His diverse background includes retail private equity (Gart Properties), Industrial REITs (DCT Industrial Trust), residential homebuilding (Richmond American Homes), and multi-family housing REITs (Archstone Communities).

He is a proud first-generation Colorado native and a graduate of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

When not at work, Alexander enjoys spending time in the wild - camping, hiking, and snowboarding with his partner, Tara, and young son, Ayrton.

Seonju Lawrence

Vice President of Revenue Strategy

Seonju brings extensive experience and knowledge in hotel revenue management as a Vice President of Revenue Strategy at Mission Hill Hospitality. Her expertise includes revenue maximization through distribution and sales revenue management, business strategies and competitive analysis. Prior to joining Mission Hill Hospitality, Seonju served as a Regional Director of Revenue Management for Hersha Hospitality Management overseeing hotels ranging from luxury, full service to select & extended stay tiers. Previously, she was a Vice President of Revenue Management for U.S. Doyle Collection Hotels.

Seonju holds a Master of Management in Hospitality from Cornell University. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area with her husband, Fred and son, William.

Cecilia Lorenz, CPA

Corporate Accounting Supervisor

Cecilia serves Mission Hill Hospitality as Corporate Accounting Supervisor. Prior to joining Mission Hill, Cecilia worked at The Siegfried Group, providing interim financial assistance to companies during critical times of need. She began her accounting career in the Audit Practice at KPMG Denver.

Cecilia graduated Summa Cum Laude from Creighton University with a BSBA in Accounting and is a licensed CPA in the state of Colorado.

Outside of the office, Cecilia enjoys catching a show at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, hiking, and traveling.

Sam Makani

Vice President of Strategic Operations

Sam’s professional experience has been exclusively focused on hospitality real estate, including acquisitions, asset management, development, and portfolio strategy, both domestically and internationally. He has participated in over $1 billion in acquisition activity and asset managed portfolios exceeding $750 million in value. Before joining Mission Hill Hospitality as Vice President, Strategic Operations, he served as Vice President of Asset Management at Driftwood Capital in Miami. Previously, he was Vice President of Portfolio Strategy & Reporting at Solid Rock Group and Senior Analyst of Capital Management at Ashford REIT in Dallas.

Sam graduated with a B.A. from Baylor University and a M.S. from Florida International University, with a concentration in hospitality management and real estate. He also holds certificates in hospitality and tourism management from Florida Atlantic University and hotel real estate investments and asset management from Cornell University.

He lives in Houston with his wife, and enjoys traveling, film, and photography.

Tyler Olson

Accounting Manager

Tyler joined Mission Hill Hospitality as Accounting Manager. Tyler was most recently the Controller at Gart Properties, a retail private equity firm in Denver. He previously held accounting positions at Core Power Yoga, National Corporation Housing and Republic Financial. Prior to working as an Accountant, he oversaw the accounts payable department as a team lead at Probuild Holdings Company.

Tyler earned a bachelor's degree in Accounting from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Outside of work, Tyler enjoys drawing, movies, dressing up at Comic Con, and going on adventures with his girlfriend Nicole. Tyler and Nicole live in Green Valley Ranch with their three dogs, Kenobi, Hazel, and Jayne.

Deisy Ruiz, CPA

Hotel Accounting Supervisor

Deisy is Mission Hill Hospitality's Hotel Accounting Supervisor. Prior to joining Mission Hill Hospitality, Deisy was a Senior Associate in the Asset & Wealth Management and Banking & Capital groups at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). She graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in accounting, and later earned her Master of Accounting degree. Deisy is a licensed CPA in the state of New Mexico.

Deisy enjoys hikes, coffee shops and staying active.

Trevor Schmitt

Acquisitions Associate

Trevor brings strong finance experience to his role as an Acquisitions Associate. Before joining Mission Hill, Trevor was an Associate with H.I.G. Capital, where he focused on growth stage investments in technology, consumer, and healthcare businesses. He began his career in the Technology Investment Banking Division of Houlihan Lokey. Trevor received a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Middlebury College, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Originally from New Jersey, Trevor enjoys an active outdoor lifestyle including golfing, running, and skiing.

Conley Street

Acquisitions Associate

Conley joined Mission Hill as an Acquisitions Associate with a strong background in real estate and finance. Previously he served as an associate with Jefferies Real Estate, Gaming and Lodging investment banking group, where he participated in numerous M&A advisory and capital markets transactions. Prior to Jefferies, Conley served as a real estate manager with Johnson Development Associates.

Conley holds a B.A. in economics from Sewanee: The University of the South and an M.B.A. from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Conley lives in Jefferson Park and enjoys skiing, hiking, and exploring the outdoors.

Stefan Thompson

Accounts Payable Specialist

Stefan serves as an Accounts Payable Specialist at Mission Hill Hospitality. Before this, he was a fund accountant at SS&C ALPS Advisors. Stefan had also previously worked with the City and County of Denver, Paychex and Experis.

Stefan holds bachelor's degrees in political science and sociology from Howard University. He is currently in progress of earning an accounting degree from University of Colorado, Denver.

Outside of work, Stefan enjoys taking long walks on the beach in Colorado.

Mike Wilbert

Senior Managing Director & Head of Acquisitions

Mike's career has been focused on the hospitality market. He served as Senior Vice President with Tishman Hotels, based in New York and Orlando. Prior to Tishman, Mike served as Vice President, Acquisitions & Dispositions for Apple Hospitality REIT. Mike started his career in Corporate Finance at HEI Hotels & Resorts.

Mike holds a B.S. from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration and an M.B.A from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mike lives in Cherry Creek and enjoys skiing and hiking.

Julie Heiberger

Corporate Accounting Manager

Julie joined Mission Hill Hospitality in 2022 as the Corporate Accounting Manager and brings extensive experience in providing leadership for multi-entity, entrepreneurial, and dynamic environments. Julie was most recently the Controller at Spectrum Retirement Communities, the 26th largest senior housing company in the US. She also previously held VP and senior-level accounting and consulting roles at Carmel Partners, Alliance Residential Company, and The Laramar Group.

Julie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, where she also was a NCAA Division I Swim team member.

As a native Coloradoan, Julie enjoys being outdoors, biking, running, and spending time with her dogs Zoe, and Lucie. She is also a longtime volunteer for the Denver Botanic Gardens.

MISSION HILL HOSPITALITY – VP OF REVENUE STRATEGY

Job Description

The Vice President of Revenue Strategy (“VP”) will drive Mission Hill’s strategic vision and leadership in the area of revenue generation across the organization’s growing portfolio of hotels. As a key leader in the Strategic Operations group, this role will directly impact the asset management and portfolio strategy in the Company. The VP will be charged with maximizing overall portfolio/hotel revenue through development and implementation of effective inventory and pricing strategies and ensure proper execution of the revenue initiatives. Working closely with their Operating Partners leaders across operations, sales and revenue management, the VP will develop and oversee implementation of positioning and rate strategies to maximize top line revenue. The position will be a highly visible role both at Mission Hill and KSL and the successful candidate will collaborate closely with all disciplines throughout the asset life cycle.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide Sales, Revenue Management and e-commerce strategy guidance and conduct assessments across the entire portfolio.
• Work in tandem with Brands & Management Companies to develop and recommend pricing strategies to attract optimal business mix for either existing segmentation or new segmentation – the goal is to drive Mission Hill’s portfolio market share to maximum performance levels.
• Support individual Asset Managers across Sales, Marketing, Revenue Management, Distribution and/or e-commerce/e-marketing – an ‘all things’ Revenue expert for Mission Hill.
• Measure, track and recommend best-in-class search, mobile, tablet and social media strategies.
• Develop and implement hotel sales strategies across the portfolio to achieve optimal financial performance in conjunction with ownership objectives and the property leadership team. Manage the process to help set specific goals to achieve them and communicate performance across the revenue and asset management teams.
• Strategize and introduce new business sources and channels for e-commerce departments at Brands & Management Companies to cultivate and activate new revenue streams.
• Work to ensure accurate preparation and distribution of daily, weekly, monthly revenue reports. The reports include market segmentation analysis, production reports, source contribution analysis, daily pick-up reports, preferred guest program analysis, etc.
• Monitor and analyze the competition daily/weekly through shop reports, the Internet and third-party data to identify selling strategies and market trends.
• Prepare short- and long-term forecasts.
• Participate in special projects and company-wide initiatives as needed.

Reporting Relationship

The VP, Revenue Strategy will report to Carmen Almos, Senior Vice President, for Mission Hill Hospitality’s Strategic Operations group. The role is based in Denver, CO.

Proffessional/Personal Qualifications

The VP, Revenue Strategy should have 8-10 years revenue management experience with a minimum of 3-5 years in a multi-unit or corporate revenue role. They must understand and successfully utilizes the revenue management systems and platforms provided by the brands. The individual will possess extensive knowledge of yield management, eCommerce, and online revenue strategies along with proven analytical and problem-solving skills. They will have the ability to perform statistical analyses, analyze financial and market data and determine and position rates accordingly. Strong computer skills are required along with extensive knowledge and high level of proficiency in property management and reservations systems. They must possess excellent communication skills, both oral and written, with the ability to develop and deliver effective presentations. The candidate will have the ability to track, measure and evaluate the success of all business metrics. Strong leadership and management skills with ability to develop, motivate and manage a team as well as interact effectively with all levels of management are required. The individual will be a strategic thinker and will possess well developed business acumen. They will be known as someone with above-average potential not only for the current role, but also for future, more senior leadership roles. The VP will be reputed as a strong developer of trusting relationships with both internal stakeholders as well as Operating Partners and other external partners/constituents.

The VP someone who can be an effective business partner and Mission Hill’s leadership team. They must also be a highly effective communicator across the organizational chart; this includes listening, absorbing, and reflecting. The desired candidate will be known as someone who holds themselves and others accountable and looks for constructive, win-win solutions with a focus of moving the company forward. This person must have the maturity in life and in business to be patient when necessary, and professional at all times. The VP also needs to be a team player that naturally puts purpose ahead of ego. In addition to having the ability to work with others, the candidate needs to have a strong foundation for independent/autonomous thought and action. A bachelor’s degree in hotel management, business administration, or marketing is preferred.

Compensation

The compensation package includes a base salary, annual bonus, and a potential long-term incentive program commensurate with experience. Relocation will be provided as required.

Please contact info@missionhillhospitality.com for additional information or to apply.