Monty Bennett

CEO, Ashford Group of Companies

Mr. Bennett serves as Founder, Chairman, &amp; 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 $4 billion in assets and has outperformed its peers in total shareholder return since its IPO.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bennett is a member of the American Hotel &amp; Lodging Association's Industry Real Estate Finance Advisory Council (IREFAC), the Urban Land Institute's Hotel Council, and is on the Advisory Editorial Board for GlobalHotelNetwork.com. He is also a member of the CEO Fiscal Leadership Council for Fix the Debt, a non-partisan group dedicated to reducing the nation's federal debt level and on the advisory board of Texans for Education Reform. Formerly, Mr. Bennett was a member of Marriott's Owner Advisory Council and Hilton's Embassy Suites Franchise Advisory Council.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bennett received the Top-Performing CEO Award from HVS for 2011. This award is presented each year to the CEO in the hospitality industry who offers the best value to shareholders based on HVS’s pay-for-performance model. The model compares financial results relative to CEO compensation, as well as stock appreciation, company growth and increases in EBITDA.<br /> <br /> 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 with his wife, Marissa, and his son, Jack.