Hersha Hospitality Trust (NYSE: HT) owner of nationally franchised premium select service and full service hotels, announced today the appointment of Thomas (Tom) J. Hutchison III to its Board of Trustees.
Mr. Hutchison, currently serves as a Senior Advisor to KSL Hotels and Resorts and has more than 35 years of real estate and capital markets experience with specific expertise in lodging, hospitality and real estate development. Most recently, Mr. Hutchison held several key executive positions at CNL Financial Group, including CEO of CNL Hotels & Resorts which grew from a $250 million unlisted hospitality REIT to $6.6 billion at the time of its sale to Morgan Stanley in 2007. He also served as CEO of CNL Retirement Properties Inc., a REIT which acquired over $3.8 billion of properties and was eventually sold for $5.3 billion, under his leadership.
"The Board is pleased to appoint Tom as a member and believes that the breadth of Tom's real estate and capital markets experience will provide Hersha with valued perspective and insight as the Company grows over the next several years", said John Sabin, Chair of Hersha's Nominating and Corporate Governance committee.
Jay H. Shah, Chief Executive Officer of Hersha stated, "We look forward to leveraging Tom's industry knowledge and strategic vision. I believe his long and successful record of building companies will be a significant benefit to Hersha as we continue to execute on our growth strategy".
About Hersha Hospitality
Hersha Hospitality Trust is a self-advised real estate investment trust, which owns interests in 77 hotels, totaling 9,752 rooms, primarily along the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington D.C. The Company also owns hotels in Northern California and Scottsdale, Arizona. Hersha focuses on high quality upscale hotels in high barrier to entry markets. For additional information, visit www.hersha.com.
Forward-looking Statements
Certain matters within this press release are discussed using forward-looking language as specified in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and, as such, may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results or performance to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statement. For a description of these factors, please review the information under the heading "Risk Factors" included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
