DiamondRock Hospitality has appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Donnelly as the new CEO of the hotel real estate investment trust.
Mark Brugger, who co-founded Bethesda, Maryland-based DiamondRock Hospitality in 2004 and had served as president and CEO and for the past 20 years, is departing the company, according to a news release.
Donnelly has been with the company since 2019. The company expects he will join the board of directors after DiamondRock's 2024 annual stockholder meeting in May.
"I am excited to be CEO at the dawn of a new era for travel," Donnelly said in the release. "With our high-quality portfolio of unique lifestyle properties, we are poised to capitalize on the long-term secular demand drivers in the travel industry and deliver sustainable, profitable growth."
The chief executive transition comes amid other changes in DiamondRock's leadership, all effective as of today.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Justin Leonard will take over the president role while maintaining chief operating officer duties. Leonard will also assume the responsibilities of Troy Furbay, executive vice president and chief investment officer, who is also departing the company.
Briony Quinn, senior vice president and treasurer, will assume the position of chief financial officer while retaining her treasurer role. Quinn will also gain the title of executive vice president.
These transitions reduce DiamondRock's executive team from six members to four.
"DiamondRock has a strong bench of talent and with accelerating performance and a solid foundation in place, the board believes now is the right time to implement these changes and establish a simpler executive structure that more closely aligns with the needs of the business," said William McCarten, chairman of DiamondRock's board of directors.
DiamondRock reaffirmed its full-year 2024 expectations in Monday's news release, which projects comparable revenue per available room growth between 2% and 4%, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization between $260 million and $290 million.
Brugger said during the REIT's 2023 fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call in February that the company would be patient with acquisitions given the quality of hotels on the market, with a target of buying one or two hotels on the year.