RLJ Lodging Makes Leslie Hale New CEO

The current CEO Ross H. Bierkan will leave the REIT at the end of his existing employment agreement on August 22, 2018.

RLJ Lodging’s CFO and COO Leslie D. Hale. Prior to this, there had not been a COO at RLJ. “I thought it was time for Leslie to be recognized both internally as well as have the Street understand that we have a talented CFO who is also immersed in our operation, CEO Ross Bierkan said.

BETHESDA, MD–RLJ Lodging Trust has announced that its COO and CFO, Leslie D. Hale, has been named president and CEO effective August 22, 2018. The current president and CEO, Ross H. Bierkan, will retire from the REIT on that date, when his existing employment agreement ends.

The REIT is working with an executive search firm to fill the roles of COO and CFO in the near term.

“We are confident this leadership succession will be seamless and that Leslie will drive the company’s continued success with an intense focus on maximizing value for our shareholders,” says Robert L. Johnson, founder and chairman of RLJ Lodging Trust in a prepared statement.

Bierkan has been a fixture at RLJ for several years. He was named president and CEO of RLJ Lodging Trust in August 2016. Prior to that he served as the interim head of the REIT after Thomas J. Baltimore Jr. left to be CEO of Park Hotels & Resorts.

Bierkan was one of the participants in the founding of RLJ Development and has served as the chief investment officer since the REIT formed in 2011. He was also principal and EVP of the REIT’s predecessor.

More recently he oversaw the $7 billion acquisition of FelCor Lodging Trust. He has also been on the receiving end, along with Hale, of some acerbic comments by activist shareholder Jonathan Litt.

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