Craig Smith will join Aimbridge Hospitality as CEO on March 18, the hospitality management company announced Tuesday.
Smith was most recently group president and managing director of international at Marriott International, which he retired from last year.
The hospitality leader began his career in hotel operations before moving on to general manager roles. According to his LinkedIn, Smith served as general manager for Marriott hotels in El Salvador, Brazil, Peru and Thailand. He then held a series of executive roles, including president of Caribbean and Latin America and president and managing director of Asia Pacific before becoming group president and managing director of the company’s international division.
In his final role at Marriott, Smith oversaw more than 2,500 hotels across 136 countries and territories, two-thirds of which were brand-managed.
Smith succeeds Michael Deitemeyer, who announced plans to step down in November.
Smith plans to leverage his experience at Marriott to design plans for Aimbridge that “put the GM at the center, drive greater value at scale, result in superior property performance and create an industry-leading culture,” according to the release.
“There is still tremendous opportunity to enhance our service offering to consistently deliver outstanding results for our owners and further drive brand expansion across all verticals domestically and abroad,” Smith said in a statement. “As we go forward, we’ll put even greater emphasis on strengthening operations and simplifying our approach to be built around the General Manager, activating operational efficiencies that leverage our scale and create material value for us and our partners, and doubling down on our commitment to recruit, develop and train the best people in the industry.”
Aimbridge announced additional leadership changes that will affect its board of managers.
Steve Joyce, who joined the board in November, will serve as executive chairman, succeeding Glenn Murphy, who will remain on the board. Joyce has more than four decades of multi-brand and franchisee experience and was president and CEO of Choice Hotels International for nearly 10 years.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Aimbridge can — and will be — the best third-party operator in the world, and it starts with embedding a seasoned leader with a deep track record of driving outsized performance across all key metrics — that’s Craig S. Smith,” said Joyce, in a statement.
Michael Barnello, managing partner and founder of Badlands Hotel Capital and the former president and CEO of LaSalle Hotel Properties, will join the board. Aimbridge plans to leverage Barnello’s hospitality real estate experience to build out an owner relations team.
