Wyndham Hotels & Resorts named Amit Sripathi as its chief development officer, the company announced Friday.
Sripathi will lead Wyndham’s North American franchise sales team and report to company President and CEO Geoff Ballotti.
Sripathi most recently served as Wyndham’s senior vice president of strategic and corporate development, according to LinkedIn. Prior to joining the hotel company, he was vice president of finance and capital markets at RLJ Lodging Trust and a vice president of global investment banking at Deutsche Bank.
Since joining Wyndham, Sripathi has helped the company divest owned and managed segments “leading to a pure-play U.S. franchise business” and deployed over $250 million in development support for owners, Ballotti said in a release.
"Amit's deep experience in mergers & acquisitions and capital markets focused on the real estate and hospitality sectors at Deutsche Bank and RLJ Lodging are instrumental as we increase our focus on growing our midscale-and-above portfolio while reinforcing our leading position in the resilient select-service segments," said Ballotti.
Sripathi succeeds Chip Ohlsson, who will leave Wyndham in June after more than 30 years. During his tenure, Ohlsoon helped expand the company’s portfolio from 14 to 25 brands and was instrumental in creating programs intended to foster diversity in hotel ownership, such as Women Own the Room and BOLD by Wyndham.
In the first quarter of 2024, Wyndham grew its development pipeline to a record-high 243,000 hotels systemwide. In a Q1 earnings call, Ballotti said he expects the company will build on its development momentum in coming quarters, thanks in part to a recent strategic partnership with upscale extended stay brand WaterWalk.
Wyndham will continue to focus its development strategy on growth for its extended stay brands this year, Ohlsson told Hotel Dive in January.
“The extended stay segment has shown no signs of slowing down,” he said. “With the historic infrastructure spend across the U.S., we believe there’s a $3.3 billion opportunity for our franchisees in additional room revenue.”
