Several hotel companies named new leaders this month.
Peachtree Group
Peachtree Group named Jenelle Zadik as people and culture vice president, supporting Peachtree Hospitality Management. Zadik will be responsible for PHM's human capital efforts, including talent acquisition, total rewards, workforce planning, development, retention and advancing the organization's commitment to inclusion and diversity initiatives. She will report to Peachtree COO Melissa Ross Smith.
Other experiences include human resources, learning & development and operations leadership positions. She has led teams across a wide range of brands, such as Studio Movie Grill, Integrity Brands, Ignite Restaurant Group and Outback Steakhouse. Additionally, she has supported organizations as a consultant, providing C-suite and fractional support over several years.
Zadik earned her Master of Science in Management, Strategy & Leadership with a concentration in strategic management from the Eli Broad School of Business, Michigan State University, and her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
EOS Hospitality
EOS Hospitality appointed Barry Wabler as chief financial officer. In this role, Wabler will be focused on financial strategy and planning and serve as the leader of the finance team. EOS Hospitality currently operates a portfolio of 50 hotels with more than 7,000 keys.
Wabler has 40 years of experience in finance focused on the hospitality, foodservice and business services industries. In his earlier roles as chief financial officer, Wabler’s responsibilities encompassed leading the finance organization at hotel management companies with national portfolios of branded and independent full-service hotel and resort properties and nationally branded, select service hotels. His concentrations have primarily been in finance, operations, process improvement, human resources, technology and risk management.
Most recently, Wabler was partner at Valentine Insurance Services, where he organized and structured the business for growth. Before that, he was CFO at SJV Data Solutions from 2020 to 2022, where he was responsible for the recapitalization and merger of the company and appointed CFO of the combined entity. In 2012, Barry was named Davidson Hotels & Resorts’ EVP and first CFO. In that role, he was tasked with building out the finance infrastructure to ensure the platform was scalable, implementing new FP&A processes, migrating the finance and accounting functions across hotels to a new reporting system, overhauling internal control standards, outsourcing payroll and upgrading the insurance program for the company.
Kolter Hospitality
Kolter Hospitality named Taylor Gray as vice president of acquisitions. Gray joins the Kolter Hospitality senior leadership team to oversee the company’s growth strategy, with a focus on executing acquisitions, new business development and capital market activities.
Gray has more than 17 years of hotel operations and real estate transactions experience. He most recently served as VP of business development and projects for Mainsail Lodging & Development, where he was involved in more than $300 million in transactions of select-service and lifestyle boutique hotels across the U.S. and Caribbean.
Before Mainsail, Gray was corporate director of business development at Hostmark Hospitality Group, hotel development manager at Hard Rock International, and a senior associate with HVS. He began his career in hotel operations, holding management positions in food and beverage at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles and Raffles L’Ermitage in Beverly Hills.
Kolter Hospitality also named Lori Gertzman as vice president of human resources. Gertzman will oversee all human resources initiatives including talent acquisition, benefits & compensation, payroll, employee relations, training and development and legal compliance.
Gertzman has more than 15 years of human resources experience. She has globally led human resource divisions for major technology, financial services, hospitality, healthcare and security businesses. Gertzman has a BS from Lynn University, and she is a member of the Society for Human Resources Management, Junior League of Boca Raton and the Fundraising Chair for 4FosterKids.
Brittain Resorts & Hotels
Brittain Resorts & Hotels appointed Christy Jernigan as chief development officer. Jernigan has more than 20 years of industry experience, most notably serving as the vice president of business development at Aimbridge Hospitality. During her 16-year tenure, she helped expand the company's portfolio to more than 1,500 hotels worldwide. Before that, she spent five years at Remington Hotels in various operational roles.
In her new role, Jernigan will lead all aspects of business development at BRH. Her primary focus will be expanding Brittain's third-party management platform by sourcing new deals, acquiring properties and spearheading efforts to expand the network of investment partners.