InterContinental Hotels Group appointed Colleen Keating to the position of COO, Americas, effective April 1.
In this role, Keating will be responsible for leading the operations for 3,800 IHG hotels across the U.S. and Canada, further strengthening and cultivating relationships with owners, and overseeing franchisee performance support. Keating will serve on the Americas Regional Leadership Team and will be based at IHG’s regional headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
Keating brings more than 25 years of operational leadership experience, most recently serving as EVP of operations for Davidson Hotels & Resorts in Atlanta, where she led all operations functions to deliver value to owners and investors under brands that include Hilton, Hyatt, Westin, Marriott, Sheraton and Renaissance. Prior to Davidson, Keating spent 17 years at Starwood, most recently leading its franchise operations for North America.
“With her wealth of hospitality operations experience across some of the industry’s most prominent companies, Colleen is the ideal choice to spearhead our operations and to drive further value for our owners across the U.S. and Canada,” Elie Maalouf, CEO of Americas at IHG, said in a statement.
“This is a tremendous opportunity and I’m really looking forward to working alongside the Americas leadership team and our first-class owner community," Keating said in a statement. "Together, I know that we can build upon an already-strong operational foundation to make our iconic hotel brands even more well-known as hallmarks of performance and quality.”
Earlier in her career, Keating held management and sales leadership roles in several hotels for Starwood Hotels, Omni Hotels, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and a franchise operator of Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express hotels. Keating has been active in the industry and the community, having served as an executive committee member and chair of the Massachusetts Lodging Association and on the board of management trustees for Unite HERE Local 26, among many other boards and industry organizations. Keating attended Western New England College in Massachusetts.