Photo credit: Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
Well-known industry executive Rajiv "Raj" Trivedi, a fixture on the hospitality scene for more than two decades, has called it a day in terms of the corporate rat race and is striking out on his own via an eponymous company, Tri Star Trivedi.
Trivedi has segued from his position as president-La Quinta Brand Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to helm the new Texas-based firm as managing principal. According to Trivedi, the company actually was formed several years ago, and is being reinvigorated.
"I am looking to make it a real estate investment firm that will target multiunit housing, shopping malls, other opportunities, hotels," Trivedi told HM, noting he was excited about the change.
Change has been an operative word for the executive, whose name has been toggled to the brand for decades. Trivedi, who served 20 years as an executive at La Quinta, most notably as EVP of franchise and chief development officer, helped build the midscale brand together with former CEO Wayne Goldberg and a slew of dedicated frachisee owner/developers who preferred the company's single-brand focus.
Some 13 years ago, the brand's growth attracted The Blackstone Group, which acquired La Quinta in 2006 for $3.4 billion and took the company private. Eight years later, it went public. A more-recent transaction found Wyndham Worldwide Corp. in January 2018 entering into an agreement with La Quinta Holdings to acquire LQ’s hotel franchise and hotel management businesses for $1.95 billion in cash. Ahead of the acquisition’s completion in June 2018, which delivered nearly 900 managed and franchised hotels to Wyndham Hotel Group, La Quinta had spun off its owned real estate assets into a publicly traded real estate investment trust, CorePoint Lodging.
Almost at the same time, Wyndham Worldwide reinvented itself as Wyndham Destinations after completing a preplanned spin-off of its subsidiary, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which umbrellas the LQ brand that now carries the “by Wyndham” pedigree. Subsequently in June 2018, Trivedi was named president-La Quinta Brand Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
While the move is still fresh, Trivedi said there’ll be “much more” to come on the venture.