Omni Hotels & Resorts appointed Ken Barnes as the new CIO for the luxury hotel brand. In this role, he will be responsible for the strategic direction and oversight of all information technology. He will help drive Omni’s business objectives by providing the enterprise-wide information technology vision and leadership for operating a reliable and stable infrastructure and leading the deployment and management of current and emerging technology products, services and systems across the organization.
“In our fast paced and constantly evolving business environment, it is more important now than it has ever been before to have a clear, succinct IT strategy,” said Mike Deitemeyer, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts. “Ken is a proven leader who will ensure we have an IT strategy that helps meet our business objectives and works to exceed our guests’ expectations.”
Barnes joins Omni from GuestTek Interactive in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he served as the SVP of global service responsible for managing technology service and support for the company. During this time, his team exceeded annual recurring revenue targets by more than 12 percent. Prior to that, Barnes worked for White Lodging Services for two decades, most recently serving as VP of information technology. In this role, he was responsible for the company’s IT operations, as well as capital budgets for more than 170 hotels.
Barnes earned a bachelor of science in accounting at Indiana University Northwest. He is active in various industry groups including Hotel Technology Next Generation and Hospitality Association|Financial & Tech Professionals.