If you regularly stay in Marriott, Hilton, or Hyatt hotels in major US cities, there’s a good chance that—at some point—you’ve found yourself sleeping at a property operating under the guidance of Leslie Hale.
As president and CEO of the leading real estate investment company RLJ Lodging Trust, she leads a company that owns 97 hotels and some 21,000 hotel rooms nationwide.
RLJ’s properties operate as many of the biggest names in the hospitality industry, from Courtyard by Marriott to Marriott and from Hilton to Hilton Garden Inn.
But it wasn’t just her position at the helm of a multi-billion dollar company that took center stage during her remarks on the AU campus as part of the Alan Meltzer CEO Speaker Series on March 19.
“Your leadership is impressive. But your story is really compelling,” said Kogod Dean David Marchick, who moderated the fireside chat in front of students, faculty, alumni, and distinguished guests.
The granddaughter of a sharecropper, Hale’s parents engrained an entrepreneurial mindset into their children from an early age, she told the AU audience.
After all, Hale’s parents were entrepreneurs themselves, having started a daycare business in their Los Angeles hometown—one her father still leads today.
“I grew up in a family where hard work was important,” Hale said.